day.

Tumbridge is lying in 14th place with 58.40 penalty points after the first day of the dressage test at the Centre d'Hipica del Montaya.

Forty-eight riders took part in the opening day and the remaining 34, including Bermuda's Nicola DeSousa and two-time defending champion Mark Todd of New Zealand, will complete the first stage this morning.

A gruelling endurance test is scheduled for tomorrow and the event will conclude at the Real Club de Polo on Thursday with showjumping.

While Tumbridge was parading in front of the Irish, German and Italian judges late in the afternoon, the sailors were kept out of the action at the Port Olimpic after three postponements due to winds that never rose above three knots.

Organisers plan to extend the series by a day but if the medium-range forecast holds true they will have a desperate situation on their hands.

For Tumbridge and mount Bermuda's Option, there was a mild reprieve from the searing heat as they performed at 5.53 p.m. local time.

Today, DeSousa and Prairie King will be up 17th at 11.23 a.m., chasing a field led by German Matthias Baumann on Alabaster. Baumann was given high marks by all three judges and finished with 43.80 penalty points. British riders Karen Dixon (Get Smart) and Mary Thompson (King William) are second and third respectively on 44.60 and 47.20 while Denmark's Nils Haagensen (Discovery) is fourth on 48.80 and American 1976 silver medalist J.M.Plumb (Adonis) fifth on 49.60.

Tumbridge, who has been Bermuda's most consistent rider the past year, impressed the German and Italian judges, but the Irishman ranked her 26th out of the 48 contestants.

The 28-year-old Bermudian accrued scores of 149 from the German (eighth), 154 from the Italian (ninth) and 125 from the Irishman in easily the day's biggest disparity of scoring.