Horse injury curse strikes Aussie Rose

Australian equestrian silver-medallist Shane Rose fought back tears Sunday after he was forced out of the Olympics by a last-minute injury to his horse -- for the second time in his career. Eventer Rose, 39, admitted it was "devastating" after his mount, Taurus, pulled up with a minor shoulder muscle injury in training. The Beijing Olympics runner-up endured similar heartbreak in the run-up to Atlanta 1996. "It was pretty devastating really," said Rose, describing the moment when he realised it was not safe to let Taurus compete. "When it first happened a week or so ago I was thinking, 'this is not good timing'. But the fact that he improved so much, and he's actually been training really, really well, the last few days I was pretty confident. "Two or three days ago we had press come out to the venue and I was pretty excited, feeling not much could go wrong fromhere. It was a pretty hollow feeling." Rose, who is expected to be replaced on the Australian team by Megan Jones on Allofasudden, will fly home on Tuesday. He said he will try to train two or three horses for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics to prevent yet more injury woe, after a previous mount, Mr. Joe Cool, went lame after they flew to the United States for the Atlanta Games.