‘We’re hoping for a proper cross-country test,’ says Andrew Nicholson ahead of the world championships
H&H eventing columnist Andrew Nicholson on the Avenches Nations Cup and the Aachen worlds
The eventing Nations Cup in Avenches a couple of weeks ago was a triumph for the Swiss, for whom I am cross-country coach. They hosted a great event and they won it!
There were more than 70 runners in the CCI4*-S, including the likes of Michael Jung and Julia Krajewski with their good horses. The only rider to make the time across country – she was bang on it – was Switzerland’s Mélody Johner on a former horse of mine, Erin, but there were a lot of clear rounds. I hope the course has a new design for the European Championships there next year.
Avenches is an interesting venue – it’s a racecourse, and trotting races were held during the dressage on Friday afternoon, and there was Flat racing on Saturday evening, which gave owners and riders something more to focus on.
The grandstand backs onto both the racing and the event site, yet neither the dressage competitors nor the trotters would have noticed each other, as you couldn’t see or hear anything from the ‘opposite’ side.
The only minor inconvenience was that you couldn’t walk the cross-country during evening racing, as a lot of the track is in the middle of the racecourse.
Looking ahead to Aachen
We had a 24-year-old making her team debut in the Nations Cup, Angelika Dubach. She did a very good job and will now ride as an individual at the eventing World Championships in Aachen, which is essentially what the Nations Cup series is about – giving riders the chance to prove themselves in a team environment and step up.
A Swiss team victory was a nice feel-good factor for them before Aachen. Now we’re all set and looking forward to it.
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I am sure course-designer Giuseppe della Chiesa will make it a cross-country competition. Aachen has never been an easy place to ride fast competitively round, and when you’ve got someone of Giuseppe’s talent designing the course, along with the historical knowledge he will have gleaned from the venue’s long-time designer Rüdiger Schwarz, I’m sure it will be a proper cross-country test.
I would think that if you want to jog around quietly, it will be easy but if you want to put a bit more speed on, it will be much more difficult. That’s what we’re hoping for, anyway.
The British team are obviously looking like the smart ones but, like everyone else, they’ll have to come and do it. The Swiss target is first and foremost to gain Olympic qualification, but they are very capable of taking a team medal. They’ve been knocking on the door for the past few years and it would be lovely – and well-deserved – if they could win one.
The next design generation
Defender Burghley entries are open, and I’d like to think that there will be quite a few European-based riders who were on the fringe of being selected for the worlds and perhaps aren’t good enough at dressage to make their teams. Possibly some Germans and French, a couple of Swiss, a few Americans, helped by the fact that there’s no Maryland CCI5* this year?
And Burghley has a very good reputation for the way in which the event manages its ground, which will be attractive this year in particular.
My tip would be for Tim Price and Vitali to have their day and win this time.
Clayton Fredericks is one of Burghley designer Derek di Grazia’s assistants, and it’s great to see that he is taking over the course-design at Adelaide. It’s nice to have an Australian doing an Australian event, and Clayton was a very good rider and horseman. I am yet to see one of his courses, but I hear good things and he’d understand how to do the job.
As with the up-and-coming designers Andrew Heffernan and Kai-Steffen Meier, it’s encouraging for the sport to see very experienced former – and current – competitors progressing in this sphere.
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New Zealand five-star event rider Andrew Nicholson has won Burghley five times and took top honours at Badminton in 2017. He has won two Olympic team bronze medals and a team silver and is currently cross-country coach to the Swiss eventing team.