Almost a year after losing Bermuda's Gold following a tragic fall at the Sydney Olympics, there is a new horse and new hope in MJ Tumbridge's life.

And the celebrated equestrienne is confident her current steed will follow in the footsteps of her former love and lead her to international glory.

It was in September last year that the world came crashing down around Tumbridge who had been competing in the cross country stage of her discipline.

At just the second jump, the tiny Pan-Am gold medal winning mare clipped the top of the obstacle and pulled up having shattered its left hind leg. It subsequently had to be put down.

In the immediate days after Tumbridge questioned her future in the sport.

But time has helped to heal the pain and she now has a renewed sense of purpose. That purpose is Templar Gold - a seven-year-old who Tumbridge came across in England two years ago.

"She was out in a field, mud all over her. She had never had a saddle on, never been touched. We went to have a look at another horse saw her out in the field and I said 'I want that one'," she said.

Tumbridge bought the horse for ?2,500. Though behind in its schooling she saw it had potential and her faith has been rewarded.

"Normally you back (saddle) a horse as a four-year-old so she was already a year late," she said. "In two years that horse has gone from never having been saddled to qualifying for the Windsor two-star next month.

"You can't do it quicker than that, so it already shows what a special thing she is," Tumbridge said.

The rider, who lives in Surrey on a farm owned by Patrick and Amanda Rolfe, is already building up quite a scrapbook on Templar.

"She started out very well and just kept placing. She has placed every time out. She is one of these that is always just there," she said.

Tumbridge said circumstances had played their part in the horse's progression.

"Obviously with what happened to Bermuda's Gold you have time to think about what you want to do. We ultimately decided that we would keep going and you focus on something else to help you through things," she said. "This one has always shown ability so we said let's press on and try and get her qualified. I think circumstances make you kick in and fire."

A two-day event last year in October saw her place and gave her two intermediate finishes.

"I knew I only had three more intermediates to do which she has done and will qualify her for what they call a two-star," Tumbridge said.

Templar has missed out the one-star category altogether and will now be pitted against animals of intermediate and newly advanced calibre.

"If all goes well, and she has shown all the ability to do it, then that is a stepping stone to doing a three-star which will then qualify her for the Pan-Am Games," Tumbridge said.

The rider said she had already built up a strong bond with the horse.

"I have backed her myself and done everything myself and there is a great trust there," she said. "When I move her on to a fence she moves on and when I say 'woah' and 'just stay steady' she just stays steady. It's an amazing feeling to have a horse like that."

Tumbridge said she still had to work on Templar's dressage skills but believed that would come.

"She is in the top quarter. She is above average but she has to be right up there to keep the position and she will," she said. "She is a good mover and good in the brain and doesn't get tense like my other horse did. She is much more relaxed and laid back, if anything she is a little bit lazy.

"But she is really doing the training and I think Bermuda will be very pleased with that one."

Tumbridge is on the Island at moment to enable both her and the horse to recharge their batteries. But she would soon be back to the grindstone.

"I have been eventing every weekend and sometimes midweek," she said. "I had a wedding to come for and I thought 'great' because I wanted to give the horses, about seven of them, a little bit of break.

"But I get back on the Tuesday morning and then I am competing again on that weekend."

Although she had somewhere new to channel her ambitions, Tumbridge said her mind was regularly cast back to that day at the Olympics.

"I think of Bermuda's Gold all the time. Everybody probably knows that it is coming up for being a year. You make a decision 'are you going to continue or are you not'. I decided I'd continue. I have put too much of my life into this to quit now," she said. "You just focus on. But there isn't a day that goes by that you don't shed the odd tear, you don't think 'gosh, that is how unfair life can be' but I feel quite blessed in a way because it's almost like I have been given another chance."