Everyone is upping their game'

Andrew Nicholson on the course-designer and riders who've impressed him

- Pippa Roome & Andrew Nicholson

MY eventing outings so far consist of Tweseldown, twice. The second fixture (report, p52) was put on with just a couple of days’ notice to replace Cirencester, which was lost to the weather. Rachael Faulkner and her team deserve a standing ovation for coming to the rescue again – full credit to British Eventing for saying, “Go for it” and to Tweseldown for being able to put it on.

Last year I was impressed with course-designer Andrew Heffernan’s lower-level tracks, and he did a great job this year, largely changing the course from the first event two weeks earlier and producing another good track.

Andrew has his own ideas, and has got the hang of more open distances now to encourage forward riding. I like what he does, and I was impressed that he was riding at the first event too. He enjoys what he is doing, which is important, and his experience as coach to the Dutch team and as a championship rider will help, for sure. I hope he gets more designing opportunities.

RISING STANDARDS