A HAMPSHIRE teenager’s Olympic dream could be over after city bosses threw out plans to build a private equestrian yard in her garden.

Eighteen-year-old dressage rider Jessica Gale has been tipped to compete for Great Britain at the 2016 Rio Games but faces 70-mile round trips to train.

It comes after Winchester City Council rejected plans to create a 1,625 sq m indoor arena in World’s End, near Hambledon.

Now Jessica’s family say that her hopes of reaching the top have suffered a “huge” setback.

Southampton Solent Unversity student Jessica has already represented Britain in numerous international competitions.

She practises in an open-air yard near the family cottage but takes her horses to Andover to practise dressage routines and says that she needs her own indoor block to train all year round.

The scheme was rejected after an outcry from neighbours, who said it would wreck their country views, increase the risk of flooding and help to urbanise the quiet hamlet.

Neighbour Keith Brown, of Apless Lane, told planners that the “extremely intrusive” block would be a “monstrosity” the size of an aircraft hangar, while city officials said that building on the “often waterlogged” clay ground would risk further flooding in an area hit hard last winter.

Jessica’s mum, Lynn Gale, said that the family couldn’t afford to keep sending horses to Andover, adding that the decision would have a “huge, huge, huge” impact on Jessica’s career prospects and could even end her Olympic hopes.

She said: “It’s such a shame that Jess’s dreams, all her dreams and all our work over the last four years, could come to an end because of how everybody reacted.

“She’s been riding all her life – I don’t know why they’ve reacted like that.

“We need to have the facilities that she needs to be able to progress. She has to have a full-sized arena.”

The family is considering an appeal, she added.