BERMUDA’S only gold medallist in the history of the Pan American Games, MJ Tumbridge, said she hoped locals will get fully behind the team which heads to Rio de Janeiro next week. Tumbridge won the gold on her mount Bermuda Gold in 1999 in eventing when the Games took place in Winnipeg, Canada. Although she did not qualify for the 2007 Games which start a week today, Tumbridge said: “I will be with the athletes in spirit. Sometimes I think that people in Bermuda do not get behind the athletes as much as they should and I want to make a plea to everyone to send messages of support to all those competing. Believe me, it really does make a difference.”Tumbridge, who is currently as her base in England training “a group of promising young horses”, said she will obviously be keeping a close eye on Bermuda’s riders in Rio — Annabelle Collins who is competing in dressage at the beginning of the Games and Patrick Nesbitt and Jill Terceira who are both competing in show jumping towards the end of the Games.

“It (competing in the Pan Am Games) is a great thing to be doing and I hope they get the support from Bermuda. They have really worked hard to get there. I know that Patrick and spent most of his time competing on the road. He spent a lot of time doing the Sunshine Tour in Spain earlier this year and last year and he has been riding in Germany and all over Europe.

“These riders are spending a lot of money to represent Bermuda and I think that everyone needs to join in and give them their support. If they feel that people are behind them it will make them try even harder — it is just a great recipe for a good outcome.”

Tumbridge, who has been in contact with Nesbitt in the lead-up to the Games, said: “It is so hard to get there and make sure that your horse is sound and good to go. You have had to work so hard to get it qualified and keep the horse in tune — and there are a lot of worries about keeping your horse in tune. You tend to get a little bit parinoid towards the date of departure. You are almost seeing things that are not there.

“But Patrick it very well prepared. He has a nice horse and he is ready. It is a great opportunity for them and they all deserve to be there — they all have the ability to do very well.

I have done (Pan Ams) twice and I enjoyed it and they will enjoy it. I will be rooting for them.”

Tumbridge was herself trying to qualify for the Pan Am Games this year . . . but then she lost her main mount — Ginger May Killinghurst — after some disagreements with the owner.

“That was an incredible loss,” she said. “I worked a long time with her and she was definitely my Pan Am horse — she could have gone and won it. For me it was quite gutting. I went through a period of feeling depressed and I was ver low and feeling sorry for myself. But you have to get back up and keep working because you do not know what may come along.”

Now she has some very promising horses. “I don’t want people to think that I do not exist — I am still at it. I have young horses and these things take time. It takes a lot of time for horses to mature. I have five and four-year-olds. I also have a a couple of two-year-olds that I just know will be fantastic. But they are a long way from doing anything — but they are quality horses.”

Tumbridge said that the best eventers are at least 10 years old “so I am a long way from doing anything exciting on them”

She said: “I am working hard — breeding horses and training them. My day starts at 7 a.m. and I get in at 7.30 p.m. They are long days and I am in the saddle all day. I have six horses I ride — I am competing but at a low level because they are young horses. But I am not giving up — it is just that I am entering a frustrating phase in my life but I am sticking with it.”

Tumbridge has felt this frustrated and down before — notably when her main horse and Pan Am gold medal winner Bermuda Gold was forced to be put down after a becoming severely injured during the cross country at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

And while the Bermudian rider has always been partial to mares, she now has a young stallion.

“I have a really good stallion who is five-years-old. He is definitely my best horse . . . but he is just five.”

She also has a “fairytale” dream where she will ride the foal of the stallion and one of her mares.

Tumbridge started riding at the age of seven and after competing in Bermuda for a number of years she went to live and compete in the United States when she was 18. She stayed there for 10 years.

In 1991 she competed at the Pan American Championships in November on Bermuda’s Option winning the individual silver medal.

She moved to England from the United States in 1992.

She is based at Frillinghurst Farm with ‘Team Frillinghurst’ — Patrick and Amanda Rolfe — at their 90 acre grassland farm in Surrey. She has been there since 1995 and first met Patrick and Amanda when she started teaching them and went on to train Patrick for eventing.

Tumbridge urges Bermuda to get behind athletes