MARLBOROUGH-BASED Olympic eventer Andrew Nicholson had an action-packed Bank Holiday weekend when he travelled nearly 1000 miles to take in part in two competitions.

The New Zealand 48-year-old journeyed up to Blair Castle, in Perthshire to contest the annual International Horse Trials, which runs both three-day and an international one-day events.

The trip was rewarded with a win in one of two CCI* sections, the first rung of the three-day event ladder, on Rosemary Barlow’s six-year-old mare Qwanza.

“Qwanza is a Spanish-bred mare I’ve had from a three-year-old,” said Nicholson.

“She’s a very smart horse who coped well with the poor weather up in Scotland and looks good for the future.”

The mare was scoring her first BE win in 2009 but has made the top four in all but two of her eight one-day runs this season.

Nicholson was also fifth in the second CCI* section on Deborah Sellars’ six-year-old gelding Quimbo who, like Qwanza, is by the famed competition horse sire Lacros.

The horse, who has scored one-day wins at Withington Manor and Longleat in 2009, completed on his dressage score.

Nicholson rounded off a busy event with seventh in the step higher CCI** on the eight-year-old Oplitas, owned by the Twenty Twelve in Mind Syndicate.

The horse was lying second after cross country but two showjumps down, on the last day, dropped him a few places.

Nicholson then made a nine-hour drive down to Highclere Horse Trials, near Newbury in Berkshire, with three more of his string.

Highclere was the final round in the Mitsubishi Motors Stately Homes Challenge and Andrew came into the competition as the overall points table leader.

In the end it was a close-run affair but Nicholson’s marathon trip paid off when he finished fifth in an Intermediate section on the six-year-old Jack Green. That left him equal first in the overall points table with Bath rider Alex Peternell but, as he was three seconds closer to the cross country optimum time, he was awarded the winner’s £5,000 fund.

Lower Stanton St Quintin’s Kitty Boggis won the top Advanced section at Highclere on Janet Jarvis’ horse General Opposition, who was notching up his fourth win of a highly successful season.

The pair finished ahead of dressage leader Rodney Powell, the Swindon-based international who performed a fine test on Langarth Darcy but then added 20 cross-country time penalties to that score.

Chinese Olympic event star Alex Hua Tian was third on Magenta.

Marlborough-based Catherine Burrell put a stop to Boggis’s attempt at a double on Bee Animas, when she pushed her into second in the Open Intermediate section riding Urzan.

Boggis was also second in a BE100 (Pre Novice) section on the five-year-old mare Zidante, a triple winner to date this season.

Chippenham’s Jane Lawson, Beaufort Hunt Pony Club’s Alicia Hawker and Tetbury’s Sally Johnson all won BE 100 sections on Saffira, the pony Abbots Murfys Law and Fernhill T Scarlett.

Meanwhile, Foxham 20-year-old Georgie Spence scored a double at the Burnham Beeches BE one-day event, on the Bucks/Berks border.

The Young Rider European gold medallist won two Novice sections on two seven-year-olds - Sharon Alston’s home-bred bay Jovial Valentino, who she started riding in April, and Velosity III.

“I was really pleased with Jovial Valentino’s dressage as he can get on the forehand,” said Spence, who has been chosen for the GB Young Rider European Championship team due to travel to Belgium this month with Skylight.

“I’ve been working hard on getting him going uphill and some of the test was very good.

"He hasn’t had a pole down since I took him over and is always quick cross country.”

This was Velosity’s first run since jumping a double clear in the British Novice Championships at Gatcombe at the beginning of August and the gelding led all the way with an ‘immaculate’ performance.

“I now own Velosity jointly with Annabel Bingley, who lives near me,” added Spence.

“The plan is to qualify him for the 2010 British Intermediate Championships.”

Hodson teenager Tom McEwen earned two seconds at Burnham Beeches, twice completing on his dressage score.

This was on his Novice ride Diesel, a seven-year-old recording his best result of the season, and Man on a Mission III, runner-up in a BE100 section.

Both Nicholson and Spence will be going to the Land Rover Burghley International Horse Trials, which start today in Lincolnshire, where they will be at different ends of the experience scale.

Burghley is one of the world’s leading three-day events, one of only a handful held across the globe at the highest four-star level, putting it on a par with Badminton and Lexington in the USA.

Entrants, who include 2008 winner William Fox-Pitt and a host of Olympians, will be chasing the Land Rover Perpetual Challenge trophy and £50,000 first prize.

Nicholson won the title in 1995 and 2000 and regularly makes the top end of the line up.

This time he will again be a strong fancy with the nine and 10-year-olds Nereo, who is making a four-star debut having won the three star Bramham event in June, and Armada, eighth at Burghley in 2008.

Spence will be making just her second appearance at Burghley, having finished 17th in 2008 with Running Brook II, who she again rides for owner Glen Woodman.

She has also entered Birthday Night, a new ride in 2009 who was 20th at Burghley last year with Harry Meade, and jumped clear cross-country at Badminton with both her rides this season.

“I can’t wait to get back to Burghley – all the preparations this time have gone really well,” said Georgie.

“After Badminton both horses did Open Intermediates at Longleat and Aston-le-Walls and then the World Cup qualifier at Gatcombe.”

Burghley starts with dressage today and tomorrow, a day which also hosts the finals of the Burghley Dubarry Young Event Horse Championships.

They will then face Captain Mark Phillips’ daunting 27 fence cross country course on Saturday, with the final show jumping phase on Sunday.

A host of other local riders will also be hoping for success led by West Littleton’s Harry Meade on the great veteran Midnight Dazzler, now 19 and who has made the top 20 at Badminton and Burghley a total of seven times.

Meade, son of double Olympic event gold medallist Richard Meade who won Burghley back in 1964, also rides the big dun horse Dunauger.

Other locals to cheer on include Boggis on Boondoogle, Powell on Zinzan II, Highworth-based Aussie Paul Tapner on Inonothing and Kilfinnie II, Olympic team silver medallist Clayton Fredericks on Poilu, double Olympic champion Mark Todd on Gandalf and Burghley first timer Alex Peternell, on Tiger’s Eye II.