Multiple medal-winning event rider Nicolas Touzaint plans to make his Defender Burghley Horse Trials debut at this year’s event (5-8 September), riding Absolut Gold HDC.
“I’m very excited for it,” said the French rider. “I’ve never been there, not even on foot, so I’m very motivated to be there – I can’t wait.”
Nicolas won a team silver medal at the Paris Olympics on Diabolo Menthe, completing his set of Olympic team medals as he took gold in Athens in 2004 and bronze in Tokyo in 2021.
He is also a two-time individual European champion with Galan De Sauvagère (2003 and 2007) and has eight European team medals to his name – two golds (2003 and 2007), four silvers (2003, 2005, 2007 and 2011) and two bronzes (2013 and 2023).
Absolut Gold HDC was originally listed alongside Diabolo Menthe as a potential Paris ride for Nicolas and was his partner in team bronze at the Tokyo Olympics and 2023 Europeans, leading the French team to victory on both occasions with sixth and fifth places individually. He also contested the 2019 Europeans, where he was 10th individually, and the 2022 World Championships. Burghley will mark the horse’s five-star debut.
Burghley Horse Trials debutant Nicolas Touzaint himself has experience at five-star level and was the first – and so far only – French winner of Badminton Horse Trials, a victory he pulled off in 2008 riding Hildago De L’Ile. He also won the first running of Pau Horse Trials at five-star level in 2007 on the same horse.
The world number 15 last rode in Britain at Chatsworth Horse Trials last year, where he was second in a CCI4*-S section on Diabolo Menthe and seventh at the same level on Absolut Gold HDC, so it will be exciting for British fans to have a chance to watch the most consistent French rider of the past two decades in Britain again.
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Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.
