'Can we press the reset button?'

The start of this season has been mired in issues, says Andrew Nicholson

While the 2023 eventing season is officially underway, it has been beset by so many problems that I rather feel we should press “stop” and then start again.

The weather is what it is and nobody can sort that out – it will do that itself in time. There are man-made issues, however, that do need resolving.

I was particularly cross about the loss of Barbury – my local event – from this year’s calendar because of British Eventing’s new rule that doesn’t allow international venues to run unaffiliated horse trials as well. It is ludicrous.

How often does our sport get a site like Barbury these days? If organiser Alec Lochore needs to run other competitions to be able to make the finances work, good on him. He’s still staging a much-needed and popular international event.

I see that Aston-le-Walls is taking the international fixture that weekend – fine. Nigel Taylor does an excellent job there. But you can’t compare the two places.