Bermuda's Olympic equestrian hopefuls could finds themselves left out in the cold -- or rather heat -- at next year's Games in Atlanta, Georgia if the Humane Society of the United States get their wish.

This week the animal rights group urged Olympic officials to cancel the equestrian three-day event or move the competition to a cooler climate via a letter to International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samarach.

An excerpt released from the document detailed the Humane Society as saying "the exceedingly hot and humid conditions'' typical of Atlanta summers will make it impossible to hold the event without putting the horses at risk of death.

The three-day event, which combines dressage, endurance and stadium jumping, is one of several equestrian events scheduled for Atlanta in 1996.

Yesterday, Bermuda Equestrian Federation (BEF) president Mike Cherry expressed surprise at the issue being raised at this late stage, noting that he had not yet been made aware by the governing FEI of the latest developments.

"This has been an ongoing point of discussion ever since the Olympics were assigned to Atlanta and as far as I knew all of the parties were happy, so what you're telling me comes as a surprise,'' said Cherry, who is also a member of the Bermuda Olympic Association's (BOA) standards committee.

"Atlanta is not the preferred climate for this sort of event, but organisers spent a lot of money in research and all sorts of testing and as far as I knew all parties were satisfied that the event could be run.

"As far as we're (BEF and BOA) concerned any problems that happened were resolved.'' Those that stand to be affected by a shift in venue or outright cancellation include 1987 Pan American Games bronze medallist Peter Gray, Mary Jane Tumbridge, Nicola DeSousa, Susie Dunkley and Tim Collins.

Still, the Bermudian riders are proceeding with their training as usual, hoping that the event will take place as scheduled.

Meanwhile, Olympic officials have continued experimenting with different formats and have made several adjustments to help ensure that the animals will not be endangered.

Officials of the Humane Society, which says it is the largest animal protection organisation in the United States, were in Atlanta last month for a three-day test event run at the Georgia International Horse Park, site of next year's competition.

Meet officials moved the start of competition back to the cooler morning hours, shortened the endurance course, eliminated two jumps, and added a cooling stop midway through the course. Huge fans blowing water mist were installed in the cool-down areas. Equestrian officials said similar adjustments could be made in next year's Olympic competition.

At the time of the event, Humane Society officials said horses did not appear to be excessively stressed despite temperatures that soared over 100 degrees for the first two days of competition last month.

Humane Society officials noted that the Olympic endurance course was expected to be more difficult and the competition would have a much larger field. As a result, some horses and riders would be competing in the hottest part of the day instead of in the early morning hours used for last month's test event.

The letter, signed by Paul Irwin, president of the society, warned that the event could be construed as a violation of Georgia's laws against cruelty to animals.

Atlanta Olympic officials had no immediate comment.

Nevertheless, the issue of the three-day event is not the first controversy surrounding the equestrians. Just over two months ago Atlanta's Agricultural Federation made the decision to have all horses from out of state face a period of quarantine prior to the Games to prevent the introduction of piroplasmosis, a blood disease which is prevalent in Europe.