New Zealand’s top eventer Andrew Nicholson remains excluded from the country’s high performance list as of July 1. Nicholson removed himself from consideration for the team last October, after a physical altercation with a veterinarian at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in France. Since then, Nicholson’s been in discussions with the high performance program about rejoining.
“Missing from the squad is Andrew Nicholson, who has chosen to withdraw from negotiations to reintegrate him into the High Performance Squad,” stated the latest press release from Equestrian Sports New Zealand.
An article in the New Zealand Herald reports that Nicholson recently met with ESNZ chief executive Vicki Glynn at his farm, but the results of that meeting weren’t favorable.
“I’m clear in my mind that I’m finished with them,” Nicholson told the New Zealand Herald. “I have drawn a line and will carry on doing my own thing. They forget I’ve been doing that for seven to eight months anyway.”
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The article also details the physical altercation that took place between Nicholson and New Zealand’s team veterinarian at least year’s WEG: “Nicholson admitted grabbing New Zealand team vet Ollie Pynn by the lapels and shifting him approximately 4 meters across a corridor because he was dissatisfied with the monitoring of his horse Nereo, who was on an intravenous drip before the show jumping.”
“If I’m good enough and needed for [the 2016 Olympic Games in] Rio, it’ll be on my terms,” Nicholson said. “The Olympics are not until next year. They could change their attitude if the main players run out of horses.”
