Nicholson with wife Wiggy and children Lily and Zach. Photo / Libby Law Photograph
Nicholson with wife Wiggy and children Lily and Zach. Photo / Libby Law Photograph
The winner of this year’s Badminton Horse Trials is bringing his family home.
Superstar rider Andrew Nicholson, who staged one of sport's most heroic comebacks, is returning to New Zealand to inspire new generations of equestrians.
The six-time Olympic competitor and former eventing world No1 will be presenting a masterclass at next week's four-day international equine extravaganza, EQUITANA Auckland.
Nicholson will be sharing the skills and intricate preparation which took a schoolboy from Kihikihi riding and selling ponies to the very top of his international game.
He will put riders through their paces in front of audiences to demonstrate "what I would do in preparation for cross-country or dressage or show jumping".
"My preparation at home and teaching the rider balance, rhythm - to show the general public the insides of what we do."
Nicholson's appearance will also be a show of supreme courage. In May, on his 37th attempt, he conquered the Badminton Horse Trials - a pinnacle of the three-day event.
He did so at 55 years, nine months and six days old - the oldest-ever winner - and less than two years after breaking his neck in a horror cross-country fall that could have easily left him paralysed.
The accident, in August 2015 at the Festival of British Eventing, was so dramatic Nicholson initially thought it was his mount Cillnabradden Evo that had been injured.
"When myself and the horse hit the ground very hard together, I heard sort of a popping sound," Nicholson recalled. "I thought the horse had broken its neck.
"The instinct is to get up very, very quick, 'cause you never quite know [if] the horse is going to land on you, and it was actually on one of my legs. I had to get myself out of there and got up very quick.
"The horse got up so I realised there was [no serious] damage to him and I thought perhaps I'd broke my collarbone."
In fact three vertebrae had been broken and he was taken to hospital where scans revealed the extent of his injury.
Nicholson remained optimistic, certain he would not only recover but ride again. "I was just very sure - I could walk, I could move everything."
The damage was that severe, however, a surgeon would later tell him "98 percent of people he would see with my injury would be totally paralysed from the neck down before he started [surgery]".
But an intricate eight-hour operation, including the removal of a shattered vertebra and replacement with a metal implant, was so successful he was able to resume his world-class riding career.
"I was very, very lucky," Nicholson said. "I had a very, very good team of people to fix me."
Nicholson underwent months of physiotherapy and had to adjust his riding style to accommodate a change in his balance - "I can't tip my head quite the same as it used to".
In May this year, he rescaled the eventing heights to take the Badminton crown. The victory was "a lot more special than I could explain".
Not only was he the oldest rider ever to win Badminton, his 17-year-old chestnut gelding Nereo was the oldest horse.
"It just shows you doesn't it, age is only a number," Nicholson said with a hearty laugh. "He doesn't know he's the oldest horse and I don't know I'm the oldest rider."
Watching him throughout were wife Wiggy and their daughter Lily, 12, and son Zach, 8, plus Nicholson's two adult daughters Rebecca and Melissa from his first marriage, and Melissa's son Cruz and daughter Bella.
He praised his wife and family for his success.
"It's obviously very tough for them, me actually carrying on doing it [eventing]. But they support me. Those six months [after the operation] was a lot of work for them - pushing me in the right places and getting the right people to show me the way forward."
Also at Badminton was a surgeon who operated on him, who put up a tent to stay till the finale of the three-day event. "He'd come up on the cross-country day to watch, and he couldn't bear leaving [and] not be there for the end."
Nicholson said numerous people had told him his Badminton win after breaking his neck had inspired them to not let setbacks get in the way of doing what they loved.
Wiggy, a trained veterinarian, and their two children will accompany Nicholson to EQUITANA, after which they will tour the country for three weeks.
It will be his first time back here for four years. "We'll be tourists in New Zealand."
Both children were "very pro New Zealand". Zach was determined "he's going to be an All Black. His biggest concern is that the selectors might not spot him, playing over here [England]".
Nicholson, who grew up on a dairy farm in Kihikihi, outside of Te Awamutu, was a promising flanker, but rugby eventually took a back seat to riding.
Andrew Nicholson rides Nereo during the Cross Country phase at the 2017 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials. Photo / Stephen Bartholomew / Libby Law Photography
"I could make money while I was still going to school, riding and selling ponies and milking the neighbour's dairy cows.
"By the time I was 15 I could buy my own car - a Holden."
Leaving Te Awamutu College he "started working for a few different racing trainers, riding their yearlings when they were broken in, then riding my own horses in the afternoon".
"That's pretty much how I then got into the eventing side of it and came to England and here we go."
Nicholson has lived in Wiltshire, in south west England, for 18 years. He trains and sells horses, mostly for eventing, on his 22ha farm.
He has trained the majority of the horses on which he competes at top level, including Nereo - selling them to owners who keep them for him to ride.
A good event horse should ideally have "a lot of natural talent, but the main thing is the mind".
"It's no different to a human athlete. It doesn't matter if you've got all the ability in the world, if you don't have the mindset to do the hard yards in between, or if you keep having injuries, you don't keep at the top."
Eventing success required a collaboration between rider and horse.
"It's no good thinking you can do it all with strength and boss them around. They're big strong things. You have to show them the way rather than tell them the way. For me, horses like to know that you are in charge but in a nice way."
At 56 and a grandfather, Nicholson plans to keep competing. "I take a little bit longer to warm up than I used to but I feel like I can jog along."
The Olympic and World Championship medallist said the secrets of his success were "being competitive and also being very realistic at what I'm doing and very happy to do the homework at home".
"I enjoy what I do. I'm very privileged to be able to get up in the morning and my job is what a lot of people spend a fortune on as their hobby. And I can make a living out of it."
He was also "very stubborn minded. If the weather's bad I still would go out and work away in the rain, the snow".
His advice to aspiring equestrians was: "Don't let anyone tell you that you can't make it."
"It's hard work and dedication - just keep going, keep grinding away. If you don't actually make it, you don't make it. But don't feel like a few years down the road you're going to look back and say, if only I had kept trying."
Andrew Nicholson
Olympic Games - 1984, on Kahlua; 1992, Spinning Rhombus, New Zealand team silver medal; 1996, Jagermeister II, team bronze; 2000, selected but did not compete as horses were not fit; 2004, Fenicio; 2008, Lord Killinghurst; 2012, Nereo, team bronze.
World Equestrian Games - 1990 Stockholm, team eventing, gold medal; 2010 Lexington, team eventing, bronze; 2010 Lexington, individual, bronze.
Burghley Horse Trials - Five-time winner: 1995 on Buckley Province; 2000, Mr Smiffy; 2012, 2013, 2014, all on Avebury.
Winner - Pau Horse Trials, 2012 on Nereo; Kentucky Three Day Event, 2013, Quimbo; Luhmuhlen Horse Trials, 2013, Mr Cruise Control; Badminton Horse Trials, 2017, Nereo.
EQUITANA Auckland
•ASB Showgrounds, November 23-26.
•Featuring stars including Andrew Nicholson, Germany's Olympic team gold medal winning dressage coach Jonny Hilberath, famous US horse trainer John Lyons, and world class showjumping trainer Rod Brown from Australia.
•Inaugural 'NZ Open' crowns in showjumping, dressage freestyle to music and grand prix dressage, as well as polo and express eventing.
•Four person teams from Australia and New Zealand head-to-head in dressage and showjumping in the 'Bledisloe Cup' of each discipline.
•Teams from across the globe competing in the U17 World Mounted Games Team Championship.
