Jill Terceira's Olympic dream is on the verge of being shattered just a year before the Athens Games.

The Bermudian showjumper has been given just one shot at qualifying for the event via next month's Pan American Games, but red tape means it is highly unlikely she will make the trip to the Dominican Republic.

Terceira is based in Belgium and has been told that under European Community rules her horse must be vaccinated if it is to compete in Santa Domingo.

However, to do so would mean placing the animal in quarantine for six months afterwards. That, she says, is an impossibility as it would mean the horse would miss out on vital preparation for what would be the highlight of its life.

"My intention was to go to the Pan American Games in order to qualify for Athens," said Terceira from Belgium. "Unfortunately, that is the only way of qualifying for Bermuda within my FEI (F?d?ration Equestre Internationale) group.

"But because I am rider based in Europe, the European Community says the horses need to be vaccinated for Venezuelan Pest (equine encephalitis). The European Community does not have that pest in Europe and if a horse is vaccinated for it, it stays within the system for up to six months.

"So the problem there is my horse would need to be quarantined after the Pan American Games for six months before it could return to Europe.

"I cannot have a horse that I want to compete with at the Olympics out of training for that amount of time. It's just not logical."

Terceira said there was the possibility of shipping the horse to America and quarantining it there for three months, but that was still far from ideal.

The situation has left the rider frustrated by a ruling she said she was unaware of until recently.

"In all the literature from the Pan-Am Games there is no mention of this vaccine at all," she said. "It was never a question. It was only when the shipper here in Europe said `Wait, I have looked into this and you need this vaccine' that I realised."

Terceira and her fiance, Michel Heyvaert, ironically a vet and FEI delegate, met with the FEI in Germany recently to discuss the situation in the hopes that she might still be able to qualify for Greece via an alternative route.

"Our suggestion was to have another qualification within Europe or at another event," she said. "I think they just assume that because it's the Pan American Games that everyone lives within the Pan Americas. They probably didn't even think of this problem."

As a result of those talks she said had not given up hope of making the Olympics yet, but realised time was not on her side. However, she is not prepared to let all her hard work go by the wayside without a fight.

"I would be extremely disappointed (not to go)," she said. "That's ten years of work and basically what I do it for. That's been the goal the whole time."

Ironically, it is the rider's efforts to test herself against better competition in the hope of putting Bermuda on the showjumping map that would appear to be counting against her.

"In the big world of showjumping Bermuda does not have a place yet," she said. "I am one person struggling out here in the big world trying to get in. I thought it would be advantageous for me to come to Europe to get the experience and in the end I'm left thinking I should have stayed in America."

Terceira might not be the only competitor left at home when everyone else is in the Dominican Republic. The Brazilian team, which won gold at the last Pan Ams, is also based in Europe and is consequently subject to the same stipulations.

"That is advantageous to me because we are in a similar boat," Terceira said. "I have been talking to them and to their rider Rodrigo Pessoa, who has won the World Cup the last three years in a row and is a very famous international rider. If he is not at the Olympics that is like having bread without butter."

Michael Cherry, Bermuda Equestrian Federation President, is trying to assist Terceira, though his scope is limited.

"The only thing we are looking at is if there is any other possible way of getting her qualified for the Olympics," he said. "This (Pan Ams) is our only chance because we are part of the Americas. Even though our rider is based in Europe and doesn't compete normally on this side of the Atlantic our qualification area is the North Americas.

"If it so happens that the only individual spot for the Americas is not taken up then maybe there is another way we can do it, but that is something we will have to pursue with the FEI."

Whatever happens, Terceira would still be young enough to have another shot at a future Games, so all is not lost. However, it might not be the case for her horses, mare Nada Penny and stallion Navantus.

"The horses will be nine years old next year and really in their prime," she said. "Come four years they are 13-years-old and have had four more years of competition, which in one way would be good for experience but in another I believe there are only so many jumps a horse can jump."