One of the Bermuda success stories of the 2007 Pan American Games in Brazil, Annabelle Collins, will compete on the Sunshine Tour in Spain this month and is eventually aiming to fly the flag for the Island again at the 2011 Pan-Am Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Dressage rider Collins, the sister to 2004 Olympic eventer Tim Collins, will be taking two horses to the Sunshine Tour which is being staged from February 16 to March 21 in the south of Spain, near Jerez de la Frontera.

Collins lives in Barcelona but she admitted yesterday it would still take her quite a while to get her two horses to get to the event.

"Even though I live in the same country it takes a long time to get there," she said. "It is about 14 hours in the truck and 10 hours in the car."

At the 2007 Pan-Am Games in Rio, Collins finished in 10th place in the dressage final on her mount Medici – a Westfalen stallion.

In Rio she rode to a melody of music by Stevie Wonder and those Games were the first time the 31-year-old rider had been exposed to such an intense level of competition.

Collins is planning to take Medici to the Sunshine Tour and also a younger mount Sir Winston.

Medici is now 13 years old. "I have had him since he was eight years old. I am going to do the small tour with him and I want to do the junior level with my young horse Sir Winston who is only seven years old.

"He is very young but he is quite an exciting horse for me because we bred him at our farm in England. I really like him – he has quite good features. But we will have to see how he comes along as he is still young."

The Sunshine Tour is the first outdoor competition of the year for those riders based in Europe.

"This is a big draw for European-based riders especially if they live in the north of Europe. The tour is three weeks long for dressage riders and five weeks for the show jumpers. It breaks up that horrible and miserable cold winter. We often ride in T-shirts – it is a big as well as social event so it is very appealing for those reasons.

"A lot of riders wanting to get on the British team also go down there."

Collins said that "all being well" she hoped to compete at the Pan-Am Games in Mexico in 2011.

"I am aiming for the Pan-Am Games next year and possibly looking for a horse that would be suitable for those Games and maybe London (Olympics) in 2012. However, the Olympics are a completely different level obviously. I really enjoyed doing the Pan-Ams (in 2007) and riding for Bermuda and if I have a suitable high-calibre horse I definitely want to get there again and try and do my best."

The 2011 Pan-Am Games take place in October.

In December, Collins took Medici to Portugal to compete in the CDI3* Aruda Do Vinhos Euro Dressage Tour.

"That went quite well. We won one day and were second on another day," she said.

Collins and Medici won the Intermediare 1 Class, while finishing second in the Intermediaire I Kur to Music and fifth in the Prix St. George's.

Thousands of horses and riders descend on southern Spain for the Sunshine Tour and in the past they have included such top stars as show jumpers Rodrigo Pessoa from Brazil, Peter Wylde from the US and John Whitaker from Great Britain.

In dressage, stars such as Nicole Uphoff from Germany and fellow German Alexandra Simons-de-Ridder have competed.