Photos: Tilly Berendt, Adam Fanthorpe, Bob Langrish
“I’m just so incredibly lucky,” Nicola Wilson says with her characteristic beaming grin. It’s not the first time she’s said it over the course of our conversation, nor will it be the last - but its frequency neatly sums up something integral to the Yorkshire-based eventer’s indomitable spirit.
It’d be easy for the rider to be stuck in the doldrums right now, to feel as though the universe was dealing her something of a bad hand. In the middle of 2019, an innocuous trip to Arville Horse Trials in Belgium ended her season early when a fall saw her fracture four vertebrae in her neck. Then, her recuperation was hit by another hurdle when she was struck with a nasty bout of pneumonia as a result of her incumbence. Finally, as she rebuilt her strength and planned her return to the sport, Covid-19 pulled eventing’s shutters back down. But despite it all, Nicola’s still smiling.