Lucy Davis of Los Angeles will compete in the Olympic equestrian show jumping competition today.

Davis, 23, has several ties to Arkansas. Her grandparents, George and Irene, live in Little Rock as well as her uncle Scott and aunt Libby.

Also, Davis’ grandfather Bob Frieze, on her mother’s side, was once an agent for seven-time Eclipse Award winner Jerry Bailey and Edgar Prado, the 2006 Eclipse Award winner. Frieze is a native of Hot Springs.

Davis attended college at Stanford University in California but would often compete in Wellington, Fla.

[ARKANSANS IN RIO: Full coverage of 24 in Olympics]

“She worked hard,” Frieze said to the Daily Racing Form’s David Grening. “I used to pick her up at the airport, she’d catch the redeye from college, change clothes in Fort Lauderdale, go to Wellington, and compete. If she wasn’t my granddaughter, I’d make her my new jock. She has to be good to be in the top four.”

Davis’ horse Barron, a 2004 Belgian Warmblood gelding, is named after Frieze, whose middle name is Barron.

Davis played soccer competitively until she was 16 and had to choose to focus on a sport and chose riding.

Frieze said his granddaughter winning a medal would be comparable to one of his riders winning the Kentucky Derby.

“I think it would be,” he said.

Earlier this year, Davis earned a team silver medal in the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup at La Baule, France. She was second in the Longines Grand Prix of Switzerland at St. Gallen.

Davis graduated from Stanford in June 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering with a specialization in architectural design.

Attempts to contact Davis and her family were unsuccessful.

Fashion update

If you’ve seen any of the equestrian events so far at this year’s Olympics, you may have noticed something of a trend — tiny hats for the horses.

Buzzfeed’s Nora Whelan, who, apparently, is a fan of hats, wondered if all horses and humans involved in the events are compelled to sport dainty headwear.

“Which, like, I wish,” she wrote.

After a little checking, Whelan discovered that the horses’ hats are called “ear bonnets” or “ear nets”, and, while fashion is one consideration, their primary purpose is to muffle sound so horses stay calm, in addition to keeping flies out of their ears. Sometimes, Whelan found, the bonnets are even helping to hold cotton balls in the horses’ ears.

And, let’s face it, they look so much better than those bulky headphones Michael Phelps’ infant son was sporting at the swimming events.

Feed bag

Keeping the athletes properly fed is always a big consideration at the Olympics, and equestrian events add a new wrinkle.

“In show jumping you’ve got an athlete on the top and an athlete on the bottom,” Megan Pugh, a groom for the German showjumping team that won gold at Sydney 2000, before working on the equestrian events at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, told David Thomas of Reader’s Digest Asia. “A top horse is a highly demanding animal with its own personality — just like the rider. So feeding is horse specific. You wouldn’t give the same diet to a big, old laidback stallion as you would to a nervous, highly strung mare.”

Teams typically fly in their own supplies, under strict supervision by the International Olympic Committee, to ensure that all the feed is free of banned substances.

In addition, grooms occasionally have to trick their charges into drinking enough water to stay hydrated.

“There are so many tricks you play on them, just like with humans,” Pugh said. “I shove heaven knows how many carrots into a bucket of water. I know that the horse is so greedy that he’ll never take his mouth out of it. He’ll just drink as he’s playing with the carrots.”

Quote of the day

“A gold medal is like a newborn baby. It’s just lovely.”

American long jumper Jeff Henderson of McAlmont, after winning Saturday’s final by one centimeter