ANDREW Nicholson continued his love affair with the Barbury Horse Trials by ending day one of the Event Rider Masters competition in third place.

The Marlborough-based New Zealander has won the CIC*** event at Barbury for the last four years on board Avebury but is returning for the first time this year without his decorated mount.

However, that did not prevent Nicholson from producing another stellar showing on the Marlborough Downs as, riding Nereo, he recorded a score of 37.6 in the ERM’s opening dressage event.

The ERM is a new series introduced for this year, with Barbury the third of six events on the schedule that will crown an overall champion in September.

Brazilian Marcio Carvalho Jorge leads the way after the dressage stage with a score of 32.5 on board Lissy Mac Wayer. The show jumping and cross-country legs will take place tomorrow.

Nicholson has only recently returned to the sport after recovering from a horrific fall last year and was pleased to turn in another strong performance in front of a ‘home’ crowd.

“He (Nereo) loves doing it. It felt like he was very smooth and settled and it was good,” said Nicholson.

“It took me enough goes the first few times but it’s a good place for me, I enjoy doing it.

“He (Nereo) was ready to go to Badminton but I wasn’t up to speed to doing that.

“I was planning on doing this class at Barbury and then when I realised I was going to have my three-star horses doing cross-country and this cross-country, I thought it was stupid to push the boundaries so far and expect too much of the horses and myself, so I binned that idea and here we are.”

Swindon-based Sir Mark Todd is in fifth place, with the New Zealand Olympic legend scoring 40.1 on Leonidas II, just ahead of Australian Paul Taper, who is based in Highworth, after a score of 40.2 on Yogi Bear.

Another of Marlborough’s New Zealanders, Jonelle Price, is 10th after and her mount Classic Moet posted 43.4.

Todd, who made a mistake towards the start of his run, said: “He was just a little bit on edge and a little bit inattentive to me.

“After that he was lovely, really good. The walk is always a little bit fragile with him but he walked today pretty good.

“The atmosphere is fairly strong here, we’ve got the wind, it’s a bit chilly, there’s flags flapping and dogs barking and other music going on. There’s a lot of distraction, so I was really happy with that.

“He can be a bit fragile but I also know now that he is also very well trained. It was just a momentary blip, you’ve just got to put it behind you and carry on.”

Meanwhile, Gemma Tattersall retains the overall lead in the CIC*** competition on board Quicklook V after today’s show jumping round.

Tattersall led the field overnight after yesterday’s dressage with a score of 38.2 and followed it up with a clear run this afternoon.

Pippa Funnell and her mount Billy The Biz retain second place, with a clear jumping round to accompany her 40.9 dressage score. Oliver Townend had been third overnight but retired his horse, Armada. Australian Christopher Burton is now up to third on board Polystar I on 42.2.

Lambourn’s Laura Collett, riding Grand Manoeuvre, is fourth, with Marlborough-based Tim Price and Bango up to eighth from 11th.

Highworth man Tapner has two charges immediately outside the top 10, Kilronan and Vanir Kamira. Nicholson’s best placed horse is Jet Set VI in 16th and Landslide is Todd’s highest placed entry in 30th.