JILL Terceira will now ride for Bermuda in next month's Olympics and not Patrick Nisbett who pulled out at the 11th hour this week after he decided his horse, Antille, was not ready for the huge jumps expected at the show jumping venue in Hong Kong.

And now Terceira is rushing around trying to get her horse ready and into quarantine in Germany before flying out to Hong Kong where all the equestrian Olympic events are being staged.

Terceira was furious a few weeks ago when the Bermuda Equestrian Federation chose Nisbett over her to represent Bermuda following a "qualification" process.

But now she and her South African stallion Chaka will fly the flag for the first time for Bermuda in Olympic show jumping.

"There is so much to be done," she told the Mid-Ocean News this week, adding: "it is not like I am a track athlete and I just have to pack my spikes and get on a plane!"

When Terceira was informed that she would be going, her mount Chaka was in France getting ready for a show there this weekend.

The sudden change in plans saw Terceira, who is based in Holland, get the horse back to Holland yesterday and tomorrow they will travel to Aachen, Germany where Chaka will go into quarantine for a week before flying out to Hong Kong via Amsterdam.

Yesterday afternoon, she said from her Dutch base: "We are getting there. Chaka arrived a couple of hours ago and he looks fine ¿ he had a good journey. Now we have the blacksmith here putting on some new shoes and redoing his feet and he will be ready to go into quarantine."

While Terceira said she has not been impressed with the way the BEF has handled the whole situation, she said: "I am truly sorry for Patrick's bad luck and especially hope his horse will recover 100 per cent.

"But it is good for our sport that we had a (qualified) reserve horse/rider combination so an equestrian show jumper can still represent Bermuda for the first time at the Olympic Games. It makes our efforts at the Pan American Games all worthwhile!"

Both Terceira and Nisbett qualified for the Olympics last summer at the Pan Am Games in Rio de Janeiro but the International Olympic Committee said only one rider could go.

And although she is excited about flying the flag at the Olympics, Terceira said she must now get herself "mentally ready" for the competition ¿ the biggest of her life.