For someone who topped the British Eventing leaderboard as the rider with the most cross-country clears in 2025, experiencing two uncharacteristic falls with his top horse, Galileo Nieuwmoed, at both Badminton and Burghley could easily have been difficult to recover from.
But leading Wiltshire event rider David Doel is very...
Ros Canter and the stunning Lordship Graffalo claimed their second MARS Badminton Horse Trials title with a flawless round in the final showjumping phase, cementing the horse's status as one of the best eventers in the world. Canter now joins a select group of just five riders to have won...
The world’s greatest three-day event riders are eagerly anticipating the start of the 2025 Mars Badminton Horse Trials, which is just about to get underway (Wednesday 7 May).
The Barbury Castle estate saw a welcome return to British Eventing at the weekend with three days of competition, showcasing some of our top riders, including Laura Collett, David Doel, Tim and Jonelle Price, Tom McEwen to name just a few.
Badminton 2025 is nearly here, taking place in early May beytween 7 - 11th. One difference for this year - all tickets must be bought in advance as there won't be any tickets sold on the gate this year. There is the 'early bird' advance ticket discount available, but that...
New Zealander Caroline Powell pulled off a shock victory at the Mars Badminton Horse Trials at the weekend, after Tim Price and Vitali and William Fox Pitt and Grafennacht, who were in first and second respectively, had a number of fences down in the showjumping.
Will Rawlin describes himself as “absolutely fine” as he faces his first ever appearance at the Mars Badminton Horse Trials, which begin on Wednesday.
The 30-year-old first timer, based at Rockley, said he is not overthinking the competition, regarded by many in the sport as the pinnacle in the eventing calendar,...
David Doel’s past two seasons, with his star horse Galileo Nieuwmoed, are the stuff that most event riders can only dream of. A sixth place at his debut Badminton Horse Trials, eighth at Kentucky and runner up at Burghley are the highlights - but for him this is not quite...
Three former successful racehorses, stabled and trained now at Overton Manor Farm (and owned by the White family) in Wroughton have qualified for the Horse of the Year Show at Birmingham’s NEC in October.
Trained by the ladies who will be riding them, the three horses will be competing in the...
When Greta Mason drives through the famous Badminton gates for her debut appearance this week it will be a culmination of a three-year plan.
Greta and her 16.1hh gelding Cooley for Sure (Murphy) moved to base themselves with former Badminton winner Rodney Powell at his Bishopstone yard in 2020, with a...
The French four-star eventing competition at Pau this weekend holds the odd distinction of being the last major competition of 2014, but also the first of the international equestrian federation’s Classics Series for 2014-2015.
And it’s that second part of Pau’s attraction that will disappoint New Zealander Andrew Nicholson – he has had to withdraw his eleven-year-old mare Qwanza as she was “just not quite fit enough” after a year-long lay-off following injury.
Nicholson’s other star eventers – Avebury and Nereo – are resting after another successful season in which he completed two hat-trick wins. With Avebury he won both Barbury and Burghley for the third year running. He won the Classics Series in 2013 with its $40,000 prize.
Lockeridge-based Nicholson told the New Zealand press: “There is not much point in going there if the horse is not 100 per cent. We'll miss this, write the year off and start afresh next year."
Sixteen of Pau’s 40 four-star international entries are British riders – headed by Pippa Funnell with two mounts and William Fox-Pitt with three mounts.
With Nicholson’s scratching, local interest resides with another New Zealander, Jonelle Price from Mildenhall with her nine-year-old mare Faerie Dianimo. This will be Jonelle’s first ride over Pau’s cross country course.
After a great season which included her fourth place at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy, Jonelle is now ranked ninth in the world. The other New Zealand entry is Jock Paget who has two mounts in the competition.
Avebury at the Avebury fence - from the videoThere are thirteen chalk white horses of Wiltshire. You can top off that unlucky number by adding eventing's Wiltshire wonder horse: Avebury - a grey who now matches the chalk horses for whiteness.
The organisers of the St James's Place Wealth Management Barbury International Horse Trials (July 9-12) are marking Avebury's outstanding successes with a video about him - which you can watch here. This video explains what makes him such a special horse.
In addition, the horse trials, which take place on the Barbury Castle Estate on Marlborough Downs, are renaming their signature fence on the cross country course after Avebury.
Avebury is ridden by Andrew Nicholson, whose stables are at Lockeridge, and owned by Rosemary Barlow. Last year Avebury and Andrew achieved a historic hat trick - winning the prestigious Barbury International three star competition for a third consecutive year.
Avebury was bred by Andrew, raised in Wiltshire and named after the Avebury World Heritage Site - just a few miles from Barbury. And Avebury is a regular visitor to the Barbury Estate where he works on its famous gallops.
Andrew Nicholson explains that Avebury is a straightforward horse who likes the crowds: "Avebury loves Barbury and he also loves the camera so filming this video was good fun. We are all proud of what he has achieved here and look forward to being back at Barbury in a few weeks time.”
Nigel Bunter, Chairman of Barbury International Horse Trials, sees the renaming of their most iconic cross-country fence as a fitting tribute to a wonderful horses: "We hope Avebury fans will enjoy our film on him. We want to encourage as many as possible to visit Barbury in July to see a living legend and maybe history repeating itself with a four timer!"
Another frame from the video
Tickets for the Barbury Horse Trials start from £12 per person per day booked in advance. Children under 12 years go free. For information and tickets visit the Barbury website or call 01672 516125
“Racing is set to lose another slice of its heritage with the famous Manton Derby Gallop included in the latest sale of land at the Wiltshire estate owned by the Sangster family” – that is how the Racing Post introduces its news story on the further sale of Manton Estate land.
The Wantage estate agents Adkin are advertising this sale as “A unique opportunity to acquire Land at Fyfield & Overton Downs, Marlborough, forming part of the Fyfield Down SSSI.” And Strutt and Parker headline the sale as “A truly unique opportunity to acquire a protected landscape steeped in history.”
Adkin and Strutt & Parker are joint selling agents for 577 acres of Overton and Fyfield Downs at a guide price of £2,000,000 or as one agent has it ‘offers in excess of £2,000,000.
The Delling This separate lot – one of seven into which the estate was divided for the sale – includes a three-bedroom house, The Delling. This house has been redundant for about 30 years and is need of ‘substantial renovation.’ This lot also includes 35 acres of woodland.
Fyfield Down is not only steeped in racing heritage: it is a triple-S-I because it was the source for Stonehenge’s sarsen stones – and the ground still boasts many sarsen stones. It is now one of the best places in the area for birdwatchers. [SSSI = Site of Special Scientific Interest.]
The Racing Post report says that contracts have still to be exchanged between the Sangsters and Paul Clarke for his purchase of Manton training establishment now the base for trainers Brian Meehan and George Baker, and much of the estate’s agricultural land.
But the ‘little used’ Derby Gallop, which climbs 150 feet over seven furlongs, was not part of Mr Clarke’s purchase. This mile-long grass gallop was used in the past by several Derby champions to prepare them for the Epsom course’s gradients – including most recently 1992 Derby winner Dr Devious.
Guy Sangster told the Racing Post: “The gallop is in the middle of nowhere, away from the main gallops, and is probably used by Brian [Meehan] twice a year to give the horses a bit of variety. The Derby winners from Manton in the past would have gone out there for a day out because it’s a long way from the main gallops.”
Peter Chapple-Hyam who used to train at Manton explained to the Racing Post that Dr Devious and the two Classic winner Rodrigo de Triano (a horse bred by Robert Sangster) would have used the Derby gallop: “But I didn’t use it just before the Derby because it was a fair trip away.”
AP McCoy (photo by Niels Van Gijn - courtesy JCB Champions Challenge)Twenty times champion jump jockey AP McCoy is set to make a return to the saddle at this year's St. James’s Place Wealth Management Barbury International Horse Trials in the JCB Champions Challenge on Saturday, July 11.
McCoy retired from race riding in April following an extraordinary record-breaking career with 20 consecutive jump jockey titles and over 4,300 winners. The 'Champ' will be joined by a trio of jump jockeys in the second running of the JCB Champions Challenge, a unique horse race between the country's top riders held in aid of Injured Jockeys Fund.
The race will feature jump jockeys versus event riders over a specially designed course - including a water jump. The winning junior and senior teams from the Inter Hunt Scurry, held on the same day with over 30 teams taking part, will form the other two teams.
Joining AP McCoy will be Sam Twiston-Davies, at 22 one of the brightest of the new generation of young jump jockeys, Richard Johnson, who is the second-most successful jockey in jumps history with over 2000 winners, and Wayne Hutchinson, stable jockey to Barbury trainer Alan King.
The eventers boast an awesome line-up: Andrew Nicholson, who has won the Barbury International three star and Burghley horse trials three times in a row with his grey Avebury, will lead the team.
He will be joined by fellow New Zealander, Sir Mark Todd, and two of Britain's finest riders Harry Meade, who finished second at last year's Badminton Horse Trials, and multiple Olympic medallist Tina Cook. Nicholson last raced for the Injured Jockeys Fund at this year's Cheltenham Festival.
Nigel Bunter, Chairman of the Barbury International Horse Trials expects a 'nail biting' contest: "Last year the jump jockeys were victorious in the inaugural running of this John Francome and Zara Phillips battle it out at Barbury in 2014's inaugural JCB Champions Challenge at the St James's Place Wealth Management Barbury International Horse Trials (photo by Trevor Meeks - courtesy JCB Champions Challenge)event and with the some of the greatest names in horseracing and eventing taking part and it's also very exciting we will be welcoming AP McCoy to Barbury."
"The eventers will be hungry for a win. We are delighted to host the Champions Challenge again together with JCB and supporting the Injured Jockeys Fund. May the best team win!"
Tickets for the Barbury International Horse Trials start from £12 per person per day booked in advance. Children under 12 years go free.
For information and tickets visit the Barbury website or call 01672 516125.
And keep checking @Barburycastle #championschallenge
Sometimes you pick up a book about a sportsman’s life – whether autobiography or ghosted biography or a bit of both – and you wonder whether it might not be a tad too soon for this person to warrant a book. You could never think that about Marlborough-based Andrew Nicholson and his new book Focused.
He has, after all, been representing New Zealand in the Olympic Games for 30 years. He was the world’s top eventer in 2013 and in that year topped the British eventing standings for the fifteenth time.
The book is published during an eventing season in which he has scored two unrivalled hat-tricks – winning Barbury and Burghley three times in a row with the same horse, the amazing Avebury.
Focused is subtitled My Life in Pictures and it has an excellent collection of photographs from his youth in New Zealand up to recent triumphs.
It was written with Catherine Austen who used to report for Horse and Hound: “We’ve looked at thousands of images and selected some really interesting ones – not just pretty shots of horses jumping fences, but ones that tell a story and show the progression he has made as a competitor and a horseman.”
Andrew Nicholson, now aged 53, told Marlborough News Online that he wanted the book to have a balance of the bad days and the good days: “It shows what you have to go through to get to the good days.”
His introduction reveals much of the horseman he has become. And he is frank about his ambition to be number one in the world, “but first and foremost I have to make a living”:
Andrew Nicholson & Avebury at Barbury (2014)“It was this basic necessity that started my involvement with horses, breaking in young thoroughbreds for trainers in New Zealand and then working as a farrier at the age of 15. I then progressed to earning money from training and selling horses, and finally from the prize-money. The financial principle is the same today.”
The book makes it very clear that top eventing riders do not just ride their top horses in top events. In order to bring young horses on, they need to go to many of the lower ranked events and to competitions that cater especially for less experienced horses.
And that’s where travel comes in: “The travelling is what I find gets me down.” At the busiest part of the season, he may only be at home on Mondays: travel on Tuesday, vet inspection on Wednesday, competing Thursday to Sunday, usually getting home late on Sunday.
Among the intriguing photographs in the book is one of Nicholson with his four eventing four star winners. Nicholson writes: “You can see that they are all different shapes, but what’s more interesting is how much more different they are to each other when they are not eventing fit.”
“Quimbo looks the most thoroughbred of the quartet, even though he probably has the least thoroughbred in him; Mr Cruise Control looks like a gigantic hunter; Nereo stays reasonably elegant, while in the middle of winter Avebury looks like a hairy kid’s pony.”
Avebury - after a good rollOne of the books main attractions is the way Nicholson writes so clearly about his horses and their idiosyncrasies.
Nereo & Avebury - doing their own thingWhen Marlborough News Online visited Andrew Nicholson’s Westwood Stud near Marlborough, Avebury was not looking very much like the smart horse that enters the dressage arena with such aplomb. Alongside Nereo, Avebury bred by Nicholson and born when he was based near Devizes in 2000, was out in the field enjoying some well-earned R and R.
As Nicholson said, he was ‘being a horse again’ – so much so that the two horses avoided eye contact with Nicholson just in case he had come to take them away from the freedom of the field and put them inside again.
I asked Andrew Nicholson whether he agreed that too much emphasis in eventing was now put on the dressage stage of competitions: “It’s starting to change back to cross country. This season at WEG [World Equestrian Games], Badminton and Burghley cross country played the major part. Ten years ago you could get away with a rubbish dressage. Now you have to be good at all three stages – because the standard has come up so much.”
Nicholson is not sure whether he will go to the Rolex Kentucky event which starts the new season in April 2015. He won it in 2013 with Quimbo. But last year Avebury was decidedly off-colour after his first trip by air: “Avebury felt flat – I don’t know whether he didn’t like the plane or didn’t like America!”
Jet Set IVTwo of the season’s final eventing competitions are in France. Le Lion d’Angers championships are for young horses. He will be taking Jet Set IV for the seven year-olds’ competition and Swallow Springs for the six-year olds’ competition.
Then he goes to the season’s finale, the four star competition at Pau. Nicholson won that in 2012 with Nereo. This year he is taking Qwanza the eleven-year-old mare he rode to seventh place at Kentucky in 2012. Last year they came to grief at Luhmühlen…
…and which is the family’s favourite photograph in the book? I assumed it would be the happy family groups of the children on their ponies. But as we left, a small voice said that his favourite photograph was the one of “Daddy in the water” – and there it is: Andrew Nicholson and Qwanza all but submerged after falling at the first water complex on the Luhmühlen cross country course last year.
It shows vividly that even the best of eventers have those bad days: “You see”, he said with a broad grin, “what I have to put up when I get home!”
You will have to buy the book to see that photo of Andrew Nicholson.
Focused – Andrew Nicholson My Life in Pictures – with a foreword by Captain Mark Phlillips (Racing Post Books) £20.
In an interview at his Lockeridge home, the star New Zealand eventer Andrew Nicholson has said that his recovery is going well, but he is not certain when - of even if - he will be back in the saddle.
He is obviously in good spirits and has become an expert ‘couch specialist’ watching the rugby and the racing: “As a matter of fact I’m quite a connosseur on how to ride a race!”
Nicholson suffered a severe neck injury in a fall at Gatcombe Park in the summer that could have left him paralysed.
He told eventer and commentator Jonty Evans: "The surgeon's very pleased with the work he's done and the way I've looked after his work." Now he says it is a matter of being sensible and not rushing to get back in the saddle.
The surgeon has told Nicholson there is no reason why he cannot get 'back to normal': "It's healing well and it is strong."
However as the interview went on, it became obvious that Nicholson's return to the saddle was not a foregone conclusion: "It's whether I've got the commitment to want to do it. At the moment I very much want to ride, but I fully understand I can hop on a horse and I may feel frightened." If that is how it turned out, he said, "I wouldn't do it."
"I don't want to ride to make the numbers up. I don't want people to say I was only doing a good job considering he hurt his neck. I want to be doing a good job and winning. You never know till you try."
He has another scan in two weeks and that will show how well his recovery is going.
The interview is available to watch on You Tube - sponsored by Jumper's Horse Line.
CoulstyRichard Hannon Jnr's second season as trainer at the Herridge and Everleigh stables near Marlborough has been another resounding success. So far in the season he has had 174 UK winners, with prize money of nearly £3.5 million - including the 2000 Guineas winner, a winner at Royal Ascot and seven Group 1 winners.
Coming up to the flst racing season's grand finale, the Qipco British Champions Day at Ascot (Saturday, October 17), the Hannon yard's hopes rest with the four year-old bay colt Coulsty. He will run in the Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes - now a Group 1 race with prize money of £600,000.
In August Coulsty was beaten by half a length at Newbury under Frankie Dettori on good-to-soft ground over seven furlongs. So perhaps the recent deluges will be good for him. On his September outing at Doncaster he came in fifth of fifteen runners - again over seven furlongs.
Coulsty will be running against a rare entry in a British race from a training yard in Singapore - Emperor Max.
Richard Hannon Snr retired at the end of 2013, but is still part of the Herridge team. His amazing career began in 1970 with nine horses and he went on to be champion trainer five times and bring home over 4,000 winners. The family have been at Herridge for 20 years.
It has in one respect been a strange season for the Hannon family. Their long-term stable jockey (and champion jockey) Richard Hughes (Richard Jnr's brother-in-law) retired and is now training for the flat just over the border in Hampshire.
At the start of the season the yards had about 270 horses. By this stage of the year many have been sent to the sales or are already at the winter quarters. When Marlborough News Online visted Herridge on the wettest of wet Tuesdays, Richard Hannon was at the Newmarket sales.
The yearling on the right was sired by Sir Prancealot - a sprint specialist trained at Herridige and retired to stud in November 2012 after three wins from his four races.They have already taken in a new cardre of yearlings - and some of them were out exercising on the all-weather circuit. In all the stables expect about 100 yearlings to be broken-in and exercised over the winter.
Richard Hannon had two other horses entered for Champions Day: Toormore and Burnt Sugar.
Four year-old Toormore has been one of the stable's stars this season - winning the Qatar Lennox Stakes at Goodwood in July. And travelling to Turkey's Veliefendi Racecourse last month to win the International Topkapi Trophy two-and-a-half lengths clear of Perfect Warrior.
He ran in Longchamp's post-Arc Sunday card gaining 'an honourable bronze'. His lifetime earnings to date are just shy of £900,000. He will now be rested until he goes to race in Hong Kong in December.
Three year-old colt Burnt Sugar was entered for Champions Day Balmoral Handicap. And although BBC Radio 4's Today programme tipped him to win the £112,000 prize in last Saturday's Totescoop6 Challenge Cup at Ascot - he had already been declared a non-runner due to a sore hind foot.
Illuminate - showing her speedFinally, here is a Hannon-trained horse to watch next season: Illuminate. This compact two year-old bay filly started the season with an unbeaten run of victories in May, June and July. Then last month at Newmarket she was beaten by half a length in the Group 1 Chieveley Park Stakes - ironically by the horse named Lumiere.
The Hannon website recorded that neither trainer or jockey, Frankie Dettori, 'felt she lost anything in defeat'. Hannon said: "lluminate travelled well and she has run right up to her form - she beat Besharah a neck at Newmarket and now the superiority was a neck - but she just got leg-weary on the rising ground."
"That will be it for this season, but we still look at Illuminate as a 1000 Guineas filly, and she'll have her prep-race in the Fred Darling at Newbury in April."
Certainly a filly to keep a close eye on next season.
Newbury Racecourse paid tribute to one of their key jockeys on Saturday (March 21.) It was the last time Tony McCoy's would ride at one of his 'local' racecourse's popular Saturday meetings. To mark the occasion, the Racecourse made a presentation to him after the first race.
Brian Stewart-Brown, a member of the racecourse's board of directors, presented AP McCoy with a photographic montage showing some of his greatest Newbury rides.
Among them was a photograph of his victory on Mr Mole in the Betfair Price Rush Steeple Chase on February 7. It was while walking to the winner's stand after that race McCoy told Channel 4 Racing he was retiring at the end of the season.
Following the presentation on Saturday he told the parade ring announcer that he would be back to watch racing at Newbury: "It's just fifteen minutes down the road from home."
While he is always in demand for an autograph, McCoy did not have too good a day in the saddle on Saturday. He rode in five of the seven races and took one third place.
He did tell Channel 4 Racing that he did not yet know which horse he would be riding in next month's Crabbie's Grand National - Shutthefrontdoor or Cause of Causes. But he did say that if he won the race, he would probably retire immediately.
Local trainer Neil King had no winners on the Newbury card - the second day of the racecourse's Spring Jumps Meeting - though Lil Rockerfeller came home fourth in the Doom Bar Juvenile Handicap Hurdle.
However, King had sent eight year-old Milansbar and stable jockey Trevor Whelan the 680-mile trip from Barbury to Kelso. And Milansbar won the £25,000 three miles and three furlong Thakeham handicap hurdle. One to watch when he turns to fences next season.
Avebury & Andrew Nicholson in December 2015The tweet from Barbury Castle horse trials said it all: "RIP Avebury four times winner here at Barbury and Wiltshire's very own real white horse of the downs."
Avebury was put down at the Nicholsons' home at Lockeridge on Tuesday (September 6) - after a malignant tumour developed much faster than expected.
He was aged 16. He was owned by Rosemary and Mark Barlow.
The ever-popular grey took Andrew Nicholson to four consecutive wins in the Barbury International Horse Trials CIC3* - confirming him as one of Britain's greatest ever eventing horses. Andrew Nicholson rode him in 71 competitions - winning 27 of them.
Avebury and Nicholson had three consecutive victories in the Burghley CIC4* (2012-2014). In 2015, after their fourth Barbury Castle CIC3* victory, they were preparing to try for a fourth successive win at Burghley when Nicholson suffered a severe neck injury in a fall (from another horse) at Gatcombe.
That ended Nicholson's season - and nearly ended his riding career.
Avebury competed once in 2016 - winning at Witchingham in March. He was retired from eventing in April - Rosemary Barlow said then that old age was catching up with Avebury.
Since then he had lived at the Nicholsons' Westwood Stud, been hacked out and had been ridden by Andrew and Wiggy's two children Lily and Zach.
A few weeks ago Avebury developed a cancerous tumour in his jaw. It proved to be untreatable and developed so fast he had to be put down before it became painful.
The Nicholsons said: "He has been part of our family for a very long time and has given Andrew some of the greatest days of his career. He will be deeply missed."
He has been buried in the garden at Westwood Stud.
End of season: Avebury - after a roll in a muddy field at Lockeridge (September 2014)
The French four-star eventing competition at Pau this weekend holds the odd distinction of being the last major competition of 2014, but also the first of the international equestrian federation’s Classics Series for 2014-2015. 
