Mark Todd's equestrian wizardry riding on Gandalf

By Robert Woodward

SANDY (Reuters) - A late-night challenge to a group of friends led Mark Todd to end his eight-year retirement and head for the Beijing Games aboard a horse famous for an appearance in a rap video.

Todd is considered to be one of the greatest riders in the history of three-day eventing and his Olympic return aged 52 has electrified the sport and his home country, New Zealand.

"I've really been amazed by the response," Todd, an individual gold medalist at the 1984 and 1988 Games, said in an interview. "It's been very humbling, actually."

Todd retired after the 2000 Olympics, where he won a bronze, and set up a stud to breed and train racehorses.

After winding down the training operation, his family moved to the south island of New Zealand where the seed of another run at Olympic glory was sown.

"In October, we had some friends staying and over a few too many glasses of wine I said something like 'find me a horse for the next Olympics'," Todd told Reuters.

"I thought I was joking at the time and then around Christmas time I got a call saying 'was I serious about it?' because there was this horse that was available to be bought that had qualified for the Games."

That horse was Gandalf and Todd is now schooling the grey at a stud in eastern England ahead of the Olympics in August.

"He arrived with us in the south island at the end of January and it's been pretty much full-on since then," Todd said.

SLIMMED DOWN

Todd passed his first qualifying test in February and earned the right to ride in Hong Kong, which is hosting equestrian events for the Beijing Games, at a competition in France in May. He and Gandalf were picked for the New Zealand team in mid-June.

Todd may be on the way to creating a partnership with the grey similar to the one he had with the great Charisma, the horse on which he won his two Olympic golds.

"When I got on him (Gandalf), I liked him immediately and he had the bones of something good to start with.

"He is quite a lazy horse. To be competitive at the top level nowadays, the dressage has to be fairly smart so we've been working a lot on that.

"He likes to eat a lot so we're having to get him slimmed down and teaching him to gallop a bit better too -- when we were at home I used to work him with the racehorses.