This month’s Pau Horse Trials is the 17th running of the French event at five-star (formerly four-star) level. Many of the former Pau Horse Trials winners have been – or have gone on to become – legends in the sport of eventing.

Let’s take a look back at them…

Pau Horse Trials winners, 2007-2023

2007: Nicolas Touzaint (France) and Hildago De L’Ile

The first winners of Pau as a top-level event, a popular victory for the home side. Nicolas went on to become the first French winner of Badminton, piloting Hildago De L’Ile to take the British spring classic in 2008. Hildago De L’Ile was a team silver medallist at the 2005 Blenheim Europeans – although with a fall across country they were the discard score – and he closed out his career by being Nicolas’ ride at the 2012 London Olympics.

2008: Bettina Hoy (Germany) and Ringwood Cockatoo

This was Bettina and Ringwood Cockatoo’s second top-level win, after victory at Luhmühlen in 2005. They were also prolific winners at three-star (now four-star level) and successful championship performers, taking team gold at the 2006 World Equestrian Games, team bronze at the 2005 European Championships and individual bronze at the 2007 Europeans – as well, of course, as being stripped of their double gold medals at the 2004 Olympics after it was discovered Bettina had crossed the start line twice. After Pau, the pair were second at the US flagship event at Kentucky in 2009 before the horse retired from eventing, going on to compete in dressage with Claire Llewellyn until he was 25.

2009: Dirk Schrade (Germany) and King Artus

Not the highest profile Pau Horse Trials winner, but King Artus was consistently placed at three-star (now four-star) level before and after his Pau win. He was fourth as an individual at the 2011 European Championships and a team gold medallist at the 2012 London Olympics. King Artus’s story had a sad end when he collapsed and died after finishing second at Wiesbaden in 2013.

2010: Andreas Dibowski (Germany) and FRH Fantasia

Again, one of Pau’s less well known winners. FRH Fantasia was a team gold medallist at the 2011 Europeans a year after Pau, although she was eliminated so not a counting score. She finished her career doing a season with Korean rider Sangwuk Song and the pair were team and individual gold medallists at the Asian Games.

2011: William Fox-Pitt (Great Britain) and Oslo

A six-year-old winner and seven-year-old runner-up at Le Lion, Oslo was also the winner of Tattersalls CCI3* (now CCI4*-L) and the eight- and nine-year-old class at Blenheim in the same year he won Pau. His career peaked here, though, as injury meant he did not compete consistently afterwards, although he did complete Badminton 2013. Oslo started his competition career as a stallion and semen was taken from him and frozen before he was cut; he was the sire of William’s five-star ride Oratorio.

2012: Andrew Nicholson (New Zealand) and Nereo

Pau’s first Antipodean winner and a hugely successful combination. By the time of his Pau win, Nereo had already given Andrew his first individual championship medal – a bronze to match a team gong of the same colour at the 2010 World Equestrian Games. He was a team bronze medallist and fourth individually at London 2012 in the summer before Pau and later provided Andrew with a long-awaited Badminton win in 2017. He was also second at Burghley three times and finished in the top 12 at Badminton on four other occasions.

2013: William Fox-Pitt (Great Britain) and Seacookie TSF

A successful top-level campaigner who was also second and eighth at Burghley and second, sixth and ninth at Kentucky, as well as winning Blenheim. He retired from eventing soon after his Pau win, following the 2014 season. William is the only rider who has won Pau more than once.

2014: Ingrid Klimke (Germany) and SAP Hale Bob OLD

It is extraordinary that Pau was Ingrid’s first five-star victory, despite her many top placings through a long and illustrious career; she made it two when she won Luhmühlen the following season on SAP Escada FRH. SAP Hale Bob OLD has a superb record alongside his Pau win – he was European champion in 2017 and 2019 and is the winner of five other championship medals, including world individual bronze and Olympic team silver. He has won 18 times at international level in all.

2015: Astier Nicolas (France) and Piaf De B’Neville

The first home side Pau Horse Trials winner since Nicolas Touzaint won the inaugural running, but he started a run of French wins at the event. Piaf De B’Neville had already won the under-25s at Bramham and been ninth at Badminton by the time of his Pau win and he capped it with individual silver and team gold at the Rio Olympics less than a year later.

2016: Maxime Livio (France) and Qalao Des Mers

A victory at Pau firmly put to rest the fact Maxime and Qalao Des Mers were until this point most famous for being disqualified from the 2014 World Equestrian Games. They also achieved two seconds on their two four-star (now five-star) runs either side of Pau, Luhmühlen 2016 and Kentucky 2017.

2017: Gwendolen Fer (France) and Romantic Love

Gwendolen’s victory made her the first French female rider to win at the top level. The pair were also 16th at Badminton in 2016 and have won four times at CIC3*/CCI4*-L level.

2018: Thibault Fournier (France) and Siniani De Lathus

Somewhat surprising winners, who had been second in the under-25s at Bramham earlier that season, but were making their debut at the top level. After two years away from the international eventing fray, Siniani De Lathus returned in 2021 and had two top-10 placings at two- and three-star.

2019: Tom McEwen (Great Britain) and Toledo De Kerser

This was the win everyone knew Tom and Toledo had in them and followed three top-11 placings at Badminton, plus world team gold and individual 12th at the World Equestrian Games in 2018. They went on to be members of the British gold medal-winning team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where they also took individual silver.

2020: Laura Collett (Great Britain) and London 52

This was a first five-star win for Laura, while London 52 was making his debut at the level. He had been a successful horse through the grades, but also made some high-profile mistakes, so the rider was thrilled that her faith in him paid off. The pair were selected as members of the British Olympic team the following year and took home team gold from the Tokyo Games. They also competed at the 2022 World Championships and collected team gold at the 2023 Europeans. The following year, 2024, they led the Brits to team gold at the Paris Olympics and collected individual bronze, too.

2021: Tim Price and Falco

Falco delivered victory for Tim on his first time at five-star, while it was the rider’s fourth win at the level. Falco – who is owned by British former championship rider Sue Benson – went on to take individual bronze at the 2022 World Championships and lead the Kiwis to team bronze. Falco was also Tim’s ride at the Paris Olympics, where he was sixth, and finished second at Maryland 5 Star in 2024.

2022: Jonelle Price (New Zealand) and Grappa Nera

Tim Price passed the crown to his wife when Jonelle moved up in the final phase to land the win in 2022, her third at five-star. Grappa Nera did not have a great deal of form coming into the event, but the rider said she had always known the 11-year-old mare was a good horse and it was a case of when she would show that, not if. The mare went on to take sixth at Badminton in 2024.

2023: Ros Canter (Great Britain) and Izilot DHI

Ros scored her first five-star win at Badminton Horse Trials in the spring of 2023 and her second at Pau in the autumn of the same year. Izilot DHI is a very talented but also spooky horse and his Pau win was followed by leading the dressage at both British five-stars in 2024, but Ros retired him during the cross-country phase at both events. He returns to Pau in 2024, so perhaps he will keep up his unblemished Pau record and prove France is his favourite five-star destination.

Pictures by Phil Mingo, trevor-meeks-photography.co.uk, Peter Nixon, Nico Morgan and Libby Law Photography

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news throughout Maryland 5 Star, Pau Horse Trials, London International.Horse Show and more, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

You may also be interested in:

Watch Pau Horse Trials 2025 live from wherever you are

Check out places to stay near Les Etoiles de Pau CCI5*

World number one and Burghley re-routers head huge entries for French five-star at Pau – plus a rider swap post-Paris

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Six-time Olympian Andrew Nicholson and European eventing champion Nicola Wilson are among the top names to join the 2023 Dubarry Burghley young event horse (BYEH) final judging panel.

Les Smith and Sue Baxter, who have both officiated on CCI5* ground juries, will judge the dressage phase. Nicola will join former Olympic eventer Jane Holderness-Roddam in judging the jumping phase. Former British eventing team vet Jenny Hall will judge the suitability and type phase, and five-time Burghley winner Andrew will mark the gallop.

The series aims to showcase four- and five-year-olds who have the attributes to develop into top event horses. Qualifiers take place throughout the summer, ahead of the final on 1 September at the Defender Burghley Horse Trials, where the horses will perform a dressage test and showjumping round, and have their conformation examined.

The top 10 from each class come forward for a final assessment, where they are judged on their suitability and type for reaching the top levels of the sport, and their potential to take on a five-star track in the future.

The series underwent a “refresh” in 2022 under new Burghley event director Martyn Johnson, with an increase in prize money and adjustments to the way the horses are assessed to keep the classes “as relevant as possible to the fast-moving modern sport”.

“I am delighted to welcome to Burghley all six of our judges, who between them have countless years of expertise in the sport of eventing from every possible angle,” he said.

“The BYEH final is where we hope to see the horses who, in years to come, will return here for the five-star competition, and is always very hotly contested.”

The winner of the 2022 five-year-old final was Jack of Clubs, owned by Nicola Wilson’s mother Mary Tweddle, and ridden by Robyn Gray. The gelding is now competing at novice level with Ros Canter. The four-year-old final winner was the March Stud’s stallion Cupid March, who was ridden to victory by Piggy March, but died from colic this year.

You might also be interested in:

Andrew Nicholson: ‘Why Aachen is the place to advertise eventing to a wider audience’

‘Don’t give up’: rider who ‘spent a year falling off’ young horse takes him to first win

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Five-star winner Mr Cruise Control was put down on Wednesday 17 August at the age of 21.

The grey starred at the higher levels under Andrew Nicholson, and went on to become a schoolmaster for then-teenager Thomas Hawke.

“He retired with us and we took care of him – the last couple of years he’s been well, but over time the cumulation of impact on his body caught up with him, plus he’d always had melanomas which had got to a certain point, so it was a judgement that it was time to call it a day,” said Thomas.

Owned by Robin and Nicky Salmon, Mr Cruise Control – known as Tez – started his eventing career with Andrew in 2006 and in his second season won a young horse CIC* (now CCI2*-S) at Gatcombe and was fourth in the six-year-old World Championships at Le Lion d’Angers.

The following year he had four top-12 placings at two-star (now three-star), including 11th in the seven-year-old World Championships.

His move up to three-star (now four-star) in 2009 culminated in fifth at Blenheim Horse Trials CCI3* (now CCI4*-L) and the following year he won Hartpury CIC3* (now CCI4*-S) as well as impressing on his four-star (now five-star) debut as a nine-year-old, finishing fourth at Luhmühlen Horse Trials and ninth at Pau Horse Trials.

Mr Cruise Control continued competing very successfully with Andrew through the next three seasons – he won Luhmühlen in 2013, was second, seventh and fifth at Pau, won Hartpury for a second time in 2011 and took top spot in the World Cup qualifier at Chatsworth Horse Trials in 2013. In all, he completed eight five-stars, with six top-10 finishes.

Thomas Hawke said he was “very lucky to be in the right place at the right time” to take the ride on Mr Cruise Control when Andrew reduced his yard after his serious fall in 2015 – his mother Sophie knew Andrew, he had done some work experience with Andrew and “a friend of a friend knew Nicky Salmon”.

“He was a dude – I did my first three-star, my first advanced and my first four-star on him and he showed me the ropes,” Thomas told H&H. “He wasn’t push-button in the dressage and showjumping – he was a very big horse and took quite a lot of leg to ride. I was quite young and it took me a bit of time to get the hang of it. It wasn’t like riding a pony where you could whizz them round, you had to ride properly.

“But when you got on to the cross-country, he just knew his job – you’d set off and he’d give you confidence that he was going to give you a good ride. If I got something a bit wrong, Tez was always there to step in. Since then, I’ve had other horses and they’re not all like that, but from that experience on Tez, I’m always trying to recreate that feeling and put a bit of that confidence that Tez had into them.”

Tez and his young rider had placings up to advanced and two-star (now three-star) level together and completed Houghton CIC3* (now CCI4*-S).

Thomas described Mr Cruise Control as a “gentle giant” who could also be cheeky.

“If Mum or I were holding him to wash him for a competition, he’d charge about not wanting to get wet and he could run backwards quite effectively. But if I gave him to my little cousin, who was under 10 at the time, he’d stand like a statue because he knew he had to be gentle with her. Similarly if I went for a hack, he could be a bit of a beast, but if you put someone on who was not so confident, he’d register that and behave. He was a lovely old horse.”

You might also be interested in:

‘The rates bill was halved if you ran a stud…’ – Andrew Nicholson on breeding three-time Burghley winner Avebury

The Horse & Hound Podcast 117: Andrew Nicholson | Burghley preview

Burghley’s back! Plus what else to watch this week in horse sport…

Eight horses withdrawn from this week’s Burghley Horse Trials

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

How often does a rider decide to start a “stud” to decrease their rates bill and end up with a triple five-star winner? That’s what happened to Andrew Nicholson when he bred three-time Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials winner Avebury.

“I bought his mother at the racing sales – the horses in and out of training sales – I used to go to them regularly and buy anything in my price bracket, which was pretty low,” says Andrew in an interview on episode 117 of The Horse & Hound Podcast.

“His mother had run on the Flat and over hurdles without any success. She was a nice-looking grey mare, smallish. They were all bought without a vet certificate and you took your chance. I think the day I bought her, I bought six altogether.”

The mare was called Memento when she was eventing, but she raced under the name Bairn Free – and things didn’t get off to a good start for her in Andrew’s yard.

He remembers: “The next day my vet came in and had a look at their eyes and listened to their hearts, watched them trot up and down, just to see what sort of damage we had picked up. Memento had very bad cataracts in her eyes so straight away I was thinking I’d lost my 700 quid or whatever I paid for her. But I started riding her, she was lovely to ride and I did four events on her. She won a novice on a 13 or 14 dressage and was a very nice jumper.

“Then suddenly I got hit with a big rates bill for stabling and they said to me if I was a stud, my rates would be altered. I was riding the stallion Jumbo at the time. So I said to the rating officer, if you come back in a year’s time I’ll have a foal. So that’s what I did with the mare – put her in foal to Jumbo and Avebury turned up, and they halved the rates.”

After she had Avebury, Andrew gave Memento to Mark Chamberlayne. She is the granddam of the Chamberlaynes’ home-bred Dreamliner, the recent British national champion under Oliver Townend.

Andrew sold Avebury to a friend of his wife Wiggy as a showjumper after he’d broken him in, then bought him back two years later and “the rest is history”. In the ownership of Andrew’s long-term owners Mark and Rosemary Barlow, he won Burghley in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and also scored six victories at current four-star (then three-star) level including four at Barbury Castle Horse Trials.

“He’s a strange horse to do so well at Burghley when Burghley is a difficult galloping track and they have to be good stayers – he’s quite small and quite stocky and yet he used to go round Burghley inside the time as if he was going for a hack in countryside,” says Andrew.

“The ups and downs made him concentrate a bit more and after the first minute on the flat, he’d get to the ups and downs and feel like the turbo had kicked in and he was happy as could be to be back there. He was quite a little thinker and very clever, so whether the rollercoaster feeling made him feel he was at an amusement park, I’m not sure!”

Andrew says Avebury’s third Burghley win was the most special.

He says: “For any horse to win a five-star event three times is very, very impressive and for it to be Burghley where it is a proper workout for them, I was just so proud of him and what he had done for me, for the sport and the Barlow family.”

Hear more from Andrew Nicholson about his early rides at Burghley Horse Trials by tuning in to episode 117 of The Horse & Hound Podcast here, or search “The Horse & Hound Podcast” in your favourite podcast app.

You might also be interested in:

Former winners, Zara Tindall and hotshot first-timers among Burghley Horse Trials entries

Dealing with drought, sneak insight into cross-country course and mobile phone masts: all roads lead to Burghley’s return

Clare Balding, Olympic equestrian voices and five-star riders revealed as Burghley commentators and presenters

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Our 117th weekly episode of The Horse & Hound Podcast features an interview with five-time Burghley winner, Andrew Nicholson. H&H’s Pippa Roome asks him a bout his experiences at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials over the years – from an inauspicious debut, to scaling the heights to win three in a row with Avebury. Pippa is then joined by some of her H&H colleagues to find out who they are tipping for the top honours at Burghley this year and our favourite Burghley memories. We hope you will enjoy listening.

Episode 117 of The Horse & Hound Podcast, our popular audio service, which is available every Thursday morning for our H&H digital subscribers, is now live.

Each episode is available for all H&H fans to listen to via your favourite podcast app 24hrs after its early release to our H&H digital subscribers. Search for “The Horse & Hound Podcast” in your preferred podcast app and click subscribe to be notified about each new episode. This will allow more listeners to make The Horse & Hound Podcast an essential part of their week on Friday morning.

• View all episodes of The Horse & Hound Podcast

Our 117th weekly episode of The Horse & Hound Podcast features an interview with five-time Burghley winner, Andrew Nicholson. H&H’s Pippa Roome asks him a bout his experiences at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials over the years – from an inauspicious debut, to scaling the heights to win three in a row with Avebury.

Pippa is then joined by some of her H&H colleagues to find out who they are tipping for the top honours at Burghley this year and our favourite Burghley memories.

• We would love to hear your feedback on our new “summer of sport” podcast series, so please do send your thoughts to pippa.roome@futurenet.com

Horse & Hound Podcast: episode 117

Listen now to other recent episodes of The Horse & Hound Podcast…

The Horse & Hound Podcast 116: World Championships review and BSPS Championships preview

The Horse & Hound Podcast 115: World Dressage Championships & Festival of British Eventing at Gatcombe review

The Horse & Hound Podcast 114: Royal International Horse Show review

The Horse & Hound Podcast 113: Lottie Fry | Herning World Championships preview | Festival of Hunting review

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits. 

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Legendary event rider Andrew Nicholson announced he was stepping down from top level competition at Blenheim Horse Trials on Sunday (19 September), following a successful result with Monbeg Exclusive.

The UK-based New Zealand national is one of the world’s most successful event riders of all time. He has ridden at six Olympics, winning two team bronze and a silver in the process, and seven World Championships, with team gold and both team and individual world medals to his name.

He has also notched up five Burghley titles, winning the five-star three times on Avebury (2012, 2013 and 2014), as well as the 2000 title aboard Mr Smiffy and the 1995 crown with Buckley Province.

Andrew holds the record for the most Badminton completions (37), eventually winning the event in 2017 with Nereo. His other five-star victories came at Pau in 2012, also aboard Nereo, and Kentucky in 2013, with Quimbo.

Andrew Nicholson: a celebration of his career at the highest level

Andrew riding Spinning Rhombus at Badminton in 1991 – with this horse he won team gold at the 1990 Stockholm World Equestrian Games, as well as team silver at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Andrew riding Jagermeister on the way to team bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

During his career, Andrew’s incredible horsemanship helped earn him the nickname ‘Mr Stickability, as is well demonstrated here…

Buckley Provence en-route to winning Andrew the first of his five Burghley titles in 1995.

Andrew Nicholson and Mr Smiffy on their way to winning Burghley in 2000, but it wasn’t all plain sailing…

…as they had to survive this heart-in-mouth moment.

Quimbo delivers Andrew his sole Kentucky victory in 2013.

Andrew on his way to winning his fifth Burghley title in 2014 riding Avebury.

Andrew finally nailed down a Badminton win in 2017, with the help of his five-star cross-country specialist Nereo.

Enjoy watching Andrew and Nereo’s complete cross-country round from Badminton 2017

• What is your favourite memory from Andrew Nicholson’s outstanding eventing career? Let us know at hhletters@futurenet.com

You might also be interested in:

Andrew Nicholson steps down from top-level competition

Andrew Nicholson’s Nereo: celebrating an equestrian legend in pictures

We take a look back at the 2017 Badminton winner’s star-studded career in pictures

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

It was a bumper day at Blenheim Horse Trials with the conclusion of the CCI4*-L and the CCI4*-S. The rain held off, and two worthy champions were crowned. Plus, a legend of the sport revealed he is stepping down, and what the future has in store for him. Here are six stories to keep you posted on today’s action…

Yasmin Ingham netted the biggest win of her career, landing the Blenheim Horse Trials CCI4*-L on her dressage score.

• Read about the Blenheim victor’s “best day ever”

Just a single showjumping rail covered the top 10 riders in the CCI4*-L

• See each fence on the showjumping track and the challenge it posed

Nicola Wilson showed the strength in depth of her horsepower, winning the CCI4*-S and finishing fourth.

• Find out how special Nicola thinks this young pair of horses are

The legendary event rider Andrew Nicholson completed the CCI4*-L before revealing his plans to step down from elite-level competition.

• Hear what Andrew had to say about this decision, and what is happening to his top horse

The cross-country track for the young horses proved tough, and exciting.

• Read how the pathfinders found the course

It wasn’t plain sailing at the final CCI4*-L horse inspection.

• Find out which top-five contender endured a nervous moment

And finally, watch Yasmin chat to the press after her superb Blenheim Horse Trials win

Video courtesy of Lloyd Bell/the Jockey Club

• What was your Blenheim highlight? Send your thoughts to hhletters@futurenet.com, including your name, nearest town and country, and you could win a bottle of Champagne Taittinger

You might also be interested in:

Big crowds are back, dressage leaders prevail and a nasty wasp sting: 8 stories you need to read from Saturday’s action at Blenheim

Rising equine stars, advice from a legend and back at the palace: 8 stories you need to read about Thursday’s Blenheim dressage action

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits. 

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Eventing legend Andrew Nicholson has revealed he will step down from top-level competition following his completion at Blenheim Horse Trials CCI4*-L with Monbeg Exclusive.

Speculation had been rife since Andrew’s five-star ride Swallow Springs joined Oliver Townend’s string in the summer, just after winning Barbury with Andrew. However, the grey isn’t the first top horse that has changed hands between the two riders, following the likes of Armada.

The 13-year-old Chillout gelding, owned by Paul and Diana Ridgeon, has remained based with Andrew while Oliver took over the reins in the build up to Blenheim. The horse finished 10th in Blenheim’s CCI4*-L under Oliver, securing the pair’s five-star qualification as a combination.

Speaking ahead of the Blenheim CCI4*-L prize giving, Andrew, 60, said he enjoyed watching Oliver riding Swallow Springs this week and also enjoyed seeing Nicola Wilson win the eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S class with Coolparks Sarco, a horse he sold at the start of the year.

“I think Oliver has done such a good job, I can’t see why I need to go to Badminton again,” he said. “So, I think I’ll step back from these five-stars and four-star big [fixtures] like this one, and maybe just do the smaller level horses that I can get up through the grades and then sell.

“I didn’t want to say too much [at the start of the week] just in case Oliver hopped off and told me ‘I don’t want him’ and then I’m [the one] going to Badminton.

“I haven’t asked [Oliver] yet if he wants to ride him at Badminton, I’m just presuming,” he added, with a smile.

Andrew Nicholson: stepping down from ‘the big stuff’

Video courtesy of Lloyd Bell/the Jockey Club

The five-time Burghley winner first hinted at the upcoming news in a video ahead of the final showjumping session on Sunday (19 September), before later confirming his decision.

When asked whether fans could expect to see him at Badminton and Burghley in 2022, Andrew replied: “We’ll wait and see. I wouldn’t think so. That’s why I’ve got Oliver Townend riding my best horse here, Swallow Springs, to try to qualify for Badminton.

“I’ve already qualified the horse and I suggested to the owner to put Oliver on, then Oliver can qualify, and then if I didn’t feel to speed [Oliver could ride him].

“It would just be [stepping down from] the big stuff. I’ll still have novice horses, I own pretty much all of them, with the idea of getting them to two- and three-star level and selling them. I’m still riding and competing. But to be at the very top [events] Badminton and Burghley, I have a lot of respect for the courses and you’ve got to be fully up to speed. I don’t feel like I used to, to be honest.

“I will still be [at Badminton and Burghley], I just might not be leaving the start box.”

His announcement at Blenheim comes, fittingly, on the 20th anniversary of his victory in the CCI4*-L class of the Oxfordshire event, which he won in 1991 aboard Park Grove.

What’s next for Andrew Nicholson?

Andrew heads off to Avenches for the European Championships in his capacity as coach for the Swiss team.

“I really enjoying working with them, helping them as a cross-country coach,” said Andrew. “It’s a nice bunch of people. When I was asked about doing the Swiss job to be honest I wasn’t that excited but I said yes and I got quite into it, so I’ve cut right back on the riding and I’m doing more of it [coaching]. Dealing with really experienced riders is easy. I’ve got no idea how you teach young or inexperienced rider or amateurs, that’s a different art altogether.

“I never thought I’d enjoy teaching riders – when you’re riding full time you don’t have time – but the more I’ve started to do it, the more I’ve started enjoyed it and working with the good ones, it’s a pleasure.

“When you’re busy riding horses all day at home and you rush off to an event, ride five and go to the next one it’s hard to get off that merry-go round. Now I’ve got older I’ve cut down on horses.”

Andrew Nicholson: an eventing legend

The UK-based New Zealand national is one of the world’s most successful event riders of all time.

He has five Burghley titles to his name, winning the five-star three times on Avebury (2012, 2013 and 2014), as well as the 2000 title aboard Mr Smiffy and the 1995 crown with Buckley Province.

Andrew holds the record for the most Badminton completions, finally adding the trophy to his cabinet in 2017 with Nereo. His other five-star victories came at Pau in 2012, also aboard Nereo, and Kentucky in 2013, with Quimbo.

He has ridden at six Olympics, winning two team bronze and a silver in the process, and seven World Championships, with team gold and both team and individual world medals in his collection.

You might also be interested in:

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

H&H Hero to Hero: Andrew Nicholson and Oliver Townend

Two of the world’s most brilliant event riders discuss how they handle pressure, compare their top horses and how many

Andrew Nicholson: ‘Riders don’t learn and progress by keeping clean records’ *H&H Plus*

‘King of Barbury’ claims record seventh title *H&H Plus*

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits. 

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

The leaders from the first day of Blenheim horse trials dressage have thrown down the gauntlet to their rivals. By lunchtime on the second day (17 September), only two riders had managed to infiltrate the overnight top six. The new Bicton CCI5* winner Gemma Tattersall was the first to make the breakthrough. She scored 28.7 to move into seventh place on Chris Stone’s Jalapeno III.

Despite it being a sub-30, Chris Stone’s 13-year-old mare, by his stallion Chilli Morning, is capable of much better in this phase. She scored 19.1 at Wellington and is regularly in the low 20s.

“It was really frustrating,” said Gemma. “She did beautiful trot work, really good walk and then went into extended canter and basically was very rude! I couldn’t get her back for the first change, which is normally her highlight. So we completely fluffed the first canter. Then I did get it back and she did a lovely second change.

“She has the ability to be in the lead, but she’s short of match practice this year,” Gemma added. “She’s been working phenomenally well all week, maybe a bit of excitement crept in, and she thought she’d like to boss me around.

“I think the cross-country is fantastic, beautifully presented, but my feeling is it’s quite straightforward and the dressage scores will be important,” she said.

Just before the lunchbreak, Piggy March brought forward a nine-year-old in the March Stud’s Sportsfield Top Notch, who proved mature beyond his years in this long-format class. His flying changes were well established and clean, earning himself a little in-test pat. He showed lovely, swinging paces to move ahead of Gemma and into fourth on a score of 27.9. Piggy now has two horses in the top four, as Brookfield Quality currently lies second on 25.8.

Nicholson proves a master horseman during Blenheim Horse Trials dressage

Other movers and shakers on Friday morning included Aaron Millar and the Irish Sport Horse KEC Deakon, who scored 30.4 to move into the top 10. While Andrew Nicholson showed all his professionalism to eke out every mark with 10-year-old Monbeg Exclusive on a score of 31 to go into the top 15.

“He went very well for the level he’s at; he probably couldn’t have gone any better,” said Andrew. “He naturally likes to go round with his head down. It’s not his fault he’s built low in front, but it’s about changing the shape for the judges – he only has to do it for seven minutes. And he’s a very good jumper – it’s how he’ll cope with the undulations.”

Wills Oakden slotted into the top 20 with 31.5 on CCI4*-L debutant Cooleys Macgregor.

“It’s the first time in this sort of atmosphere and he pulled himself together really well and gave his best in the ring,” Wills said. “But his jumping is his highlight. He’s a real character, a super horse, and we’re just having fun. Dressage we do our best, but we’re learning on the job together.”

Blenheim’s “quality field” leaves Aussie rider disappointed

Sam Griffiths was one top rider feeling disappointed after lying around 30th on Billy Liffy on 33.1.

“I was hoping for a better mark and to be higher up the leaderboard,” he admitted. “Sometimes you have a great day and today just wasn’t one of my days. We made lots of little mistakes, they mount up and it was very costly. He did some lovely stuff, but it’s such a quality field you can’t afford to make those mistakes.”

Yasmin Ingham, 24, still holds on to her overnight lead, riding Banzai Du Loir, on a score of 25.8. She sits just 0.3 of a penalty ahead of Piggy and Brookfield Quality.

You may also want to read…

Yasmin Ingham leads Blenheim CCI4*-L on Paris 2024 prospect Banzai Du Loir: ‘You don’t want to let him down’

‘He always rises to the occasion’: young riders turn heads on the second day of dressage at Blenheim horse trials

Rising equine stars, advice from a legend and back at the palace: 8 stories you need to read about Thursday’s Blenheim dressage action

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Find out what Andrew Nicholson said about his win and who else finished on the podium

Andrew Nicholson extended his extraordinary record in the CCI4*-S at Barbury Horse Trials by winning it for the seventh time in its 16-year history.

Riding Paul and Diana Ridgeon’s Swallow Springs, on whom he also won the class the last time it took place, in 2019, Andrew was the fastest of the day across country with 7.6 time-faults to score a two-penalty victory over Wills Oakden and Macgregors Cooley and top the Barbury results 2021.

The 13-year-old Chillout gelding – a grey, like Andrew’s four-times Barbury hero Avebury – was second after dressage with 27.7. Fellow New Zealander Tim Price led on his Tokyo Olympics ride, Vitali, with 25.6.

“That was the best dressage test he’s ever done,” said Andrew. “I thought I was marked a bit hard, being early to go, but that’s the way life goes.”

Both Andrew and Tim had fence four in the showjumping down, but Tim added a further four faults at fence 9a, while Swallow Springs left the others up.

“He shouldn’t have had it down, but he felt like he was looking at the spectators on the hill [behind the main arena] and thought he could snake over it and misjudged it – he only rubbed it,” Andrew said. “He felt very smart across country.

“I like coming here, it’s local, and it’s always nice to win.”

Andrew knows the contours of Barbury’s cross-country track like the back of his hand, and the pair slipped round Alec Lochore’s course like silk.

“The ground was superb,” observed Andrew. “The track here is quite twisty now and I thought some of the distances were a little bit short, but when it’s twisty that works because you don’t have an open gallop afterwards.”

Barbury results 2021: Wills Oakden second

Wills Oakden’s nine-hour drive from Perthshire proved very worthwhile when Macgregors Cooley zoomed into second place in his first CCI4*-S.

His dressage mark of 32.9 had him in 17th place, but a clear showjumping round and just 8.4 cross-country time-faults – only Andrew was quicker – meant he rose nearly all the way up the order.

Ella Macgregor’s nine-year-old son of Balou Du Rouet has made an impression this season, having finished fifth in his first CCI3*-L at Houghton in May.

“He’s a serious character – two years ago he had me on the floor 13 times in one year,” said Wills. “But he’s settling now and we’ve found the key to him.

“This was his first four-star, so I didn’t really know what my plan was – whether I was going to have a go, or whether I was just going to hunt round. I spoke to the owner and said, ‘We’ll get through the showjumping, and then make a plan after that.’

“He’s an incredible jumper, and I thought he jumped an outstanding showjumping round. The ground here is absolutely perfect today, so I thought, ‘Why not? We’ll give it a go and see what happens.’ He was unbelievable. I’m super-proud of him.”

Third – and third-fastest, with 8.8 cross-country time-faults – was Fiona Kashel, riding Nikki Neal’s 14-year-old Drumhowan Black Magic. Both Wills and Fiona finished on a score of 41.3, but Wills was one second quicker.

Fiona’s other rides, WSF Carthago and Creevagh Silver De Haar, were ninth and 12th, and she said: “I got faster with each round! But the time was tight; I don’t think I could have made the time if I’d had another six horses. I was five seconds off winning it! I thought the course rode well.”

She continued: “Drumhowan Black Magic shouldn’t be doing this – he’s small, he’s the laziest horse you’ll ride, but he’s got a heart of gold and he loves it. He’s so nimble and such a trier. I never take a pull, just kick.

“He was entered for Badminton about three years ago but did a leg. He’s come back from that, but I don’t know if I will do a long-format CCI with him this year – I don’t want to break him again.”

Less than a mark behind on 42.1, Tom Rowland took fourth place on Jo Handman’s nine-year-old Quintilius, with Aaron Millar fifth with KEC Deakon. Heidi Coy was sixth on Russal Z.

For one of the first times since the autumn of 2019, eventing took place in front of a good-sized crowd at Barbury, providing the atmosphere the sport has missed for so long.

You might also be interested in:

Rio 2016 gold medallist out of Tokyo Olympics

Sandman enjoys a sweetener in the CCI3*-S at Keysoe (2) *H&H Plus*

Meet the buckskin heading to Tokyo: ‘We never knew where his ceiling would be’

See the British Olympic eventing team horses enjoying their final outing before Tokyo

Marius Voigt-Logistik: the horse that took an amateur to win Olympic gold *H&H Plus*

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

This weekend, some of the world’s greatest eventing combinations will do battle at the Bicton International Horse Trials supported by Chedington. Here, some top riders share their thoughts on the course, designed by Helen West and assisted by Captain Mark Phillips ahead of Saturday’s CCI4*-L and Sunday’s CCI4*-S cross-country action...

Piggy March

“They are really strong, good courses with hard terrain — it will be a really tough test and something that I think we’re all probably ready for and probably need in order to see where we’re at.

“We’ve been competing around the same places quite frequently — Aston-Le-Walls, for example, which has very little terrain — and all credit to them as they’ve been doing a great job. However, we have got to be on our A game and really make something happen — it’s good, it’s what the sport should be, and what we probably all need at this stage as well — something to actually get stuck in to and really go and ride and see where we’re at.

“I really don’t like the rail, ditch, corner [fence 15 in the CCI4*-L, fence 16 in the CCI4*-S, picture, top]. I just think that fence could be a mistake for a horse who’s just not quite understanding or gets its footwork a little bit wrong rather than it being an un-genuine mistake — I’m not a lover of that.

“Coming out of the water is a serious question with the angled brushes [fences nine and 10 in the CCI4*-L; fences 10 and 11 in the CCI4*-S]. It is a serious line and you’ve either got the line or you haven’t — there is no adjustment for a little bit too left or right.

“It’s a really good track and I think it will be interesting to see how people ride it. I hope people take the terrain into account, because it’s a great course but it stays big until the end. I think we really need to use our brains, because the hills are a shock to us when we walk it so it will be a bit of a shock to our horses too. We’ve got to be responsible for our cross-country rides. It’s what the sport should be and there will be problems everywhere.”

Laura Collett

“Both courses are seriously beefy. The CCI4*-S basically jumps the same course as the CCI4*-L, bar missing out one loop. I got three-quarters of the way around when I was walking it and said to myself I had forgotten where the last let-up fence was — it’s just one question after another. I think it’ll be very intense to ride — it’s a proper track and it’s not going to be a dressage competition.”

There’s no margin for error. I think coming out of the water is a tough question and I’m not really sure how the rail, ditch, corner is going to work but with another coursewalk or two it will come become clear.”

Tom McEwen

“It’s a proper track and it looks unbelievable. You should never undermine Bicton if you’ve never been — personally I would never bring a first-timer here, because it’s always big, but they’ve done a great job. I don’t mean this in a rude way but with the step-in events we’ve had recently, maybe some people are expecting a similar sort of course to those, but we’ve come here and pretty much found Bramham at Bicton — it’s pretty exciting really.

“The rail, ditch, corner is tough. You can do all these schooling exercises at home to try to train for those sorts of questions, but tackling something like that five or six minutes into a course is different.

“I think all the lines look really good — they’re all positive distances. It’s just a shame that there’s no Burghley this year, because I think if you had a great ride around here, you’d have been pretty content heading there as it would set you up nicely with the terrain and the style of course.

“I think this course is a serious ask, especially with the types of competitions we’ve had since the second half of last year and people will have to be on form riding around here.“

Chris Burton

“It’s beautiful — the ground is great and they’ve gone to so much effort here. The parkland looks amazing. It’s like a proper proper four-star — it’s big and tough and really in your face.”

Andrew Nicholson

“It’s a decent track. I think it’s a bit strong for a first-timer at CCI4*-L level and for me, it’s a little bit more suited to the five-star horses that are here, but it’s all very fair and we’ve just go do it.”

Nicola Wilson

“I think it’s really intense — there is question after question from start to finish, and the terrain is really hard work. It’s going to be one serious cross-country test.”

Emilie Chandler

“It’s a proper course and it will take some riding so it’s all to play for.”

Read the full report from Bicton in the 17 June issue of Horse & Hound magazine and keep checking back to horseandhound.co.uk for further updates and insight

You may also be interested in…

How to watch Bicton CCI5* Horse Trials: your essential guide

Nine horses held and two eliminated at Bicton Horse Trials first trot-up *H&H Plus*

Nine horses were sent to the holding box and two eliminated in an eventful Bicton Horse Trials first trot-up this

Bicton Horse Trials dressage times released: find out when Olympic longlisted horses start

The Bicton Horse Trials dressage times are out – check out when your favourite riders and horses start in the

Laura Collett takes early lead in Bicton CCI4*-L: plus drama as world medallist eliminated in the first phase *H&H Plus*

Andrew Nicholson comments on early-season courses and Burghley hopes

ALEC LOCHORE’S cross-country course for the CCI4*-S at Burnham Market was the best since I’ve been competing there. It was difficult enough, but nice to ride round with good distances and lines.

I thought the intermediate track had been made for the open intermediate horses, rather than the “normal” intermediate horses, though, and it was the same at Weston Park and Tweseldown. I might be getting old, but some of the questions at all three events were pretty strong for proper intermediate horses.

At this time of year – and especially considering that the riders who weren’t in the “elite” bracket have had very little opportunity to go cross-country – you do need intermediate courses that aren’t just designed with older, experienced horses in mind.

I’m a big fan of Weston Park. It can be wet in the spring, but I’ve always run my top horses there and they have come out of it well. But while a few years ago there would be three full advanced sections, the event has struggled to get advanced entries recently.

Janet Plant’s tracks are strong and run across proper old parkland with natural undulations. The terrain in the showjumping arena at Weston isn’t easy to ride, there’s a five-minute hack to the dressage… it seems that the modern generation of riders favour events that are more cramped and which pose less of a challenge.

What happens when they get to Badminton and Burghley, though, to which all of the above comments about Weston apply? Riders don’t learn and progress by keeping clean records; making mistakes sharpens you up and challenges you.

Weston has always been a good preparation for those five-star events, and I was fascinated to hear that its organiser, Janet Plant, had offered to put on a CCI4*-L and CCI4*-S during what would have been Badminton week this year and had the support of the Weston Park estate to do so.

She would have had to use a different course-designer who was qualified to design at that level, and it would have given a fresh look and feel to the track – and may have kept the long-standing event in the calendar for another few decades.

For British Eventing (BE) to say no to her, and to say yes to Aston-le-Walls holding a CCI4*-S and Bicton a CCI4*-L and CCI4*-S was a surprise. I get on with the organisers of both events, but they are both BE board members – isn’t there a bit of a conflict of interest there? I would have thought there were enough horses around to fill the entries at all three events, and there’s a real danger that we are losing the variation of events which makes the sport in this country so strong and so competitive.

FIVE-STAR SPORT

IT’S great that Kentucky is happening this weekend. Who knows – it may be the only CCI5* to run this year, and it’s a good, bold move by British-based riders to go. Their presence gives it a proper international flavour and competitiveness. Top horses don’t have endless time at that level, especially having missed last year, and good competitors need good competitions – that’s what we thrive on.

I’m very much hoping that I will be taking Swallow Springs to Burghley in the autumn.

We don’t seem to have heard much from Burghley yet about their plans; it will take bravery to run in this uncertain world, but I, along with all the other riders with five-star horses, hope they grasp the nettle and make it happen.

SHE’S AN ADVERT FOR HORSE SPORT

I’M a big fan of National Hunt racing, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching Rachael Blackmore’s run of success at Cheltenham and Aintree in the past month. She doesn’t just win races; she looks very good doing it and is an excellent race-rider. You don’t pick her out in a race as being physically any different to her male counterparts – she’s just a very good jockey. She’s a great advert for horse sport in general.

This report is also available to read in this Thursday’s H&H magazine (22 April, 2021)

You may also be interested in…

The sound of silence: the effect running events behind closed doors has on riders *H&H Plus*

Meet Kentucky favourite Tsetserleg TSF: ‘He looked like an oversized pony – a bit fat, a bit woolly’

Meet Boyd Martin's top ride Tsetserleg TSF – the US star talks about why he wasn't too impressed when he

Uproar after British Eventing changes rules on number bibs

British Eventing’s rule change impacting reusable number bibs sparked widespread discussion and suggestions of possible solutions

Kitty King and Piggy March dominate at first British four-star of 2021 *H&H Plus*

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Who is the best event horse in the world today? It’s a great subject for a bit of pub banter with your friends – in non-Covid times, of course – and at events such as the leading five-stars, the World Championships or the Olympics, we find out who is the best event horse on that particular day. But does that really tell us who’s the best in an overall, long-term way?

Now the equestrian data analytics company EquiRatings has devised a way of ranking event horses which could give us the answer to the question.

The system is called Elo, named after Hungarian physics professor Arpad Elo. The Elo rating system originates from chess and variations are now used across many sports.

“Our leading data guru at EquiRatings, Sean Murray, has taken the Elo rating system and re-designed it for our sport,” explains EquiRatings co-founder Diarmuid Byrne in an article on the company’s website. “As we have found over the past few years, eventing is pretty complex to code for. Were judges scoring easy or tough? Was the course difficult or not? Was the time tight and who was trying to make it? But rating the best competitors is actually pretty simple. It’s all about consistently beating high-quality opponents.”

The full methodology behind the eventing ELO is complicated, but to summarise, horses enter the system with 1500 points. They then gain points by taking them from horses they beat and lose them by giving them to horses who beat them. The best event horse in the world always has the most points.

“You don’t lose all your points in one go, but the changes occur gradually as you compete more,” explains Diarmuid.

“Beating horses with high Elo ratings is going to bump up your rating most effectively. Losing to low-rated horses is going to be most costly. This addresses one of the big issues when rating the ‘best of the best’ – not all competitions are equal. Winning some four-star shorts might entail beating a handful of first-timers, while winning Aachen, the same level of competition on paper, is likely to mean that a horse has beaten five-star winners and world medallists. Elo solves this problem, rewarding the better quality results with higher points.”

So, using the Elo, who are the best event horses in the world? EquiRatings have a page where you can check Elos and the current Elo rankings rate horses who have competed in the past two seasons. The top six horses are:

• SAP Hale Bob OLD (Ingrid Klimke, Germany) – 2093 points
• Samourai Du Thot (Julia Krajewski, Germany) – 2060 points
• FischerChipmunk FRH (Michael Jung, Germany) – 2039 points
• FischerRocana FST (Michael Jung, Germany) – 2028 points
• Ballaghmor Class (Oliver Townend, Great Britain) – 2001 points
• Allstar B (Ros Canter, Great Britain) – 1991 points

EquiRatings also let you find the out “all-time” (2008 onwards) Elo rankings. The top six in that listing are:

• La Biosthetique-Sam FBW (Michael Jung, Germany) – 2173 points in 2017
• SAP Hale Bob OLD (Ingrid Klimke, Germany) – 2113 points in 2020
• Opgun Louvo (Sandra Auffarth, Germany) – 2108 points in 2017
• Nereo (Andrew Nicholson, New Zealand) – 2084 points in 2017
• Samourai Du Thot (Julia Krajewski, Germany) – 2060 points in 2020
• FischerChipmunk FRH (Michael Jung, Germany) – 2055 points in 2020

The clever chaps at EquiRatings acknowledge that the rankings are skewed towards German horses – the rankings use international competitions only and German horses tend to run more in international competitions than those in countries such as Britain and the USA which have excellent circuits of national competitions, which do not count towards Elo ratings.

Article continues below…

You might also be interested in:

£10,000 prize pot on offer in new unaffiliated eventing series

“Unaffiliated eventing is about to become very exciting and we cannot wait to welcome you to the series”

The Jockey Club to organise key British Eventing fixture

Jockey club regional managing director Ian Renton said it was “truly a great honour” to be awarded the five-year contract

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

What do you think? Do you agree with the Elo ratings on who is the best event horse in the world? Let us know by emailing hhletters@futurenet.com for the chance to be featured on the magazine’s letters page and you might win a bottle of Champagne Taittinger.

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find out more about getting the magazine delivered to your door every week. 

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Andrew Nicholson is on form, while Lauren Innes holds her nerve in a competitive three-star section and an Irish rider makes a worthwhile journey to Bicton Arena (3), Devon on 22–25 October

DESPITE battling rainstorms over the weekend, riders in the international classes at Bicton Arena Horse Trials (3) were full of praise for the undulating cross-country course, including Rathbones CCI3*-L section B winner Andrew Nicholson.

The New Zealander steered nine-year-old Monbeg Exclusive to victory in the long-format class, adding 1.2 time-penalties across country to their dressage of 28.2.

“I have been competing him since 2019 and he came from my friend and Italian rider Stefano Brecciaroli,” said Andrew. “He got him as a three-year-old from Ireland; we often swap around horses and I go over every year and work with him.

“Monbeg Exclusive has gone up the grades really well. We did the CCI3*-L at Lignières at the end of last season, he went well but it was probably a bit too early for him. He’s a straight-forward horse with a great mind and is a good galloper, which suits Bicton.”

The son of OBOS Quality 004 is up for sale.

“I am buying to sell more these days, as I am not getting any younger,” Andrew quipped. “He would be a nice one to keep, but I will try to sell him first.”

Frenchman Gaspard Maksud and Zaragoza II finished 1.9 penalties adrift, with Heidi Coy (Carrigsean Tigerseye) in third.

“Gaspard was at my yard when he first came over from France and he has now built up a strong team of horses,” added Andrew. “He had beaten me in a few one-day events leading up to Bicton, so I thought I can’t let him also beat me in an international class!”

The cross-country in the CCI3*-L produced 76.7% clear rounds.

“I JUST WENT AS FAST AS I COULD”

RECENTLY qualified chartered accountant Lauren Innes secured AJ’s Equestrian Boutique CCI3*-S section C with her own 10-year-old Global Fision M.

It was tight at the top in this section, with the leading trio – including eventual runner-up Tom Jackson (Ask For Manchier) and third-placed Will Rawlin (Ballycoog Breaker Boy) – all posting 25.7 dressage scores. They headed into Sunday’s cross-country having also produced clear showjumping rounds, so the pressure was well and truly on.

“I was last to go in the section, but I knew what I had to do – it was all down to which of us three could be the quickest across country,” said Lauren. “I just went as fast as I could, but fortunately ‘Flipper’ is naturally quick.”

Lauren picked up just 0.4 of a time-penalty to take the honours.

“I was just so shocked to win because it was such a competitive field. It was all so surreal.”

Lauren and the son of Flipper D’Elle had rerouted to Bicton after withdrawing from Burnham Market and then losing a run when Dutch horse trials Kronenberg was cancelled.

“Bicton organiser Helen West was a great help allowing us onto the wait-list at such short notice. Flipper blew up in the dressage at Burnham Market, so we pulled him out. Because of Covid, he hasn’t been out much but he was much more relaxed at Bicton on a surface,” added Lauren.

“I got him as a five-year-old from Ireland and we know each other very well. He’s a quirky horse and was a nightmare in the cross-country warm-up. I had to get off him to calm him down. The anticipation was all too much for him, but once he’s in the start box, he’s a professional.”

“I’M NOT GIVING HIM BACK!”

GEORGIE STRANG dominated Symonds & Sampson CCI2*-L section A on Jakzent Tren, a former ride of her partner Jesse Campbell. They finished on their impressive dressage score of 24.9.

“His owner, Sarah Moffat, is a great owner for Jesse and I, and she backed him herself as a three-year-old. He is called ‘Sharpy’ at home because he was known to be a sharp youngster,” said Georgie. “He went hunting as a four-year-old before Jesse started riding him.

“We swapped the ride at the beginning of 2020, after Jesse thought he would suit my style of riding. I got on with him straight away; I’m not giving him back!”

She added: “He’s a tall, narrow horse and bred to showjump by Harley VDL. He doesn’t find dressage the easiest, so I was very proud of his dressage mark.”

Georgie believes the long-format particularly suits “consistent” Sharpy because it gives him an extra day to settle.

“He’s naturally talented and has an amazing brain, he’s improved so much over the past year. It was his first long-format event so I thought he might tire up the Bicton hills, but he felt great. He tries so hard – if in doubt, he just jumps higher.”

Tom Jackson also played bridesmaid in this section aboard HH Moonwalk, with Georgina Herrling (Kilpatrick Knight) third.

“WE’RE COMPETITIVE FROM THE START”

YOUNG Irish rider Alex Power made a fleeting visit across the Irish Sea to the Devon venue, returning with silverware courtesy of his win aboard Lord Seekonig in Bond Timber CCI2*-S section D.

“He’s been slow to mature but he’s really come into his own this year,” said Alex, 21, of the German-bred seven-year-old gelding who has been with the rider since he was four.

“He is a kind-natured horse, who always tries hard and enjoys his dressage. Being good on the flat means we can be competitive from the start, and it always puts us in a good position.”

The Co Kildare-based rider is studying business and law, while also having a keen interest in buying and selling racehorses alongside eventing.

The pair finished on their dressage of 30.2, with Jemima Upton (Centre Stage) in second and Saskia Davies (Singing Usk) in third.

Katie Burton and Cornish Cabochon topped the leaderboard in Bond Timber CCI2*-S section E, staying on their 28.8 dressage and beating Polly Schwerdt (Jackpot) by 0.6 of a penalty, with Toots Bartlett and Candyman Leanorth in third.

.

Report also published in H&H magazine, on sale 5 November 2020

You may also be interested in…

Laura Collett’s exclusive reflections on Pau: ‘Now, London believes in himself’ *H&H Plus*

Laura Collett on falling at last year’s Europeans to her first five-star win at Pau

‘Ride’ around the Pau five-star cross-country track with a top 10 finisher

Last week we were treated to the sole five-star of 2020 at Pau. To give us a proper feel of

Andrew Nicholson: Courses must be correct level *H&H Plus*

Andrew Nicholson on why course-designers must stick to the required level

Osberton at Thoresby eventing report: ‘Sensitive’ Hartacker beats big field *H&H plus*

Izzy Taylor’s promising ride sets the record straight, as the jumping phases prove influential across all classes at “Thoresberton”

Piggy March dominates with a double at Keysoe international *H&H Plus*

Piggy March keeps her Cooley in blustery conditions to score and an amateur lands her first international title

Andrew Nicholson on why course-designers must stick to the required level

I’ve agreed to join a virtual discussion with the FEI on the subject, “When do you know you are ready to go up a level in eventing?” They are worried that too many uncategorised riders are moving up too quickly and before they are ready, but it’s not a black-and-white subject.

You can’t stamp on young riders for being hungry to get on; if I had an 18-year-old pupil with the correct qualifications who didn’t badger me to go up a level, I’d think they were never going to make it as a rider. If course-designers are making the cross-country tracks too soft, that isn’t the riders’ faults – and that’s why we do need parity in design and build. A course is either a four-star or it isn’t, and if half the field are going round clear inside the time, then that rather indicates that it isn’t.

This applies to national courses as well. Some of the events I have competed at this year have had some odd course-design; too many small fences with no character, which might suit some people who want an easy time, but they aren’t educational. Is it that some event organisers think that they have to have as many clear rounds as possible so that the competitors come back next year?

So many riders are obsessed with their horses having impeccable records that maybe they do flock to the easier options, but they aren’t going to learn or improve themselves or their horses that way.

South of England used to have very good courses for educating horses and riders. They weren’t easy and they had lots of natural features. I always came home thinking that if things hadn’t gone to plan, then at least I knew more than before I left that morning. I kept going back there, though, but maybe other riders didn’t, and the event lost its international status, which was a shame.

This year I thought the courses were a bit too soft, but perhaps organisers are scared that they won’t attract enough entries any other way. I wonder if organisers are busy worrying about next year’s event before they have finished this year’s?

Dauntsey, however, was a breath of fresh air. Good on Beanie Sturgis, the organiser and course-designer, for sticking to her guns. She uses what terrain she has available very effectively, and I thought her track was really good. The really difficult fence had an option that was still educational. There have been plenty of occasions when my young horses haven’t gone clear at Dauntsey, but I keep going back – I think it’s great.

I know this is a difficult time for the sport and for organisers, but do the job properly or don’t do it at all.

Texts to landlines

It was a great pity that Dauntsey lost its Saturday and Sunday to the weather, and Little Downham abandoned most of its national classes in order to run the CCI4*-S. There’s a disconnect in the information chain that needs fixing; I get bombarded with start times sent to my mobile phone, but when an event is cancelled I seem to get text messages sent to my landline. It isn’t much help when I’ve left at 4am to go to an event and a message saying it is cancelled is sent at 6.30am to my house phone…

Ref Horse & Hound; 15 October 2020

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Cillnabradden Evo bowed out of eventing last Sunday (20 September) with a victory in the CCI4*-S at Barefoot Retreats Burnham Market – this was his eighth international win with Oliver Townend and his fifth at CCI4* level.

Let’s take a moment to enjoy the highlights of Sally-Anne Egginton’s 14-year-old gelding’s career…

Cillnabradden Evo started eventing under Lucy Wiegersma and also had a few runs with Lucy’s now-husband, Padraig McCarthy, before moving to Andrew Nicholson ahead of the 2014 season.

In August 2015, Andrew Nicholson suffered a serious injury in a fall with Cillnabradden Evo in the CIC3* (now CCI4*-S) at Gatcombe. The ride passed to Oliver Townend and the pair won the CCI2* (now CCI3*-L) at Osberton in the autumn that year.

In July 2016, Cillnabradden Evo scored his second international win when he took the CIC2* (now CCI3*-S) at Burgham.

The summer of 2016 was a purple patch for Oliver and Cillnabradden Evo. After the British open championship, they won the Event Rider Masters (ERM) at Gatcombe and then finished second in the ERM at Blenheim, a result which secured Oliver’s win in the ERM series that year.

In 2018, Cillnabradden Evo took his tally of international wins to five when he took the CIC3* (now CCI4*-S) at Barborowko in Poland.

Cillnabradden Evo contested his first – and only – Badminton in May 2019.

Article continues below…

You might also be interested in:

Oliver Townend scores final win on Cillnabradden Evo at Burnham Market: ‘He‘s very special’ *H&H Plus*

Find out how the final day of action concluded in the CCI4*-S at Burnham Market – and why this was

Eventer kicked in the face calls for riders to consider hats on the ground after ‘lucky’ escape

The experienced rider wants her experience to serve as a reminder to others that things can happen when you least

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Cillnabradden Evo won a CCI3*-S section at Burgham in July this year and then completed his career with a final win – his eighth international victory – at Burnham Market in the CCI4*-S.

Happy retirement, Cillnabradden Evo!

Pictures by Peter Nixon, Alamy Stock Photo, PA, focusonhorses.com and sarahfarnsworth.co.uk

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find out more about getting the magazine delivered to your door every week. 

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Andrew Nicholson on his one worry about the new normal in eventing

It’s good to be back competing, even if – at my first event back at Aston-le-Walls – four quite well-known riders came up to me, one by one, and said, “We thought you’d retired!”

It might have been because I hadn’t been at Barbury, my local event, the weekend before; instead, I was in Switzerland training the Swiss team, which I had originally organised round Barbury, but then its date was moved back a week and I was committed to going to Switzerland.

Mind you, I wished I had retired when I got up at 3.30am last Sunday to go to Bicton. I am enjoying it, though – I thought the horses and I were going well during lockdown, but competition sharpens you up and raises the bar in a way that training at home can’t do. So I’m sitting up straighter, my reactions are quicker… and watching the other riders, at all levels, everyone has got better. The sport looks very healthy.

The competitions themselves don’t feel very different, but there are definitely some positives to a post-coronavirus sport. The showjumping warm-ups are bigger and more civilised, and being made to ride to your times has perhaps made people take a deep breath – you don’t have to jump the queue and push in ahead of your time. Even old ones like me can adapt to a new way of doing things.

I loved not having any commentary on the first day of Aston-le-Walls. By the time I returned on the final day it was back, but I admit that the peace and quiet without it was nice.

The only thing that worries me is that prize-money has been slashed. I understand why, and of course events will be struggling to find sponsorship, but fixtures are being inundated with entries, and I hope organisers are quick enough to restore prize-money levels as soon as it is possible to do so.

Feel-good factor

I’m pleased to see that Burnham Market is running Blenheim’s CCI4*-L and eight-and-nine-year-old CCI4*-S, and that Bicton will have an autumn CCI3*-L; good for organisers Alec Lochore and Helen West.

I had looked at going to Haras du Pin in France, and Pratoni and Montelibretti in Italy, but now that there are British options, it seems sensible to support them and save money. The first prize in the CCI4*-S at Haras du Pin is €750 (£684) – that’s not much more than your entry fee and stabling cost, before you think about the boat trip, so you haven’t got a hope of making a profit even if you win.

I’m lucky that I am not under pressure to run horses to get qualifications – I wouldn’t like to be an Olympic hopeful, having to keep yourself and your horses up to speed, and all the people involved in team management and selection happy for another year.

But the Olympic delay is great for my Swiss squad: they’ve got a year to get better. The Germans and the British can’t improve, but we can!

There’s a real sense of the Olympic feel-good factor there now the Swiss team has its qualification for the Games. The whole system is really buzzing and all those involved, even on the fringes, are living the dream. It’s really nice to be part of that and to see and feel the excitement the Olympics creates.

Ref Horse & Hound; 30 July 2020

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Two of the world’s most brilliant event riders discuss how they handle pressure, compare their top horses and how many they ride before breakfast time

Oliver: You’ve been to six Olympics. What do you remember of your first one, Los Angeles in 1984?

Andrew: It was great fun. I was 23, and I had no idea what to expect. We stayed in the Olympic Village. Because we rode at about 5am every day before it got too hot, we would be back in time for breakfast and we tried out all the sports facilities – the running track, the high jumps, tennis, you name it. One day we had lunch with sprinter Carl Lewis, and although I recognised him I didn’t really appreciate how special it was to bump into people like him every day. I was too young and naïve – now I’d be a bit more aware of it all.

Oliver: I’m definitely old enough to appreciate things like that!

Andrew: That was the only Olympics until London 2012 where I spent time in the Olympic Village. Usually we were staying in houses near the equestrian parks, which were always a long way away from the other events. For London we were back in the Village and it makes you realise what an Olympics is – you see wrestlers, boxers, athletes walking around at 2am because they can’t sleep, and you appreciate the pressure of an Olympics and what these athletes are putting themselves through, and that’s what it’s all about.

Oliver: An Olympic Games is the only championship in equestrianism I haven’t been to. Considering the amount I’ve won at the top level, I find it slightly embarrassing that I haven’t been to an Olympics, for whatever reason. I have sold an awful lot of horses that have gone on to go to the Olympics for other countries, and competing there yourself is just something that every athlete at the top of their sport wants to do.

Andrew: I didn’t go to Los Angeles thinking I was going to win a medal – I went there for the fun and the excitement. I was on a very young horse and I sold it straight after the showjumping to stay in America. I just had a good time. Whereas London was the first Games I went to thinking I had a really good chance, and I think that put me in a different frame of mind from the very beginning. I was very concentrated on doing well, but I also appreciated the Olympic “feel”. Between those two Games I didn’t really appreciate the Olympics in the way that I should have done, because I didn’t feel that I was going to do well.

Oliver: I suppose your early Olympic experiences were perhaps a bit like my early experiences at Europeans or World Championships. I think as you go through your career you appreciate things more and more – and hopefully you are sitting on higher-quality and better horses as you go on. It becomes a lot more interesting when you think you have half a chance of doing very well, rather than going because you were in the top few in your country, not necessarily in the top flight in the world. Now it isn’t just about ticking a box, it’s about being competitive when you get there.

Andrew: Do you feel that the pressure you have when riding some of your really top horses is different than the pressure you have on an average one? I’m sure in your mind you are telling yourself, “You can win this, you can win this,” but also you know that horses can let you down. When you have a good one, for me, the pressure is more, but it is a much better pressure.

Oliver: The whole thing is much more enjoyable on a good one, and it’s easy to judge somebody who is riding an average horse around a championship in a negative way, whereas the good ones make you look good, they make you feel like you can ride well, and obviously you end up at the top of the list rather than halfway down it. For me, going to these competitions with good horses and good chances is more exciting – yes, more pressured, but more enjoyable. It’s a different world going with a good horse rather than one you are trying to keep on its feet.

Andrew: I remember Ballaghmor Class as a young horse. He used to look very raw and angular and it reminded me of what Nereo used to look like. I would say, “This is a good one,” and people thought I was stupid. Sitting on him, he felt so handsome, but they were looking at a raw, bony, gangly thing with a massive canter. Ballaghmor Class in the early days looked like that. It was a big performance to get on him some days. Now I see him at the big events and he looks very elegant.

Oliver: For me he looks like a proper horse and would fit in at the top of any discipline. When he’s fit he could walk round the paddock at Cheltenham or canter into a showjumping grand prix and not look out of place.

Andrew: Not many modern event riders would have bought him as a youngster, wouldn’t you have thought?

Oliver: Well, no one came and bought him from me! A couple sat on him in the early days, but there were no takers.

Andrew: I started to watch your riding when you were in your late teens, because you were producing my top horse, Mr Smiffy [on whom Andrew won Burghley in 2000 and finished second in 2001]. He belonged to Paul Davies, Kenneth Clawson’s partner, and Janet Oliver, and Paul and Kenneth brought the horse to events for me to ride. I’d known Mr Smiffy since he was five and he was horrible to ride – stiff as a plank. But after I had done a few events on him, I asked Kenneth and Paul who was riding him at home, because he felt different. They said that Paul did a bit, the boy who looks after him hacks him out, and then they said that this boy Oliver gives him a jump. That’s when I started watching “this boy Oliver”. Now I produce the horses and send them to him – a role reversal!

Oliver: And I know they’ll have late flying changes and no walk. I’m only joking!

Andrew: My flying changes have improved!

Oliver: I remember watching you on TV at Badminton when I was eight or nine years old. There were two people I was really interested in watching, and those were Andrew Nicholson and Mark Todd. My dad would watch in silence – he would never talk about who was who – so I was making up my own mind, but right from the word go I was drawn to you and Mark. And the British rider I can remember being really interested in watching was Ian Stark – someone told me he was from the north, and so I thought I knew him… I liked the videos, the Thrills and Spills series, the Badminton recordings – from 1986, I could do every single word of the commentary with it on silent. Rewind, rewind, rewind, it would drive my mum and dad mad!

Andrew: I remember seeing a film of Bruce Davidson at the 1978 World Championships in Lexington. I arrived in the UK a couple of years later and was riding in a novice event, and there was Bruce. I made sure I went to watch his dressage, his showjumping, his cross-country. He spent quite a lot of time in England then and I made sure I watched him as much as I could.

I never used to have lessons – I used to go to events I was riding at and watch other riders, often on young horses. I picked up a lot by watching them on young horses which made mistakes, and seeing what they did about it. Watching other people is a very effective way to learn. Working pupils often ride the way the person they work for rides – and the rider can start picking up the pupil’s bad habits as well, through watching them. If you go to an Olympics, where everyone is there together 10 days before the event gets going, everyone’s basic riding starts to change, because they are in the company of and watching top riders every day.

Oliver: It’s interesting. At a French event not that long ago, I arrived late from another competition and had two horses to work. It was 7pm, all quiet with no one else riding. Before long 12 French lads were standing at the bottom of the arena, watching. I went and swapped horses and off they went, and when I appeared back on the second horse they came back and stood there again, watching. Not on their phones, or chatting, but watching.

I was always told that you treat people in the way that they treat you, and that’s probably why you and I get on so well. We have the same work ethic. I used to ring you up early in the morning, or at certain points during the day, to find out how many horses you had ridden that day so far.

Andrew: I used to lie in bed and tell you I was on my 10th!

Oliver: It worked because I still get up at 4.30am! I had eight ridden – young ones, mind you – by 9.45am in January.

Andrew: It was never my dream to be a rider. I only rode because I could make money out of it, not by winning prize money but by selling horses, even when I was very young. And then I learnt to shoe, so on a Monday to Friday I was a farrier at a polo place before I left school. Those sort of things got me into the horses.

Oliver: My dad was a very good horseman, and we had nothing but young horses or ones that were difficult. We started to do more and more breakers, and he built what had been his hobby into quite a big business. But he was desperate for me to get a trade behind me: “People like us don’t event, that’s for the rich crowd, we work for a living…” so he sent me to a dealer’s yard to learn how to buy and sell and break, I went to the farrier and learnt how to shoe, learnt how to do horses’ teeth. We did everything ourselves, and I’m not sure how many of the younger riders could do that now. I had a long apprenticeship in horses before I was able to be an event rider. When I left school, Dad said to me, “We’ve taken you as far as we can.”

Andrew: He was good to encourage you to go and get out, rather than try to keep you at home. Keep doing what you’re doing, and if you get to Tokyo, enjoy the Olympic dream – don’t get totally hooked up on just winning.

Ref Horse & Hound; 19 March 2020

Andrew Nicholson and Robbie Power have been riding at the top of their games for many years now. Olympian Andrew has been victorious at both Badminton and Burghley numerous times, while Robbie has wins in the Grand National and Cheltenham Gold Cup under his belt and is also a former showjumper.

The duo of top horsemen combined their expertise during the International Eventing Forum at Hartpury College on 3 February to reveal the essentials for a perfect showjumping round.

Racing vs. showjumping

“The main difference between being a jockey and a showjumper is that in jumping you are working with the same horse every day, you will probably get to ride it six or seven days a week,” says Robbie. “As a jockey, I am riding horses I have never sat on before. Therefore, it is important to ride down to the first fence in a forward rhythm and wait to see what the horse does at the fence — you have to be prepared for anything.

“By the second fence you can relax, but you have to adapt very quickly to different horses and ride as you feel.”

Andrew adds: “Horses are bred and used for different jobs but their way of thinking is the same. As a rider, you have to think on the horse’s wavelength and train him to not only do what you want, but also train him to both his strengths and weaknesses.”

Maintaining rhythm

Both Andrew and Robbie highlight that rhythm is the most important factor in a successful jumping round.

“My father, [former Irish showjumper] Con Power, would always say that in a jump-off, you win over the first three fences, not the last three,” says Robbie. “So it’s all about getting into a good rhythm once you’ve gone through the start.”

It’s similar in eventing, explains Andrew. “A forward rhythm is important, coming out of the start box across country you need to be in the rhythm you want coming into the first fence.”

Staying positive

Riding positively is also crucial in a good jumping round.

“At the start of race, I always make sure I am feeling positive vibes,” says Robbie. “If you’re feeling negative as a rider, that will only pass onto your horse. So heading to the first fence, always ride positively and get away from the fence the other side and get going — if you get a positive start, chances are, you will have a good round.”

Find a strong canter

“Maintaining a good, strong canter is important,” says Andrew. “You should be coming off the bend in a good canter and rhythm, letting the jumps come to you and you need to be looking for a stride from the rhythm you have.

“Sometimes you need to push yourself out of your comfort zone and go for that bigger canter. Across country, coming into a coffin for example, you have to be able to change your horse’s stride pattern without breaking the rhythm.”

Like this? You might also enjoy reading these:

Barrel racing and dressage: why their training techniques are more similar than you might think

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Balanced in the saddle

“As a jockey, my job is to have the horse going forward in balance. Coming into fences at 30mph, over three miles, the horse cannot be standing off every fence because that is a waste of energy,” highlights Robbie. “When a horse jumps from a nice even and rhythmical stride, he can remain in his comfort zone.

“It is the same in jumping, the rider has to sit quiet but maintain the forward momentum. The sports are similar in that you are always wanting to get from A to B as fast as possible.”

Would you like to read Horse & Hound’s independent journalism without any adverts? Join Horse & Hound Plus today and you can read all articles on HorseandHound.co.uk completely ad-free.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Five-time Burghley winner Andrew Nicholson and Grand National-winning jockey Robbie Power head the line-up at the International Eventing Forum (IEF) in 2020.

Next year’s forum takes place on Monday, 3 February at Hartpury College, Glos.

Andrew has previously spoken at the IEF, in 2015, and next year he will join up with Robbie for a demonstration and discussion on the development of “horsemanship” win the jumping phases of eventing and in racing.

Andrew is a six-time Olympian, while Robbie won young rider European team silver in showjumping before turning to racing and has competed in the Hickstead Derby.

The IEF will also feature a session with successful barrel racer Nicole Aichele and dressage rider Adam Kemp, who will exchange ideas on their disciplines, which both require balance, responsiveness and precision.

William Micklem — the author, coach, event horse breeder and inventor of the Micklem bridle — will join Gillian Carlisle from the Thoroughbred Training Centre, Lancs, for a demonstration of the process of taking a horse off the racetrack and a discussion of the associated challenges.

Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Michael Eames and martial arts expert Gary Spence round off the panel of speakers. They will discuss how to fall in a safer way.

Article continues below…

You might also be interested in:

16 pearls of wisdom from top British rider Tina Cook

The former European champion on taking her time, ex-racehorses and why horses trip

Lucinda Green: 8 top tips for cross-country schooling in an arena

One of the world's most successful event riders shares her top tips on how to train effectively for cross-country while

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

The International Eventing Forum has been running since 2004. Last year’s forum featured talks from former British dressage team member Sandy Phillips, IEF co-founder and Irish Olympian Eric Smiley, performance psychologist Charlie Unwin and Swedish event team manaager and coach Fredrik Bergendorff.

Past speakers at the forum also include double Olympic champion Mark Todd, renowned trainer Ian Woodhead, top cross-country course-designer Mike Etherington-Smith, former Olympic gold medallist David O’Connor, trainer and former top-level rider Angela Tucker, six-time Badminton winner Lucinda Green, Burghley winner Chris Burton, renowned US trainer Jimmy Wofford, golf coach and mentor David Kearney, and Diarmuid Byrne from data analytics company EquiRatings.

Tickets are £50 if purchased in advance (or £45 before the end of December).

For all the latest news analysis, competition reports, interviews, features and much more, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, on sale every Thursday

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Yesterday (9 July) we learnt that the prolific event horse Armada was put down last week, aged 20.

The imposing chestnut had a stellar eventing career, boasting 16 CCI4* (now CCI5*) completions, with both Andrew Nicholson and latterly Oliver Townend, with whom the gelding finished second at Badminton in 2014.

Owned by Paul and Diana Ridgeon, Armada had a reputation for being something of a cross-country machine, finishing in the top 10 at CCI5* level six times. He amassed 2,559 British Eventing points during his career which spanned 12 years, between 2004 and 2016 before he was retired to Andrew Nicholson’s yard.

Here we celebrate just a few of the amazing moments throughout Armada’s career…

1. Andrew and Armada at Bramham in 2008, where they finished fourth

2. Armada, aged nine, at his first Badminton with Andrew in 2008

3. Andrew and Armada finishing fourth in the CCI4*-S at Barbury in 2009

4. The pair finishing 10th in the CCI5* at Luhmühlen in 2010 — Armada made three visits to this event in this class and never finished outside of the top 10

5. Andrew piloting the chestnut to third in the CCI4*-S at Barbury in 2010

6. A return to the CCI4*-S at Barbury in 2011, this time finishing eighth

7. Finishing third in the CCI4*-S at Bramham in 2011

8. Armada at home with Oliver Townend, who rode him in the second half of his career

9. Oliver and Armada en-route to finishing eighth at Luhmühlen in 2012 — their first attempt at this level as a combination

10. Oliver and Armada in the dressage at Burghley in 2012, where they finished fourth, rounding off the pair’s first season together

11. Heading for second place at The Festival of British Eventing at Gatcombe in 2013

12. Oliver and Armada fly around Badminton in 2014, where they finished in second place

13. Oliver and Armada take eighth position at Burghley in 2014

14. At the trot-up at Badminton

15. Heading for 11th position at Badminton in 2015

16. In the dressage at Armada’s final Badminton in 2016…

17. …Where he showed his usual prowess across country…

18. …finishing in the top 25

For all the latest equestrian news and reports, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Armada, one of the best cross-country horses in eventing history, has been put down at the age of 20.

Owned by Paul and Diana Ridgeon and ridden first by Andrew Nicholson and then by Oliver Townend, the chestnut Spanish sport horse completed 16 CCI4* (now CCI5*) events, taking second place at Badminton in 2014 with Oliver. Armada finished in the top 10 at CCI4* level six times and jumped clear across country with a very fast time on numerous occasions. In total, he earned 2,559 British Eventing points.

Bred in Spain by Ramon Beca, he came to Andrew’s yard as a five-year-old, and Andrew sold him to Paul Ridgeon. Armada won his second ever event – a novice class at Gatcombe – in September 2004. He finished second in the intermediate championships at Gatcombe’s Festival of British Eventing as a seven-year-old, and was third in the CCI3* (now CCI4*-L) classes at both Punchestown and Blenheim the following year, aged just eight.

Armada and Andrew were eighth at Burghley in 2008, and achieved a host of other top placings at the highest level, but Andrew and Paul offered the ride to Oliver at the end of 2011.

“He had unbelievable power and an amazing length of stride, which made the cross-country, especially in his early days, feel effortlessly easy,” said Andrew. “You had to sit on him across country to be able to appreciate the power and the feeling you got.”

Oliver rode the son of the thoroughbred stallion Fines to eighth place on their first attempt at CCI4* level together at Luhmühlen in 2012, and were fourth at Burghley that autumn. Their biggest victory was in the CIC3* (now CCI4*-S) at Burnham Market in 2014.

As Armada became older, he became less careful in the showjumping arena; had his prowess in that phase at a three-day event matched his brilliance across country, he would have achieved even more success at four-star level.

Oliver said: “He had a wild side; he could get excited very easily and his blood boiled quickly, but he was very quiet and gentle outside a competition environment and at home. He was very sensitive, and almost timid until you put him on a cross-country course.

“He was a different class across country. You couldn’t have built a track too big for him. Very few horses ever made the time in the Open Championships at Gatcombe then, and in 2013 he was 10 seconds inside and I was slowing down for the final half-minute. I remember him doing a five-stride combination in three strides there so easily. In his heyday, you could do anything on him – I’ve never ridden one like him across country.

“The nicest thing was that you never once had to squeeze, even round the biggest tracks. I never had to say ‘go’.

“And, with a lot of patience, we got his dressage up to being not far off the lead at CCI5* level. He had everything – he was almost verging on having too much talent for his sensitivity.”

Continues below…

Oliver Townend reveals 2016 was Armada’s last Badminton

The 17-year-old gelding has completed five cross-country clears at the four-star

‘He’s been phenomenal’: celebrating the end of Armada’s four-star career in pictures

Following Oliver Townend's announcement over the weekend that this year's Badminton was Armada's final four-star competition, we take a look

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Paul Ridgeon said: “Owning Armada was always exciting – you never quite knew what was going to happen! The highlight of his career was when he finished second in terrible conditions at Badminton, having made an enormous cross-country course look very easy. He became a very popular horse, probably because he was so thrilling to watch across country – I’ll never have a cross-country horse like him.

“We retired him back to Andrew’s place three years ago, and the decision to have him put down was taken last week. He had lost a lot of weight and had arthritis, and it was the kindest thing to do. I didn’t want him to suffer and it was the right time.”

For all the latest news analysis, competition reports, interviews, features and much more, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, on sale every Thursday.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Andrew Nicholson continued his domination at Barbury International Horse Trials when claiming his sixth big win at the venue in the CCI4*-S on Swallow Springs today (Sunday, 7 July).

The top New Zealand rider was sitting in equal sixth overnight following the dressage, alongside eventual third Alexander Bragg (Hester), with a score of 29.4 coming into the final day of the short-format competition.

Young rider Mollie Summerland had set a hot pace in the feature class when posting an impressive 23.8 dressage aboard Charly Van Ter Heiden. The 21-year-old maintained a cool head throughout the three phases, however one pole down showjumping saw them settle for second 1.2 penalties behind the winning pair.

Andrew was full of praise for 11-year-old Swallow Springs — a flashy grey son of Chillout who has 944 British Eventing points — and who is owned by Diana and Paul Ridgeon. He even compared him to his three-time Burghley winner Avebury, who also won at Barbury four-times.

“Swallow Springs has always been a very good horse and he’s been consistent at winning prizes,” said Andrew.

“I trust him a little bit more now whereas before I used to protect him too much — now I can put pressure on him. He felt like Avebury going round the cross-country today, he’s got a stack of speed.”

Andrew also claimed Saturday’s CCI3*-S section B on the eight-year-old son of Meneusekal, As Is, who is owned by Deborah Sellar. The pair fended off Piggy French and Brookfield Inocent by one penalty.

Piggy was the victor of CCI3*-S section A on John and Chloe Perry and Alison Swinburn’s Brookfield Quality — a ride of Piggy’s since April this year.

Adam Harvey and Picasso V took the runner-up spot after rolling a pole in the showjumping, finishing 1.8 penalties in arrears.

Don’t miss the full report from the Barbury International Horse Trials in the 11 July issue of Horse & Hound.

For all the latest news analysis, competition reports, interviews, features and much more, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, on sale every Thursday.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Laura Collett and Mr Bass (pictured top) posted the best dressage score at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials this morning (3 May). They scored 27.6 and lie in sixth.

Please wait for the video interview with Laura to load below…

“I’m delighted, he tried so hard for me in there,” Laura said of her own, Keith Scott’s and Nick How’s 11-year-old Badminton first-timer. “He doesn’t find this phase easy as he’s built like a wheelbarrow. He’s never been in an arena like this one with the atmosphere and although I rode backwards into our first flying-change, which I can’t afford to do with him [the pair scored fours from all three judges for this movement], he’s come a long way on the flat.”

2017 Badminton winner Andrew Nicholson has gone into eighth with another Badminton first-timer in the form of Swallow Springs. The eye-catching 11-year-old grey gelding posted an accurate test to score 27.8.

Badminton final scores

Please wait for the video interview with Andrew to load below…

“He’s still quite young but is getting stronger and better all the time,” said Andrew. “He’s stepped up from Burghley last year [where the pair were third], and he feels like he can carry himself better now, which helps keep him calm and relaxed.”

The final combination to break into the top 10 is 23-year-old Will Furlong, who rides the 12-year-old mare, Collien P 2. They sit on 30.2, which is good enough for 10th at this stage.

“She was fantastic,” said Will. “She stayed with me and was a lot more relaxed in there than she has been in the past. There were no obvious mistakes and there’s still a lot more to come from her.”

Oliver Townend maintains pole position riding Cillnabradden Evo. His currently unassailable score of 19.7 hasn’t been threatened by any of the combinations who competed in the first phase this morning.

In fact the top five of Tom McEwen (Toldedo De Kerser, 24.7), Piggy French (Vanir Kamira, 26), Kitty King (Vendredi Biats, 27.2 and Millie Dumas (Artistiek, 27.3) remains unchanged from yesterday’s competition.

Article continues below…

You might also be interested in:

‘It’s very clever’: find out what riders make of the 2019 Badminton cross-country track

Find out what some of the world’s top event riders, such as Pippa Funnell, Tina Cook and Nicola Wilson make

Badminton 2019 cross-country course — which fence would you most like to jump?

Take a virtual walk around this year’s Badminton cross-country course — what do you think of it?

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

The final afternoon of dressage commences at 2pm.

Pick up this week’s magazine (dated 2 May) for the full H&H Badminton form guide and check back to the H&H website for more dressage news and information ahead of the cross-country tomorrow.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

The Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials dressage times have been released for the Thursday and Friday of competition (2 and 3 May).

The first pair, Pippa Funnell and Majas Hope, will enter the dressage arena at 9.30am tomorrow.

Pippa has chosen Billy Walk On as her second horse, from her four entries, and he will be one of the last to start at 4.36pm on Friday.

Oliver Townend was the other rider who had to make a final choice between his entries this week and he will start on Cillnabradden Evo (9.54am on Thursday) and Ballaghmor Class (3.56pm on Friday). After his win at Kentucky last week, Oliver is the live contender in the Rolex Grand Slam, the big-money bonus given to any rider who can win Kentucky, Badminton and Burghley consecutively.

Combinations numbered up to 53 will do their dressage tomorrow, with the rest of the field following on Friday, when the dressage again starts at 9.30am.

Badminton final scores

Full times

Among the home side favourites, Laura Collett and Mr Bass will trot down the centreline at 11.42am on Friday, while Piggy French and Vanir Kamira’s time is 2.16pm on Thursday. Nicola Wilson and 2017 European individual bronze medallist Bulana will head into the arena at 11.26pm on Thursday.

New Zealand’s Tim Price has 10.18am on Thursday (Bango) and 3.48am on Friday (Ringwood Sky Boy) as his times, while compatriot Andrew Nicholson will kick off his campaign with Swallow Springs at 10.10am on Friday.

H&H’s first-timer blogger David Britnell will begin his Badminton on Friday, at 10.42am, with Continuity.

The guinea pig rider, who is not competing but performs a dressage test before the first horse to help the judges get their eye in and test the event systems, will be double young rider individual medallist Alex Kennedy, with new ride Global Milchem JJ at 9.10am.

Article continues below…

You might also be interested in:

What will the weather be like for Badminton Horse Trials 2019?

Find out whether it's going to be a wellies or suncream kind of year — or if you'll be needing

Cillnabradden Evo and Oliver Townend have 10% chance of Badminton win, says new EquiRatings prediction tool

A new tool from the equestrian data experts EquiRatings predicts the chances of every pair in a competition of winning,

Badminton first-timers: Isabel English — ‘we called him Rat to start with as I fell off so much in the first three years’

Meet the horse who tested his rider’s patience and perseverance for the first few years

Two combinations withdrawn at first Badminton trot-up, plus one loose horse

Find out how the first horse inspection unfolded at the first horse inspection at Badminton

Read our full Badminton form guide in this week’s issue of Horse & Hound (issue dated 2 May 2019).

Our bumper 25-page Badminton report will be in our 9 May issue, including opinion from Mark Phillips and Peter Storr.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Tim Price took his first four-star title on British soil this afternoon (Sunday, 2 September) when he won the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials.

“To win here has always been a dream since I was watching Andrew Nicholson, Mark Todd and Blyth Tait on television when we were kids,” he said.

“I took inspiration from that, but being here and in this position is not something I’d have predicted. I thought I was just good at breaking in horses and sitting on tricky ones. To be here and win is beyond my wildest dreams.”

The New Zealand rider won with a fence in hand to confirm his overnight lead, showjumping clear on Varenna Allen’s Ringwood Sky Boy. Historically the horse has not been the easiest showjumper and Tim said he benefited from the fact that course-designer Richard Jeffery had deliberately made the time allowed quite lenient.

“That allowed me to ride my horse’s balance before the clock,” said Tim.

The rider showjumped clear on his first horse, Bango, who finished 10th and said he learnt from riding the difficult six-stride distance through the line from the upright at fence seven to the UK Sport oxer at eight.

“It was riding quite short this morning, which people weren’t reading, so I jumped in and made a proper connection for a few strides, then found myself off fence eight although Bango is a big-striding horse,” he said. “So that reminded me if I made a nice six strides it should be ok.”

Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class, the defending champions, held onto second place and were best of the Brits despite hitting the first part of the double at fence five.

“Ballaghmor Class is as special a horse as I’ve ever ridden and for me this week he turned into a professional,” said Oliver. “I couldn’t be happier with his performance — he felt completely with me in all three phases.”

Andrew Nicholson’s clear on Swallow Springs moved him up from fifth to third. Sarah Bullimore also rose two places to finish fourth with a clear on Reve Du Rouet.

Vanir Kamira hit the gate at fence four so dropped from third to fifth with Piggy French, while four faults for Harry Meade and Away Crusing at the troublesome UK Sport oxer at fence eight sent them from fourth to sixth.

Article continues below…

You might also be interested in:

Two in the top 10 withdrawn and a tense moment for top British rider in Burghley’s final horse inspection

Six horses that completed cross-country yesterday did not present at the final horse inspection, with just one sent to the

‘It was fun out there’: Burghley leaderboard completely changes after cross-country day

It was an action-packed day of cross-country at Burghley — find out what happened...

Lissa Green withdraws from Burghley before cross-country

The daughter of twice Burghley winner Lucinda Green is rerouting her ride to Pau four-star

Richard Jones (Alfies Clover) landed seventh with a clear and Willa Newton was similarly fault-free to take eighth on Chance Remark.

Ireland’s Elizabeth Power incurred four faults at the second part of the treble at fence 11 on Soladoun, dropping two places to ninth, while Tim Price’s second horse Bango, who also went clear, rounded out the top 10.

Irish rider Ciaran Glynn was the best Burghley first-timer, finishing 14th on November Night with four showjumping faults.

Six pairs had fence eight down this afternoon. The one-stride distance from fence 11a to 11b was also tight and this led to the oxer at fence 11b also falling six times in the afternoon session.

Full report from Burghley, including exclusive expert comment and full analysis of every phase, in this week’s Horse & Hound magazine, out Thursday, 6 September.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

The leaderboard has undergone a complete reshuffle after the cross-country phase at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (29 August-2 September).

The new leader is New Zealand’s Tim Price, who put in a slick round aboard Ringwood Sky Boy (pictured below) to stop the clock just one second over the optimum time of 11min11sec.

“I did what I could and that was good enough for me,” said Tim, who was stung by a wasp on the way to the last fence. “I’m elated for my horse — he’s like my best friend and it was fun out there. The conditions were great and I’m thrilled for Verenna Allen, who owns him with me, as she has been behind us the whole way.”

Tim’s score of 27.3 is just .6 of a penalty ahead of second-placed Oliver Townend on last year’s winner Ballaghmor Class (pictured below).

“My horse was unbelievable — I really didn’t know if he would get the trip at the speed I knew we had to go,” said Oliver, who is also 10th and 13th on MHS King Joules and Cooley SRS respectively. “He felt like a different horse altogether today compared to last year, where he was a bit naïve. But this year he kept digging deep for me and was clever.”

Piggy French is in third with Vanir Kamira, aboard whom she was second last year. They were just three seconds over the optimum time and sit on a score of 31.1.

“She’s a fab little mare and I think you could strap a monkey to her and she’d go round,” laughed Piggy, who now sits on a score of 31.1. “You do have to keep her balanced though as naturally she likes to run on her head, but she’s such a game little girl. I’m now kicking myself that I was three seconds over. She was off the bridle at the Trout Hatchery, but I filled her up with air at the top of the hill after the Cottesmore Leap and she flew home.”

Harry Meade is fourth with Away Cruising on 31.1, with Andrew Nicholson fifth on four-star first-timer Swallow Springs, who was just one of four combinations to finish inside the optimum time. The others were Ireland’s Elizabeth Power, who was 37th after the dressage and is now in seventh on Soladun and Tina Cook and Star Witness who have enjoyed a meteoric rise from 62nd to 12th — both of which horses are thoroughbreds.

Andrew Nicholson is eighth on his other ride, Jet Set IV, with Richard Jones ninth on Alfies Clover, who put in an immaculate round.

Dressage leader Mark Todd dropped completely out of contention when he suffered a fall with Kiltubrid Rhapsody at the seemingly innocuous Gurkha Kukri, a let-up fence a third of the way round the course. Horse and rider walked away.

The final horse inspection gets under way tomorrow morning before the final showjumping phase.

You can read the full Burghley report in next week’s Horse & Hound magazine (Thursday 6 September).

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Defending champion Oliver Townend has decided which of his five entries he will ride at this week’s Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (30 August-2 September).

Oliver has withdrawn Cooley Master Class and Ulises, so his rides will be Ballaghmor Class, Cooley SRS and MHS King Joules.

The world number one will be the pathfinder on Tom Joule’s 13-year-old MHS King Joules, who was seventh in the US four-star at Kentucky in April.

Cooley SRS, the 11-year-old Badminton runner-up who belongs to Angela Hislop, will start at number 53.

He will be the last rider on course as number 107 with last year’s Burghley winner Ballaghmor Class, an 11-year-old who belongs to Angela, Karyn Shuter and Val Ryan.

Andrew Nicholson has also narrowed his three entries down to two starters. He has withdrawn Teseo and will start on Jet Set IV (number 15) and Swallow Springs (number 98).

There have also been a few more last-minute withdrawals from the event, which kicks off with the first horse inspection this afternoon (Wednesday 29 August).

British first-timer Will Furlong has withdrawn Collien P 2, saying that the stifle wound she incurred on the cross-country at Haras du Pin earlier in August has not healed enough for her to compete and he hopes to head to Pau in October.

New Zealand rider Caroline Powell has pulled out Up Up And Away, although she still competes with On The Brash.

Article continues below…

You might also be interested in:

Laura Collett withdraws Mr Bass from Burghley: ‘Roll on Badminton 2019’

The star British rider will miss Burghley with her top horse after announcing today that she is withdrawing him from

Top-10 contenders among latest Burghley withdrawals as final line-up takes shape

Several horses who could have featured at the sharp end have been pulled out of this week's four-star, while Oliver

Michael Jung withdraws from WEG eventing; reserve called up for German squad

The German superstar will miss out on riding at a championship for the first time since he made his squad

British riders Ros Canter, Tina Cook and Gemma Tattersall have officially withdrawn their World Equestrian Games (WEG) rides Allstar B, Billy The Red and Arctic Soul.

Bill Levett has also withdrawn Lassban Diamond Lift, who he will ride on the Australian squad at WEG.

Full Burghley preview in the Horse & Hound currently on sale (dated 23 August) and don’t miss our bumper report in 6 September issue.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

A number of horses who could have finished in the prize money are among the latest withdrawals from this week’s Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (30 August-2 September).

Britain’s Sarah Cohen has withdrawn Treason, who finished 12th at Burghley in 2016.

Euro Prince, the ride of Ireland’s Clare Abbott has also been pulled out of the event. He finished 13th at the event last year.

Tom McEwen has withdrawn both his rides, unsurprisingly — Strike Smartly started at Blair CCI3* last week instead, finishing second, and Toledo De Kerser has been selected for the British squad for the World Equestrian Games (WEG) two weeks after Burghley.

Chris Burton has also now withdrawn Cooley Lands, who he will ride on the Australian squad at WEG.

Another Cooley horse, Cooley Earl, has also come out of the draw as Georgie Strang has taken her ride out of contention.

Charlotte Bacon will have to wait for another year to make her Burghley debut after withdrawing Last Touch, while US competitor Boyd Martin will not bring forward Steady Eddie.

Fans will be sad not to see Becky Woolven’s characterful Charlton Down Riverdance, who was 17th here on their shared debut in 2016.

Article continues below…

You might also be interested in:

Burghley first-timers: Tom Rowland — ‘If you don’t get the tack off him quickly, he rolls’

Meet the ‘cocky’ and sometimes ‘infuriating’ Burghley-bound horse that was found on the hunting field in Ireland

How to watch Burghley Horse Trials 2025 live streams and on TV wherever you are

Burghley first-timers: Sam Ecroyd — ‘I wouldn’t want to be tackling my first four-star on any other horse’

Meet the youngest competitor at this year’s Burghley as he prepares to make his four-star debut

Mark Todd has now withdrawn Leonidas II, so he will compete on Kiltubrid Rhapsody and NZB Campino.

His fellow New Zealander, Andrew Nicholson, still has three horses in the draw — Teseo, Swallow Springs and Jet Set IV — but he will only start on two of them.

Last year’s winner, Oliver Townend, still has five horses in the mix, but will only start on three, so he has to choose which ones out of Ballaghmor Class, Cooley SRS, Cooley Master Class, MHS King Joules and Ulises. He said last week that the horses would have a gallop on Monday (yesterday) and a jump today before he made his decision.

Full Burghley preview, including course walk with Blyth Tait and complete form guide, in the issue of H&H now on sale (dated 23 August).

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Defending champion Oliver Townend has entered five horses for the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (30 Aug-2 September) this year.

Oliver’s entries include last year’s winner Ballaghmor Class and Cooley SRS and Cooley Master Class, all three of whom are also on the British long-list for the World Equestrian Games (WEG). The world number one also has MHS King Joules and Ulises on the roster for Burghley.

It is unlikely that Oliver will actually ride more than three horses in the competition, although Burghley does not put a strict limit on how many horses a rider can start on, saying instead that it is “subject to the organisers’ discretion” and will be confirmed after close of entries (last Friday, 27 July).

Tina Cook also looks to have a strong hand for the autumn four-star, with her WEG long-listed horse Billy The Red entered as well as Calvino II and Star Witness.

Andrew Nicholson, who has won Burghley five times, is entered with a trio of horses in Jet Set IV, Swallow Springs and Teseo.

New Zealand’s Mark Todd is the other rider entered on more than two horses, with Kiltubrid Rhapsody, Leonidas II and NZB Campino currently in the mix, although it is almost certain he will ride one of the horses at WEG instead.

Ninety-nine horses representing nine different nations have been entered for Burghley in total.

Previous Burghley winners in the mix besides Oliver, Mark and Andrew include Australia’s Chris Burton on Cooley Lands — one of the two horses he has on the Australian short-list for WEG — New Zealand’s Caroline Powell, who brings forward Up Up And Away and On The Brash, and Pippa Funnell (Majas Hope).

Article continues below…

You might also be interested in:

Laura Collett’s rising star Mr Bass plus Lissa Green among early entries for Burghley

Top names and first-timers are among those already entered for the British autumn four-star, including Laura Collett’s Luhmühlen runner-up Mr

Hazel Towers’ Burghley first-timer blog: if it’s not broken, then why try to fix it?

Hazel brings us up to speed with her Burghley preparations

Celebrating the Burghley Horse Trials winners 2000-2024: in pictures

The horses who finished second (Vanir Kamira with Piggy French), third (Arctic Soul under Gemma Tattersall) and fourth (Toledo De Kerser ridden by Tom McEwen) at Burghley last year have all been entered again, but all are also on the British long-list for WEG so their participation will depend on whether they get the British squad call-up.

The other British WEG-listed horses also entered for Burghley are Bulana (Nicola Wilson), Away Cruising (Harry Meade), Reve Du Rouet (Sarah Bullimore), Mr Bass (Laura Collett) and Allstar B (Ros Canter).

A number of British first-timers are also entered, including H&H blogger Hazel Towers, who has had to withdraw Simply Smart but still has Simply Clover in the mix. And the crowd will be delighted to see favourites such as Charlton Down Riverdance (Becky Woolven), Ivar Gooden (Imogen Murray) and Euro Prince (Clare Abbott) back at Burghley.

H&H’s bumper Burghley preview, including course-walk with former winner Blyth Tait and full form guide, will be on sale on Thursday, 23 August.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Are you going to the St James's Place Barbury Horse Trials this weekend (5-8 July)? If not, why not? Here are some great reasons why you should

1. Upsilon returns. Last year’s Barbury Event Rider Masters (ERM) winner, ridden by France’s Tom Carlile, is one of the most admired event horses in the world and it’s always a thrill to see him on British soil. The lovely grey stallion has had a few blips on his record since last year — he didn’t finish the cross-country at the 2017 Europeans and had run-outs at the ERM at Arville last month — so it will be interesting to see if he can return to form at Barbury.

2. Tom Carlile is just one of nine riders who have previously won ERM classes who compete in the section this time. The others are: Oliver Townend (Cillnabradden Evo), Gemma Tattersall (Pamero 4), Izzy Taylor (Director General), Andrew Nicholson (Swallow Springs), Astier Nicolas (Vinci De La Vigne), Sarah Cohen (Treason), Alex Hua Tian (Don Geniro) and Chris Burton (Polystar I). The riders will fight it out for a prize pool of £50,000 in this class.

3. The Shetland Pony Grand National comes to Barbury for the first time on Sunday (8 July). Who doesn’t love to see those ponies and their tiny jockeys fly round the miniature National Hunt fences?

4. Andrew Nicholson will aim to take his Barbury CIC3* winning record to six. He has won four times on the late Avebury and once on Nereo. This time he rides Swallow Springs in the ERM and Yacabo BK in the other CIC3*.

5. Three days of cross-country, with excellent viewing and a new feel to the tracks. Former Olympic and world champion Blyth Tait designs the novice course for the first time, while Mark Phillips’ CIC2* and CIC3* tests have a fresh new layout, with the ERM course finishing in the main arena — this will make for maximum excitement as the reverse order cross-country comes to a head.

6. TFour horses long-listed for Britain’s World Equestrian Games (WEG) squad are competing, so you can check them out before they potentially fly off to the USA in September. Tina Cook will ride last year’s European team gold medallist Billy The Red in the ERM section and needs to show some form after a slightly chequered spring campaign. Nicola Wilson and Bulana take on the regular CIC3* and will also hope for a change of fortune. Meanwhile Toledo De Kerser (Tom McEwen) and Away Cruising (Harry Meade) both have their first runs since Badminton in the CIC2*.

7. The JCB Champions’ Challenge at 1.45pm on Saturday, a relay race over jumps in the main arena in aid of the Injured Jockeys Fund, is always great fun to watch. Badminton and Luhmühlen winner Jonelle Price heads up the eventers’ squad and she is joined by her husband Tim, Lissa Green and H&H columnist Mark Todd. The jockeys’ team consists of three-time champion jump jockey Richard Johnson, Tom Scudamore, Wayne Hutchinson and Sam Twiston-Davies.

Article continues below…

You might also be interested in:

Long-list for British eventing team for World Equestrian Games released

The senior selectors have given the first indication of who might make the British eventing team for WEG in Tryon,

#WearGreenForJonty: 48 fabulous photos of the equestrian world supporting Jonty Evans

Check out riders and their connections around the world as they #WearGreenForJonty to show support for injured event rider Jonty

Laura Collett takes on new top-level rides as young British eventer moves to Ireland

The promising event horses will now be piloted by Laura Collett, as their previous jockey has taken up a new

8. Barbury has a new “kidzone”, with a mini-zoo, including meerkats. There’s also have-a-go dog agility, a fun dog show and a dog agility masterclass demonstration from recent world silver medallist Anthony Clark and his top dog Protest.

9. #WearGreenForJonty — riders and supporters will be out in force wearing green T-shirts, wristbands, cross-country colours and more to show that Jonty Evans, the Irish eventer who suffered a serious brain injury in a fall last month, is constantly in their thoughts.

Don’t miss the full report from Barbury Horse Trials in next week’s issue of Horse & Hound magazine (12 July 2018).

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Andrew Nicholson has criticised the decision not to stop him after he was chased by a loose dog during his showjumping round at Equi-Trek Bramham International Horse Trials.

The New Zealand eventer was contesting the CCI3* showjumping on Yacabo BK on Sunday (10 June) when he became aware the dog was at his horse’s heels.

“It must have been very close to his hind legs because he was trying to kick it,” Andrew told H&H. “It amazed me that the judges didn’t ring the bell to stop me.”

The combination lowered one pole in the final line, but the judges removed the penalties.

“The treble was the last fence and as I landed from the second-last one, there was at least one man running round inside the ring trying to catch the dog,” Andrew said.

“I presumed he’d caught it because there was a lot of cheering and clapping, and I turned to the treble – and then the dog appeared between the horse and the fence.

“Yacabo had to canter over the dog and jump a big oxer into the treble, and that was the fence he had down.”

Andrew said he understands that “dogs get away”, and it is the fact he was not stopped that concerns him more.

Continues below…

Top eventer jumps clear despite loose dog at his heels

The rider praised his young horse, who stayed focused to jump a clear on holding ground

Should dogs be banned from horse trials?

Dogs at horse trials have long caused arguments, but organisers of major events have told H&H they are not considering

‘It’s not acceptable’: four-star rider chased by dog at Gatcombe

Olivia Wilmot was riding in the advanced section at the Festival of British Eventing when the incident occurred. Please note

“I kept thinking I couldn’t have heard the bell but the clock was still ticking,” he said. “It was downright dangerous. It’s all about horse welfare now; what would have happened if he’d got a pole between his legs and broken a leg going into the oxer?

“At one point I had the man running towards me trying to catch the dog – he was more of a problem at one stage – and this is an eight-year-old horse, competing at that level. I couldn’t work out why I wasn’t stopped.

“I’m sure some people will say I could have stopped, but I’ve been brought up that you keep going until you hear the bell ring.”

Former Badminton-winning eventer Jane Holderness-Roddam, who was on the event’s ground jury, told H&H that under FEI rules it is down to the rider to pull up and raise his hand to ask for the clock to be stopped.

“Until he turned to the last fence, it wasn’t considered dangerous,” she said. “The dog was running around, which wasn’t ideal, but it was only when he turned into the treble, and the dog crossed in front of the rider, that it was dangerous, in our opinion. That’s why we took the penalties away, in the spirit of the sport.”

Mrs Holderness-Roddam pointed out that the president of the ground jury was Les Smith, whom H&H has approached for comment.

For all the latest news analysis, competition reports, interviews, features and much more, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, on sale every Thursday.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Julia Krajewski showjumped clear to take the Equi-Trek CCI3* at the Equi-Trek Bramham Horse Trials this afternoon (Sunday, 10 June).

Julia and Hilmer Meyer-Kulenkampff’s Chipmunk FRH had two fences in hand entering the arena, but it never looked like she would need them and she finished the winner with 8.6 penalties in hand.

“When I was walking down I thought it would be really nice if he jumped clear, but he doesn’t always, so if he doesn’t, whatever,” she said. “I knew I had a fence in hand but I wasn’t sure about the other one, so I was just trying to go clear.”

“Obviously I’m delighted, the week couldn’t have been any better for me.”

Behind her, there was a dramatic leaderboard shake-up. The overnight runner-up, France’s Karim-Florent Laghouag had the first fence down on Entebbe De Hus to drop to fifth. And Oratorio II was fighting William Fox-Pitt so ended up lowering fences 4a and eight, sending him from third after cross-country to 11th.

A clear round propelled Andrew Nicholson and Diana Ridgeon’s Swallow Springs from fourth to second for New Zealand.

“He can jump well, but he’s been a bit green with the people in the showjumping in the past, but today he felt more secure and grown up,” said Andrew.

Australia’s Bill Levett also moved up two places with a clear and finished third on Elizabeth Murdoch’s Lassban Diamond Lift.

“At a one-day event he can be a bit fresh and keen and have a rail, but today he was settled and showed what he can do when he’s relaxed,” said Bill.

Article continues below…

You might also be interested in:

Emily King wins Bramham under-25 CCI3*: ‘I couldn’t be happier with Dargun’

Emily King put in a faultless showjumping round under pressure to claim top spot in the national under-25 eventing championship

Julia Krajewski leads after Bramham CCI3* cross-country; William Fox-Pitt up to third

The young German impressed over Ian Stark’s cross-country track today to maintain her top spot, while William Fox-Pitt moved up

Ros Canter leads Bramham CIC3* despite major bridle malfunction

The British rider managed to shed her bridle as she was leaving the arena after her test, but still scored

Kitty King finished fourth and best of the Brits with a clear on Vendredi Biats, who belongs to Diana Bown, Sally Lloyd-Baker, Samantha Wilson and Sally Eyre. Richard Jones (Alfies Clover) and Gemma Tattersall (Santiago Bay) finished on their dressage scores for seventh and eighth, while Francis Whittington (Nimrod II) made it four home side riders in the top 10 in 10th.

Full report from Bramham in H&H magazine next week (issue dated 14 June).

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Julia Krajewski put in a faultless cross-country round at the Equi-Trek Bramham Horse Trials this morning (Saturday, 9 June) to maintain her lead in the Equi-Trek CCI3*.

The German rider and her mount Chipmunk, owned by Hilmer Meyer-Kulenkampff, were one of 10 pairs in this class to come home inside the 10min 24sec optimum time over Ian Stark’s cross-country course.

“He felt like he was enjoying it, his ears were pricked to the last,” said Julia. “I could take my time to set him up at the fences and give him one or two easier minutes.”

Julia now has a fence in hand going into tomorrow’s showjumping. France’s Karim-Florent Laghouag finished 1sec over the time today on Entebbe De Hus and moved up from third after dressage to second.

“He was terrific and galloped well. All the strides came up exactly as I wanted them to,” said Karim.

A clear inside the time also elevated William Fox-Pitt and the syndicate-owned Oratorio II into third, from sixth after the first phase. William — who was awarded an MBE in The Queen’s Birthday Honours last night — is now the best Brit in this class.

“He was a good boy — he’s still a green horse, but he has endless stamina and could have gone round twice,” said William. “My main concern was whether I’d be able to hold him and show him the fences, as he can be argumentative. But he was honest today and looking for the flags.”

Andrew Nicholson and Swallow Springs hold fourth for New Zealand with 1.6 time-faults today, while a clear in the time from Australia’s Bill Levett raised him and Lassban Diamond Lift from 10th to fifth. Kitty King moved up one spot to sixth with 2.4 time-faults on Vendredi Biats.

France’s Matthiew Vanlandeghem incurred 6.4 time-penalties today with the grey Trouble Fete ENE HN and so dropped from second to eighth. Similarly Pippa Funnell and Billy Walk On added 7.6 to their dressage score and so slipped from fourth to 15th. Pippa pulled up her first ride, MGH Grafton Street, after two early run-outs.

Article continues below…

You might also be interested in:

Emily King held on course but retains top spot in under-25 CCI3* at Bramham

The young British rider went clear inside the time to keep the lead heading into tomorrow's showjumping in the under-25

Ros Canter leads Bramham CIC3* despite major bridle malfunction

The British rider managed to shed her bridle as she was leaving the arena after her test, but still scored

Horse collapses and dies on cross-country at Bramham

A horse who had competed at four-star and proved an able schoolmaster for a young rider collapsed on the cross-country

Nicola Wilson, 11th after dressage, had the save of the day in avoiding a fall when One Two Many had an awkward jump over the first bird nest at the Womble Bond Dickinson Pond (21b) but she then retired.

More updates from Bramham online tomorrow and full report in next week’s magazine (issue dated 14 June).

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Germany’s Julia Krajewski retained her lead from yesterday at the close of dressage in the Equi-Trek CCI3* at the Equi-Trek Bramham Horse Trials.

The Olympic team silver medallist scored 19.4 and remains more than five marks ahead of the field on Chipmunk FRH, owned by Hilmer Meyer-Kulenkampff.

“I know he can do a good test but to have him that good in the big atmosphere is extra special,” she said. “He travelled well and has given me a good feeling the past two days — normally I’m complaining about something but the only thing I’ve had to practise is my halts.”

“It’s nice to enjoy a test — it’s a good sign if you can smile during it!”

France’s Matthiew Vanlandeghem held onto second place on 25.2 with Trouble Fete ENE HN and he was joined in the top three by compatriot Karim Florent Laghouag, who put in the best test today to score 25.9 with the experienced Entebbe De Hus, his team gold medal-winning partner from the Rio Olympics. The horse was castrated in December last year having competed as a stallion until now.

“We missed two flying changes which he usually does fantastically every time so I was hoping for better, but the trot was very good. I’m aiming to win!” he said.

Pippa Funnell’s test this afternoon with Barbara and Nicholas Walkinshaw’s Billy Walk On earned her 26 and best of the Brits in fourth after this phase.

“I’m really chuffed with him and it’s nice to feel a really good score [like Julia’s] is in reach if he hadn’t had the immature mistakes,” she said.

Andrew Nicholson holds fifth on Swallow Springs, with William Fox-Pitt in sixth on Oratorio II.

“He’s not always delivered, although he’s promised loads. He’s never tense and silly, but he can be unfocused. I’m happy with how he focused in the atmosphere today and that he wasn’t a clown,” said William.

Article continues below…

You might also be interested in:

Ros Canter leads Bramham CIC3* despite major bridle malfunction

The British rider managed to shed her bridle as she was leaving the arena after her test, but still scored

Emily King tops under-25 CCI3* at Bramham after dressage: ‘I’m super pleased’

The young British rider cruised into the lead this afternoon with an elegant test on the chestnut Dargun

Olympic champion back on British team after 10-year absence

The Olympic gold medallist will don team colours again to represent Britain in a Nations Cup, with team-mates including Ben

Kitty King was left slightly frustrated by Vendredi Biats, who “uses things like cameras as an excuse” and put in a big leap at the C end of the arena during the trot-work.

“He’s more than capable and can do some really nice work, but he definitely wasn’t really with me today, which was a shame,” she said.

Check back for a report on the under-25 class at Bramham on horseandhound.co.uk later today and more updates over the weekend, plus full report in next week’s magazine (issue dated 14 June).

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

“By performing year after year at this level and at the top, not just making up the numbers, he showed unbelievable toughness,” said Andrew Nicholson about Deborah Sellar’s 18-year-old gelding Nereo, who he retired at Badminton on Sunday (6 May 2018). “I’ve done it all with him.”

We take a look back at the 2017 Badminton winner’s star-studded career in pictures

2009: as a nine-year-old the 16.2hh heads for glory in the CCI3* at Bramham

2010: heading for team and individual bronze at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky

2012: in the Olympic spotlight in London, where the pair took home team bronze and finished in fourth place individually

2012: Andrew Nicholson and Nereo clock a win at Pau CCI4*

Badminton final scores

2013: the pair finish in the runner-up spot at Burghley, having also finished in second place at the four-star in 2011 as well

2016: on their way to clinching the Event Rider Masters title at Barbury

2016: for the third time, the pair finish second at Burghley

2016: at home at Andrew’s Westwood Stud, Wiltshire

2017: heading for victory at Badminton 2017. After 33 years of trying, it is with Nereo that Andrew lifts the Badminton trophy at last

2018: at the first horse inspection at this year’s Badminton Horse Trials

2018: the pair head for a clear cross-country at Badminton, despite losing a shoe

2018: a sad farewell — Andrew calls time on Nereo’s top-level competition career on the final day at Badminton. The combination were sent to the holding box at the final veterinary inspection on Sunday morning and Andrew made the decision to withdraw him from the competition. “It seemed a good place to retire him,” said Andrew. Next stop: an active retirement with Andrew’s daughter Lily at the helm…

Don’t miss this week’s issue of Horse & Hound magazine (10 May 2018), with our full report and analysis from Badminton Horse Trials 2018

For all the latest equestrian news and reports, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine out every Thursday

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Andrew Nicholson’s legendary campaigner Nereo has retired from top-level competition at the Mistubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials.

Deborah Sellar’s 18-year-old gelding, who won here last year, has been competing at three-star and above for the past decade.

In that time, he has clocked up wins at Bramham CCI3* in 2009, Aachen CIC3* in 2010, Pau CCI4* in 2012, Barbury CIC3* in 2016 and Badminton 2017.

He also finished second at Burghley three times, in 2016, 2013 and 2011, and helped New Zealand to team bronze at the London 2012 Olympics.

“It seemed a good place to retire him,” said Andrew.

Badminton final scores

“Things didn’t quite work out how I wanted them to, but the show he put on yesterday was superb and hopefully that’s what people will remember him for.”

The combination had been lying in 12th place overnight and were sent to the holding box at the final veterinary inspection on Sunday morning.

Andrew made the decision to withdraw Nereo from the holding box and the horse was officially retired to a standing ovation from the packed stands ahead of the top-20 showjumping rounds.

“In my mind I was always retiring him this weekend,” added Andrew.

“The vet in the holding box wanted me to re-present him, he looked good on the grass but on the hard he wasn’t sound.

“He lost a shoe yesterday, he is getting old and the bones in his feet aren’t as tough as they used to be.

“With what happened at the trot-up, it seemed a good plan when they asked me if I wanted to take him in after the parade — that seemed perfect.”

Article continues below…

You might also be interested in:

Badminton winner Nereo: 7 reasons he’s an equine superstar

The 17yo Spanish-bred CDE chestnut gelding might have won Badminton yesterday (7 May 2017) — but he was once deemed

Jonelle Price claims first four-star title with Badminton victory

The New Zealand rider and her British-bred mare have taken the 2018 Badminton Horse Trials title in a gripping conclusion

Badminton cross-country 2018: watch riders reflect on their rounds

Find out what riders thought about their rounds over the 2018 Badminton cross-country course

Andrew said winning here in 2017 was the “highlight” of Nereo’s career.

“I’ve done it all with him — by performing year after year at this level and at the top, not just making up the numbers, he showed unbelievable toughness.”

Nereo has won five out of his 40 international starts and been placed in the top-10 in 25 others.

Andrew added Nereo will enjoy an active retirement with the rider’s daughter Lily taking over the reins.

For all the latest news analysis, competition reports, interviews, features and much more, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, on sale every Thursday.

Our bumper 24-page Badminton report will be in our 10 May issue, including opinion from Oliver Townend, Mark Phillips and Peter Storr.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Eight riders who have won the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials previously are entered for this year’s event (2-6 May), but two of them will have to climb from the wait-list to get a chance to run.

The previous winners safely on the accepted entries list are: Sam Griffiths (Paulank Brockagh), Paul Tapner (Bonza King Of Rouges), Oliver Townend (who will have to choose two of his four entries, MHS King Joules, Cooley Master Class, Ballaghmor Class and Cooley SRS), Michael Jung (La Biosthetique-Sam FBW), Andrew Nicholson (Jet Set IV and Nereo) and Mark Todd (Kiltubrid Rhapsody and Leonidas II).

William Fox-Pitt (winner in 2004 and 2015) and Pippa Funnell (2002, 2003 and 2005) are both on the wait-list, which will surprise some fans, but their rides Fernhill Pimms and Billy Beware do not have much recent international form, which is the basis on which Badminton does its ballot.

The event accepts the horses with the most FEI points won in the past two years and then wait-lists the rest in points order. Wait-listed horses replace those withdrawn until 2pm on the Sunday before the event. Billy Beware is seventh on the list and Fernhill Pimms is 13th. Badminton has never accepted fewer than 14 horses from the wait-list, so it is highly likely William and Pippa will be able to compete.

First-timers and crowd favourites

Eight British first-timers are among the entrants, the most-watched of whom will be former young rider European champion and H&H young rider of the year Will Furlong. He brings forward the grey mare Collien P2. The other home side debutants are Ashley Edmond (Triple Chance II), Alicia Hawker (Charles RR), Kate Honey (Fernhill Now Or Never), Georgie Strang (Cooley Earl), Alexander Whewall (Charkiris Star), Imogen Gloag (Brendonhill Doublet, wait-listed) and Kirsty Short (Cossan Lad, wait-listed).

Badminton final scores

Among the strong British entries are Olympian Gemma Tattersall (Arctic Soul and Pamero 4), European team gold medallist Ros Canter (Allstar B) and Burghley runner-up Piggy French (Vanir Kamira).

Fans will be delighted to see Laura Collett back at Badminton, with Mr Bass, as well as Ben Hobday, who is eighth on the wait-list with the great character Mulrys Error.

Lissa Green, who made her Badminton debut last year for Britain, will represent Australia this year, riding Hollyfield, having made the decision to change nationality earlier this year.

Article continues below…

You might also be interested in:

Badminton winner dies: ‘He was one of the most talented horses I ever rode’

The horse was part of one of the greatest Badminton stories of recent times, but injury meant he was never

British Olympic eventer sidelined after fall from youngster

The eight-time championship medal-winner will leave hospital this week

What you need to know if you’re considering camping at Badminton Horse Trials

One hundred and two horses were entered for Badminton this year, a relatively small entry compared to some years. Of these, 88 have been accepted, but the maximum starting field will be 85 — the extra three account for the fact two of Oliver’s horses must be withdrawn as must one of Tina Cook’s three entries (Star Witness, Calvino II and Billy The Red). Fourteen horses have been placed on the wait-list, which ranks alongside 2015 as the joint-smallest wait-list in the 11-year history of this system being used.

Riders from 14 nations are on the list for Badminton, with riders from Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Japan and Sweden expected to line up, as well as strong contingents from Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, France and the USA. Michael Jung is the only German rider entered.

For all the latest news analysis, competition reports, interviews, features and much more, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, on sale every Thursday.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

A heavy hint that you’re entering an equestrian haven when you cross the border into Wiltshire is the sight of eight white horses carved neatly into the hillside. And if you’re looking for hard evidence of its horsey credentials, a look down the addresses of the world’s top eventers should do the trick; Andrew Nicholson, Mark Todd and Tim Price all call it home.

We round up some of the best hotspots for horse lovers in the county…

The tack shop

Wadswick, near Corsham

Step into this country emporium to buy a hairnet, and you will leave laden with a new wardrobe for every eventuality. The sprawling selection of bits, breeches, gifts and feed has come a long way since the store’s first product line of homegrown potatoes when it opened its doors in the 1980s.

Opening times: Mon-Sat: 9am-5pm, 
Sun: 11am-4pm

wadswick.co.uk

The equestrian centre

West Wilts Equestrian Centre, near Trowbridge

Riders from the surrounding counties flock to this Mecca for competitions and training, from unaffiliated hunter trials and evening showjumping to an intermediate horse trials. With a 30.5x72m indoor school and two outdoor arenas, competitors aren’t short of space to clock up some mileage.

westwilts.com

The picnic spot

Barbury Horse Trials, near Marlborough (pictured above)

If we were charged with creating a Visit Wiltshire ad campaign, the view over the natural amphitheatre at Barbury Castle would be our centrepiece. Pick your picnic spot on the edge of the main arena during the horse trials in July, divvy up the Pimm’s and don’t move for the rest of the day — from here you’ll be able to see the showjumping in front of you, and the cross-country unfolding across the hillside beyond.

barburyhorsetrials.co.uk

The adrenalin fix

Larkhill Racecourse, near Salisbury

Pack all your coats, all your hats and all your gloves and make a beeline to Larkhill Racecourse this winter for a point-to-point — there are seven fixtures at the racecourse between December this year and April 2018. The bitter wind blowing off Salisbury Plain will soon be brushed aside by the adrenalin of watching some of Britain’s best pointers in action. And if you get really desperate, you can walk the course.

pointtopoint.co.uk

Continued below…

Bag yourself a bargain with one of these horsey homes

Our pick of properties that you don’t need

Avebury 2000-2016: Celebrating a remarkable life in pictures

Andrew Nicholson's iconic grey ride certainly made his

The pub

Outside Chance, near Marlborough

Pull up a stool at the bar where 20-time champion jockey AP McCoy celebrated riding his 4000th winner. The pub was created in 2008 from the gambling winnings of Howard Spooner’s racehorse Only Dreams, a 100-1 winner at Leicester, and serves up hearty mains to refuel you after a day in the saddle.

Opening times: 11am-11pm every day

theoutsidechance.co.uk

Don’t miss this week’s property special in Horse & Hound magazine (28 September 2017), where we take a closer look at the property market in Wiltshire, round up some of the best equestrian properties for under £500,000 and find out how to make sure you’re paying the right price for a property

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Lauren Kieffer, who is tackling her first ever Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, has taken the lead in the dressage ahead of the final afternoon session of the first phase today (1 September). The 30-year-old from the USA scored 37 with Tam Rebecca Farm LLC’s Veronica.

“She’s such a pro now,” said Lauren of the 15-year-old mare. “She loves to work and I’m so lucky to have her. She knows what a competition is and wants to be on the trailer going out. We’ve struggled with the canter and walk work in our dressage before but I was really happy with both of them today. It’s all about just giving her the right aids and being on the same page in the ring.”

Thursday’s dressage leader, Michael Jung, now slips to second with La Biosthetique – Sam FBW on 38.9, while Andrew Nicholson has gone into third on his 2017 Badminton winner Nereo. The pair scored 39.5.

“Nereo is lovely to ride — he knows what he’s got to do and I can rely on him to go in there and do his job,” said Andrew of the 17-year-old. “He doesn’t go like this at home, but then I don’t ask him to — we just go through the motions and I trust him that he will come out and perform.”

Gemma Tattersall and Arctic Soul, who performed their test yesterday, now sit in fourth on 43, while Piggy French and Vanir Kamira have gone into fifth on 43.7.

“She can be different every day I ride her,” said Piggy of the 12-year-old mare owned by Trevor Dickens. “She was good working yesterday and then this morning I thought she perhaps wasn’t so good. She’s a funny little mare who goes hot and cold on you but she tries and tries. I’m delighted with how calm she was today and there’s still more to come which is so exciting.”

The USA’s Lynn Symansky is in sixth with Donner and the third best-placed Brit is Izzy Taylor who sits in seventh with Trevidden on a score of 45.6.

“I’m so pleased with him,” said Izzy of the 12-year-old. “Dressage is tricky for him but he really tried his hardest and remained with me.”

The final session of dressage gets under way at 2.30pm today.

Don’t miss this week’s H&H (on sale today, Thursday 31 August), including a Burghley pull-out with full form guide, dressage test, course map and more.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Find out what some of the world's top event riders, such as Tina Cook, Andrew Nicholson and Harry Meade make of this year's Burghley cross-country course

The cross-country course at this year’s 2017 Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials looks set to be as challenging as ever.

The track, designed by Captain Mark Phillips since 2005, is 6400mm in length and has an optimum time of 11min 14sec.

Tina Cook said: “As always, it is a dimensionally big course. I like the fact that there are still a lot of combination fences with alternatives where you can choose depending on how your horse is travelling and how they are coping with the crowd. The ground is perfect and I would hope the horses will travel really well on it.”

Andrew Nicholson was in agreement saying: “It’s typical Burghley — big, difficult but very jumpable. It’s effort after effort all the way round and horses will need to be really fit.”

Willa Newton said: “It’s very well presented and there are difficult combinations — the Dairy Farm and the Trout Hatchery are very tough, and I think the new loop incorporating Storm Doris will make horses very tired going all the way up to the Cottesmore Leap from there.”

Harry Meade said: “The terrain plays a big part at Burghley — the first three minutes are virtually uphill the whole way. There are lots of places that could cause problems and it will require a great deal of concentration.”

Sarah Bullimore said: “Winners’ Avenue was quite a pull last year, so with the extra distance from the bottom of the hill at Storm Doris, it will be tough early on.”

Continued below…

This is the third year that the course has run clockwise. Two riders made the optimum time in 2015, while none made it last year, so this could prove influential.

Don’t miss this week’s H&H (on sale today, Thursday 31 August), including a Burghley pull-out with full form guide, dressage test, course map and more.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

A clutch of top-class entries has flooded in for the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (31 August-3 September) over the past couple of days.

Andrew Nicholson, who has won Burghley five times, has entered three horses for the event — this year’s Badminton winner Nereo, plus Qwanza and Teseo — as he attempts to take the title again for New Zealand.

For the home side, Zara Tindall will come forward with London 2012 team silver medallist High Kingdom, who finished 10th here in 2011 and could well go better this time.

Germany’s Michael Jung will return to Burghley with La Biosthetique-Sam FBW. Sam is now 17 and has an unbelievable record including two individual Olympic golds, world and European individual gold, Badminton (2016) and Burghley (2015) titles and two seconds at Badminton, including this year.

Last year’s winner, Australia’s Chris Burton, has entered Nobilis 18 to defend his title.

New Zealand’s Tim Price continues to seek his first British four-star title and has a strong hand in Ringwood Sky Boy (second here in 2015) and Xavier Faer (third at Badminton this spring). His compatriot Mark Todd has entered his two experienced four-star campaigners, his Rio ride Leonidas II and London team bronze medallist NZB Camino.

Some of the horses long-listed for Britain’s team for the European Championships in Strzegom have also been entered for Burghley. They include Toledo De Kerser (Tom McEwen), One Two Many (Nicola Wilson), Arctic Soul (Gemma Tattersall), Billy The Red and Calvino II (Tina Cook). Tina also has Star Witness, who is not long-listed, entered at Burghley.

Continued below…

More eventing news:

Daughter of two-time winner enters her first Burghley

19 British pairs long-listed for eventing Europeans — Zara Tindall not included

‘I thought, ‘this is going to end in disaster’: Paul Tapner’s bit breaks cross-country

France’s Maxime Livio will make his Burghley debut on Qalao Des Mers, with whom he won Pau CCI4* last year and has finished second in the four-stars at Kentucky and Luhmühlen. He will be a strong contender for the title, despite being a first-timer.

The ballot for Burghley closes at noon tomorrow (28 July), so final entries will be made over the next 24 hours.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Badminton and Burghley might be permanent fixtures in your diary, but we find out why you won't regret making the trip north to Equi-Trek Bramham next weekend (8-11 June 2017)

B is for…

Babyface. Bramham is home to the national under-25 eventing championship, sponsored by Bishop Burton. Last year Tom McEwen became the first person to take this title twice, but this time he is too old for the class and will ride in the regular CCI, on Joyride and Strike Smartly. Favourites for the under-25 title this time include Emily King (Dargun), David Doel (Chap) and Will Furlong (Collien P 2).

R is for…

Records. William Fox-Pitt is the big Bramham record-holder, having won the CCI3* seven times — in 1995 (Cosmopolitan II), 2003 (Wallow), 2005 (Mr Dumbledore), 2007 (Macchiato), 2008 (Navigator) and 2012/2013 (Chilli Morning). This year, William isn’t competing, so someone else will make their mark in the Equi-Trek CCI3*.

A is for…

Attacking riding. Ian Stark is in his eighth year as cross-country course-designer here. “I like to keep riders thinking forward, not pulling horses around,” he says. “Obviously they have to go up and down through the gears, but the track is very bold.” This year the CCI has a new route in the latter half of the course, which sends riders into the main water complex from a different direction. The mound in the middle of the water has been bulldozed, leaving a large single water span. “There’s a big rolltop on top of a steep bank in, then two birds’ nests on a related distance in the water, before a turn up a steep ramp to an angled swan,” says Ian.

M is for…

Money. The total prize-fund for the CCI3* is over £18,000 and the winner takes home £5,750.

H is for…

Hope Pastures. This is Bramham’s charitable partner this year, a small charity based in nearby Leeds which helps rescue, re-habilitate and re-home horses and donkeys.

A is for…

Andrew Nicholson. The New Zealander won the CCI3* here last year riding Libby Sellar’s Jet Set IV, on the rider’s first CCI appearance since his serious neck injury at Gatcombe 2015. It was Andrew’s third Bramham win, 10 years after his first. “All my wins here have been very special, but this one is quite unbelievable because I’ve been out for a bit and because of the predicament I was in for a while,” he said. This year, Andrew rides Byrnesgrove First Diamond and Swallow Springs in the CCI3*, plus Urma BK in the British Equestrian Trade Association CIC3*.

Continued below…

Liked this? You may also enjoy reading these articles…

6 types of event horse you’ll find at every horse trials

The double clear jumper, the perfect FEI pony

Andrew Nicholson: do eventing careers get much better than this?

When Andrew Nicholson won Badminton on Sunday (7

M is for…

Mounted games. There’s lots going on at Bramham and the Yorkshire event always attracts a strong crowd, who can enjoy hunter classes, the Dubarry Burghley young event horse, a stallion parade, showjumping, Pony Club mounted games, shopping and more.

Visit bramham-horse.co.uk for more information

Don’t miss our full report from Bramham, including a guest column from Oliver Townend, in the 15 June issue of Horse & Hound magazine

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Seventeen British combinations are due to start in the German CCI4* at Luhmühlen this year (15-18 June).

The last British winner at Luhmühlen was Sharon Hunt on her 2008 Olympic team bronze medallist Tankers Town in 2010, but a strong Team GB entry this year could be set to change that.

Among the big names heading to Germany are Pippa Funnell with her Rio ride Billy The Biz, Nicola Wilson with 2015 Boekelo winner Bulana and Oliver Townend. Oliver has three horses entered, including Black Tie, who was fourth here in 2014 — earning a spot at the World Equestrian Games — and was fourth again after cross-country last year, but was withdrawn before the final horse inspection.

H&H columnist Harry Meade is entered with Away Cruising, while Ros Canter will hope to follow up her fabulous Badminton with a good run here on four-star first-timer Zenshera. Flora Harris will start on 2015 Bramham CCI3* winner Bayano and Alex Bragg lines up on Redpath Ransom, having had a great dressage and showjumping at his first Badminton earlier this month, but sadly had to withdraw Zagreb before the final horse inspection.

Badminton winner Andrew Nicholson heads the New Zealand challenge, riding four-star debutant and last year’s Blenheim CCI3* runner-up Teseo.

Continued below…

More news:

‘It was in the horse’s best interests’: owner moves promising four-star horse from one British rider to another

New course-designer for Luhmühlen Horse Trials

Yellow coats sell out after Badminton fashion craze goes viral

As usual, the home side fields a strong hand in both the CCI4* and the CIC3*. Andreas Dibowski will defend his CCI4* title, riding FRH Butts Avedon this time, while his 2016 winner It’s Me xx will contest the CIC3*. Sandra Auffarth has her 2014 world champion Opgun Louvo in the CIC3*, while Badminton runner-up Ingrid Klimke (Horseware Hale Bob OLD) and Kentucky winner Michael Jung (FischerRocana FST) both start in that class too. Julia Krajewski will hope to repeat her good CCI4* performance here last year — she took third on Samourai Du Thot, but had a less successful time at the Olympics, being eliminated for three refusals.

The Netherlands has three notable four-star entries in Andrew Heffernan, with his two Dutch championship horses Boleybawn Ace NOP and Millthyme Corrolla, and Tim Lips, who returns with Bayro, third in the CIC3* last year.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

When Andrew Nicholson won Badminton on Sunday (7 May 2017) with Nereo, after 33 years of trying, it was the icing on the cake of his stellar eventing career. To celebrate, we take a look back at some of the Kiwi's greatest hits. Don't miss our huge, 25-page Badminton report in tomorrow's issue of Horse & Hound magazine (11 May 2017)

At the Barcelona Olympic Games, Andrew and Spinning Rhombus take home a team silver medal

Andrew and Jagermeister II are part of the bronze medal-winning team at the Olympic Games in Atlanta

Andrew celebrates his bronze medal in Atlanta with teammates Vaughn Jefferis, Vicky Latta and Blyth Tait

Lord Killinghurst and Andrew are part of the sixth-placed team at the World Equestrian Games (WEG) in 2006. He has taken part in a total of seven WEGs

In London, Andrew and Nereo finish in fourth place individually and take home the team bronze medal. He has competed at seven Olympic Games during his career

Mr Cruise Control and Andrew take the runner up spot at Pau CCI4* in 2011

Andrew and Nereo take the CCI4* title at Pau in 2012

Beat the January blues by booking a trip to a big show later in the year

Andrew takes the CCI4* title at Kentucky with Quimbo in 2013. He is also third that year with Calico Joe

Avebury and Andrew take the Burghley title for a second time together in 2013

At home near Marlborough in Wiltshire with Quimbo, Mr Cruise Control, Nereo and Avebury

Three on the trot: Andrew and Avebury take the Burghley title for a third consecutive year

Andrew celebrates his win at Barbury in 2015 with his wife Wiggy and their children Zach and Lily

Andrew and Avebury take the CIC3* title at Barbury in 2015. The following year he took the title for the fifth time in a row — all the more remarkable as it was less than a year since he suffered a serious neck injury after a fall in August 2015

Andrew and Nereo finish in second place at Burghley in 2016

The final piece in the puzzle: Andrew wins the Badminton title with Nereo, after 33 years of trying

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Here at Horse & Hound HQ we're suffering from a serious bout of Badminton Withdrawal Syndrome. But after five days of high drama, thrills and plenty of spills, we challenge anyone not to feel a little flat. Don't miss our huge 25-page report to re-live all the action in this week's issue of Horse & Hound magazine (11 May 2017)

The final piece in the puzzle: Andrew wins the Badminton title with Nereo, after 33 years of trying

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

The 17-year-old Spanish-bred CDE chestnut gelding might have won Badminton yesterday (7 May 2017) with Andrew Nicholson — but he was once deemed an ugly duckling, and was nine before he resembled an athlete, says Julie Harding

1. It’s hard to keep track of his achievements

Deborah Sellar’s chestnut gelding has 2,931 British Eventing points to his name. Prior to yesterday’s Badminton win, he had won individual bronze at Kentucky WEG in 2010 and was runner-up at Burghley in 2011, the year he won the British Open at Gatcombe. He was individual fourth and won team bronze at the 2012 London Olympics and was the winner of Pau CCI4* the same year. He was third at Badminton and second at Burghley in 2013, and he won Barbury CIC3* ERM and was runner-up at Burghley in 2016.

2. He is an athletic horse

“History tells us that Nereo is a tough and athletic horse,” says Annabel Scrimgeour, who has assisted Andrew with his horses on the flat for eight years, often riding Nereo. She points out that his frame fits his limbs perfectly, a fact that has ensured soundness throughout his career. “The strong points of his conformation, such as the length and strength of his back, far outweigh any weaker areas. Some might say that by nature he is a little short in the neck, putting him at a slight disadvantage in the dressage, but this enables him to balance himself better when going across country.”

3. His conformation works in his favour

“Nereo has very good front limbs which are set close to the front of his body,” says Annabel. “His elbow is also very free from his body, which helps with the use of the shoulder, meaning that he finds the extended paces very easy. He has a big wither, which helps to keep his rider in the middle of his back. This means that Andrew sits behind the shoulder, giving Nereo freedom of movement. In some horses with a big wither, fitting a saddle is difficult, but this isn’t the case with Nereo because he is well muscled in the area.”

4. He has a big engine

“The back end is well muscled and you get the impression that he finds it easy to push — he has a big engine and it all comes from behind. You can see how strong he is around the stifle and second thigh. The distance from the point of his hip to his hock also helps with the power,” Annabel adds.

5. There’s hope for ugly ducklings

Andrew Nicholson first set eyes on Nereo when the chestnut was just two. He was visiting Ramon Beca’s Spanish farm and also checked out a three-year-old chestnut called Armada. Both were members of a dynasty of event horses bred by Ramon that had begun with Fenicio, whom the New Zealand rider had already been competing in the UK. Two years after Andrew’s visit to Spain, Nereo arrived in his yard, but far from being the attractive, well-honed event horse he is today, he resembled an ugly duckling. “Nereo was gawky,” says Andrew. “When I began eventing him a lot of riders wondered what on earth I was doing, but I told them that Nereo was going to be good,” he says. Nereo was nine before he resembled an athlete. “He wasn’t a classic shape, but the work I did with him over the years put muscle in places that caused him to change shape,” Andrew explains.

Badminton final scores

Continued below…

Liked this? You may also enjoy reading these articles…

Shock result on final day of Badminton: record-breaker takes emotional victory

Find out how the final day of competition

Would you jump these? Walk the 2017 Badminton cross-country course

Take a look around this year's Badminton Horse

6. He takes his work seriously

Nereo is similar to his siblings in some ways — he liked to buck when he was just broken — but he also has his own quirks. He’s difficult to catch, but in the field he enjoys playing with other horses, although he’s never bossy. He’s slightly shy and suspicious of new people, but when he is being ridden he takes work very seriously.

7. He knows his job

“Riding Nereo is like putting on an old pair of shoes,” says Andrew. “He knows his job so well. I look forward to riding him every day and he’s helped me to live the dream. For him to have won what he’s won, done the amount of events that he’s done and stayed sound is incredible.”

Don’t miss our full report from Badminton Horse Trials in the 11 May issue of Horse & Hound

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Andrew Nicholson first competed at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials in 1984. He has since completed the event a record-breaking 37 times. But today (7 May) he won the competition for the very first time.

Riding the 17-year-old Nereo, owned by Deborah Sellar, the New Zealander jumped clear, but incurred one time-fault, which was enough to seal victory.

Andrew was in third place going into the final phase, but when second-placed Michael Jung and La Biosthetique-Sam FBW had a fence down and then overnight leaders Ingrid Klimke and Horseware Hale Bob OLD had three fences down, a stop and seven time-faults, the win was handed to Andrew.

Long-term owner Rosemary Barlow joked; “It’s about bloody time!” to Andrew in the collecting ring afterwards.

Badminton final scores

“All those years ago, I thought it was going to be easy — just turn up on my horse and win,” said Andrew. “Nereo is a big, strong horse and not really built for showjumping. I’ve tried going into the jumping in the lead before and that hasn’t worked, so I was quite happy to be going in in third.”

When asked about how this victory felt compared to others, Andrew said: “It’s one hundred times a better feeling to win this than anywhere else. At other events, I’ve gone and done what’s expected, but this is different.”

In the collecting ring, fellow competitor, Jonty Evans, gave three cheers to Andrew, who thanked Michael Jung for “helping him out”, by having a fence down.

“I was asked to walk the cross-country course with the Germans this week,” said Andrew. “I was surprised and honoured when Michael came along. He said ‘why not? I might learn something’. Then after the cross-country, where I was placed behind Germans, I thought I might look a bit silly if I didn’t win after helping them!”

Andrew also had an interesting conversation with his son, Zac, this morning.

“I told him that the last time I was in third behind Michael Jung was in Pau. Michael went in and faulted and I won — that was the last time I wore the riding boots I was wearing today.”

Second place went to Michael Jung, who finished 2.6 penalties behind Andrew.

“Andrew did a fantastic job in all three phases,” he said. “Everyone is so good and so close — every little mistake changes who wins. At the end of the day I’m happy with last week [where he won in Kentucky], this week and my horses.”

Third went to a delighted Tim Price riding Xavier Faer, owned by Trisha Rickards (who bred this horse), Nigella Hall and Tim, who rose one place.

He jokingly said after his round: “I just need Ingrid to have four down now and I’ll be third.”

“He’s got the goods and I’m looking forward to his future,” said Tim of the 11 year old, who added just one time-fault after he was .52 seconds over the time allowed. “It was like hitting a wall of atmosphere riding into the main arena — it’s a lot for a young horse to take in.”

Ingrid ultimately finished in ninth.

Best of the British riders

Best of the Brits was Ros Canter, riding her own and Caroline Moore’s exciting 11-year-old Allstar B, who finished in fifth place after a clear round.

“It’s very exciting and to be the best Brit isn’t quite what we expected. We’re learning all the time as I’m still quite new to this level,” explained Ros who has two previous four-star completions to her name. “We came here last year with the horse, but after the dressage we found he had a heart fibrillation so we withdrew and went and sorted it out. We’ve been gearing up for a good result for a while.”

The 31-year-old from Lincolnshire said: “It was horrible going into the main arena — it’s the biggest thing I’ve ever done, but he deserves to jump a clear round every day of the week and I’m delighted.”

Gemma Tattersall had a meteoric rise from 67th after dressage to seventh today on Arctic Soul following a solid jumping double clear.

“The dressage was frustrating, but he’s amazing and was quite strong today,” Gemma laughed.

Continued below…

Horse in top 10 one of three withdrawn at Badminton trot-up

Find out who won't showjump the afternoon after

A real British hopeful for the future is Tom McEwen and Toledo De Kerser, a 10-year-old owned by Jane Inns, Ali McEwen and Tom. They finished in 11th.

“He’s some horse and he picked up all the way through his jumping round,” said 25-year-old Tom. “When he was younger, he used to bounce one-stride distances and people said that he was too careful to make it to the top level.”

Don’t miss next week’s H&H (out on Thursday 11 May), which will have a comprehensive 25-page Badminton report, bringing you all of the news, analysis and statistics.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Australian rider Andrew Hoy said today at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials that bullfinches — fences with soft brush which horses have to push through on top of the main jumpable obstacle — have no place in the modern sport of eventing.

His remarks were prompted by the fact Eric Winter has included a bullfinch out of water in his first cross-country course for the competition. The fence is number 22, named the Wadworth Lakeside.

“I don’t know that I’ve jumped a bullfinch since 2000,” said Andrew. “No horse currently competing has ever jumped a bullfinch. My feeling is it’s a very big question.

“I don’t think it’s right that horses are taught to push through fences, as they do at a bullfinch. Horses today jump fences cleanly and brushes are strong, so horses can’t push through them without getting a scratch.”

Fellow Australian Shane Rose said: “I think it’s a bit of an old-fashioned fence. The sport has changed a lot and the horse we’re trying to get is not an old-fashioned barging-through-bullfinch type of horse.”

Badminton final scores

Tina Cook and Andrew Nicholson both said they don’t have a problem with bullfinches, but that today’s lower-level courses don’t prepare horses for such a test.

“I can’t remember when I last jumped a bullfinch and then you get one at four-star,” said Tina. “If we’re looking at health and safety, and horses being confident, we should see smaller versions [throughout a horse’s career].

“I’m not criticising Eric — he’s been ballsy in what he’s put out there. But my concern is that horses need to be given opportunities to meet every variety of fence in a smaller form so that they know clearly what to do.”

Andrew Nicholson added: “The fence is fine, the only thing I’ve got against it is that a lot of horses will never have seen a bullfinch. That’s not Eric’s fault, it’s the way the sport has gone. Now it’s turning round again and these horses haven’t done it. But I think it’ll jump fine.”

Irishman Austin O’Connor said he didn’t foresee the fence causing problems.

“If you’re going well up to the bullfinch you won’t be that worried about it,” he said. “I’m old enough to have seen enough bullfinches before they were banished and I can’t see it causing much trouble.”

More Badminton news…

Related articles:

‘The biggest Badminton I’ve ever seen’: riders’ first reaction to the cross-country course

Would you jump these? Walk the 2017 Badminton cross-country course

New Zealand’s Jesse Campbell said that the fence should jump fine as the brush is “pretty soft”.

Don’t miss this week’s H&H (on sale tomorrow, Thursday 4 May), including a 16-page Badminton pull-out with full form guide, dressage test, judge’s analysis, course map and more.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

The dressage start times for the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials have been released.

The guinea pig test is at 9.10am tomorrow (Thursday, 4 May) and will be performed by Britain’s former young rider champion Will Furlong, riding 10-year-old mare Collien P 2.

The first competitor into the arena will be the USA’s Lauren Kieffer, making her Badminton debut on Landmark’s Monte Carlo, at 9.30am.

She is followed at 9.38am by New Zealand’s Mark Todd on his Rio horse Leonidas II. First-timer Alex Bragg kicks of the British challenge at 9.46am with Zagreb.

The other Brits making their Badminton dressage debut tomorrow are Lydia Hannon (My Royal Touch, 11.50am), Sarah Parkes (Balladeer Durban Hills, 12.14pm), Lissa Green (Malin Head Clover, 1.58pm) and Imogen Murray (Ivar Gooden, 3.54pm).

Badminton final scores

Defending champion Michael Jung will perform tomorrow in the session after lunch. He and La Biosthetique-Sam FBW take to the arena at 2.46pm.

Fellow German Bettina Hoy also rides in this session with Designer 10, at 2.14pm, and should do a good test.

Meanwhile Rio individual silver medallist Astier Nicolas of France will be the first rider after the coffee break at 11.10am. He rides Piaf De B’Neville.

Friday’s stars

The second day of action is kicked off at 9.30am by Britain’s Ben Way, who seeks a third consecutive completion here with ex-racehorse Galley Light.

H&H blogger Danielle Dunn will be the second rider after the coffee break on Friday, at 11.18am, with Zocarla BLH.

Other good tests on Friday should come from Ingrid Klimke (Horseware Hale Bob OLD, 2.38pm), Mark Todd (NZB Campino, 3.46pm), Andrew Hoy (Rutherglen, 4.02pm) and final competitor Andrew Nicholson (Nereo, 4.58pm).

Continued below…

Related articles:

Badminton title contender and popular British horse both held at first trot-up

Danielle Dunn’s Badminton first-timer blog: ‘It’s going to be an unbelievable week’

Throwback — Badminton first-timers: Cathal Daniels — ‘She doesn’t know the fences are bigger than her’

The ground jury who judge the dressage is made up of Germany’s Martin Plewa (president), Denmark’s Anne-Mette Binder and Sweden’s Christina Klingspor.

You can watch the dressage free online via the H&H website.

All dressage times

Don’t miss this week’s H&H (on sale tomorrow, Thursday 4 May), including a 16-page Badminton pull-out with full form guide, dressage test, judge’s analysis, course map and more.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now