He was two-thirds of the way through the course and feeling good about the prospects of qualifying one of his two horses for the Olympics.

Then suddenly refused to jump a fence and it was back to square one for Tim Collins.

Such was the fate of the Bermudian equestrian at last weekend?s CCI event in Patroni, Italy.

It was the second setback of that trip for the Island rider after his other mount, , suffered a minor leg injury just before the start of the competition and had to be withdrawn.

Collins ? who expects official verification on his own Olympic qualification shortly ? will now seek to qualify his horses in Ireland or Poland.

As he explained it, had jumped ?all the hard things? and performed ?fantastically? until he came to a jump ? in the shape of giant golf ball on a tee on top of a hill ? and abruptly pulled up.

?I didn?t think it was a problem because my horse has never had a problem with anything. I just thought ?Okay he will probably wonder what it is? but he came around the corner to it and just stood there thinking ?What do you want me to do here??

?He had two run-ups and I just stopped and came back and retired him on the cross-country segment. So now I have to take him somewhere else (to qualify).

?It?s a shame because the horse never jumped so well in his life. He was almost all the way around, about two-thirds of the way. It was a big disappointment,? said the rider.

That particular fence proved the undoing of many competitors and, according to Collins, ?a lot of people were eliminated (there) because the horses didn?t understand what they had to do?.

What added to the England-based equestrian?s frustration was that, with a bit of coaching, the horse cleared the same fence the following day. He was made to realise it was a jump when his owner placed two canvas sheets alongside the golf-ball structure to emphasise that was the path through which he should go.

?We went back the next day to train him over it ? because you never know what sort of fence you?ll get ? and it took a while for him to understand that was a fence because this horse is very careful. He always wants to know where he is going and what he is doing.

?As soon as we put down the sheets then he understood and he jumped it. Then we took the sheets away and he did it again.?

On a brighter note, the 28-year-old said ?s prognosis looked good. A vet diagnosed that the mount had tweaked his front left ankle, accounting for his lameness.

However, this is ?nothing serious? and he is expected to recover in a week.