Talk to a top eventer, and they’ll tell you that building a partnership with an upper-level horse someone else produced takes two years. While they might appear to strike it off immediately, sometimes with stellar results, there’s nuance to developing the kind of unflappable partnership that can weather small errors and make it seem as though horse and rider are of one mind.

Last weekend at Mars Bromont (Quebec), Lauren Nicholson proved just how true that sentiment is when she topped the CCI4*-L with Larcot Z. The event marked the two-year anniversary of her Fédération Equestre Internationale debut with the 12-year-old Zangersheide (L’Arc De Triomphe—Kocote De La Londe, Socrate De Chivre) owned by Jacqueline Mars. Their partnership now solidified, the pair took home the win this year—the first four-star long win of Nicholson’s career.

“I felt so thrilled that Ms. Mars was there to watch,” Nicholson said of her longtime owner. “I’ve really owed her this one for a long time, so it was very nice to finally deliver for her on the day.”

Building A Partnership

Originally the French-bred gelding was ridden by Reagan LaFleur, who frequently rode with Nicholson’s mentors, Karen and David O’Connor. Nicholson had her eye on him from the early days—in fact, she tried to buy him after watching LaFleur’s first lesson with David. As the young rider brought the gelding up to the two-star level, Nicholson stayed impressed with his progression.

When LaFleur went to school, she turned the reins over to her trainer Will Coleman, who brought him to the three-star level. During Coleman’s tenure as “Larco’s” rider, Nicholson had frequent conversations with her teammate about the gelding. When LaFleur got a great job offer when she graduated and decided to sell, Coleman’s first call was to Nicholson.

“The deal was done in less than 24 hours. I was like, ‘Absolutely,’ ” Nicholson said. “You would spend thousands and thousands flying all over Europe trying to find this horse, and it’s in our backyard.”

Nonetheless, taking over from another rider is atypical for Nicholson, who has earned a reputation for bringing her top horses up from the very beginning, and her string has included a number of Mars’ homebreds. But given the gelding’s stellar education under both LaFleur and Coleman’s saddles, she said it was an easier transition than it has been with others.

She ran one preliminary horse trial to get a feel for the gelding in competition conditions, then took him to Bromont for the CCI3*-L in 2023 where they finished fourth.

“It’s hard because there’s always a honeymoon phase the first few runs, and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, we were made for each other. There’s absolutely nothing that needs changed,’ ” she said. “And then you start finding the little things—not problems, just, you know, everybody’s got their techniques and styles and everything else, and it’s just kind of ticking those boxes.”

While Nicholson tested the waters at advanced after Bromont, 2023 she kept him at the three-star level for the rest of 2023, finishing second in the CCI3*-L at the Mars Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill. Last year, she level-hopped between intermediate and advanced as she continued to experiment with what was best for the gelding, leaning on the lessons she’s learned over her career.

“When you’re younger, you make the mistake of, ‘I bought an upper-level horse, I’m going to go upper levels on it,’ and then you find those holes in kind of big situations that then create bigger holes that you have to go fix or they can’t be fixed,” she said. “So with age comes wisdom, I’m told, so I try to just really gradually tick each box and kind of move them up as if they haven’t done the level before. And then I find those little things that need fixed one at a time in situations that it’s not going to become a bigger issue.”

Their first two attempts at a four-long proved ill-fated though. Their first took place last year at Boekelo (the Netherlands), where they competed as individuals. Though the event is infamous for its wet weather, the conditions deteriorated significantly on cross-country day, and as they were late in the order, Nicholson elected to withdraw before cross-country because she didn’t want to risk injury.

A month later, they tried again at The Event at TerraNova (Florida), but Nicholson pulled up when Larco started bleeding from the nose three fences from home. He was subsequently diagnosed with a lung infection. This year, she was determined to shake off the bad luck.

They have gone from strength to strength this season. They started with wins in the advanced at Rocking Horse Winter II (Florida) and TerraNova, before taking sixth in the CCI3*-S at Tryon International (North Carolina). Initially Nicholson had toyed with the idea of taking Larco to either Millstreet Horse Trials (Ireland) or Bromont, but when airlines stopped offering a direct flight to Dublin, she decided to skip the more arduous trans-Atlantic travel.

“I wanted to take him to a proper four-long,” she said. “I knew the questions [at Bromont] would be up to par, and the terrain and fitness would help him get to that next level of base.”

Putting It To The Test

Once at the event, which ran June 4-8, Larco put all doubts to bed. He took the lead in the dressage on a 27.1, and though it was a three-point improvement on his last four-long score, Nicholson felt they left a couple points on the table. She admitted to being disappointed about their 14.8 time penalties on cross-country, but with smoke in the air from wildfires in Canada, and the four-star running first, she didn’t want to start too aggressive until she knew how much of an effect the air quality had on the horses.

“We didn’t have the chance to see how it went for some of the lower levels, so you kind of weren’t super confident to put the hammer down the first few minutes, just because you wanted to make sure you had plenty of horse at the end,” she said. “I definitely could have been quicker in the beginning, which is great to know in the future, and I certainly plan to the next time.”

They were fourth after cross-country, and when Ema Klugman, who had been first and second Saturday night but withdrew one horse and was eliminated on the other before show jumping, Nicholson and Larco’s double-clear performance—the only one of the divison—was enough to boost them to the top spot.

“It’s nice to go into show jumping on a horse like him, because he’ll turn himself inside out not to touch any rails,” Nicholson said. “In the past, I’ve kind of always had great cross-country horses, which are also typically one- or two-railers, and you had to always have a pretty distinct plan and execute it just right. And with Larco, it’s really just ride well, and he’ll jump well. Just don’t make a huge mistake, and honestly, he probably still jump you out of them. It’s not too complicated, which is really nice.”

New Year, Reimagined Program

The strong first half of the year has proven to Nicholson that re-inventing her program this year was a good move. While in the past, the most successful riders had huge strings of horses, as the courses have become more technical, she’s realized that having seven or eight horses at each event was no longer feasible. So, she looked at the riders who were winning a lot, and they had smaller programs.

“The flip side is then things are a bit cyclical: They win a lot; there’s a quiet four years, and they win a lot again,” she said. “So we took a step back, really streamlined how many horses we have and also brought back Kimmy Cecere to kind of help out with the young horses and the producing everything else.”

Cecere was formerly Nicholson’s assistant rider, before she spent several years training and competing in Europe. Now that she’s returned stateside, she’s built her own business and program, but she and Nicholson work closely, and because they have similarly riding philosophies, they’re able to bounce ideas off one another. She also has Caitlin O’Roark and Sophia Middlebrook in the barn, and it’s created a team atmosphere, where they share responsibility for bringing up the young horses.

“We swap horses all the time if it seems appropriate, so it’s nice, because we all have different skills,” Nicholson said. “It’s still in the experimental phase, but so far it’s been working. We’ve been super competitive this year.”

She also credits her longtime groom Sally Robertson for helping her reimagine her program to ensure it was as successful as possible.

“It’s a partnership, and she’s the first one to sit me down and be like, ‘Lauren, it’s not working,’ or tells me, ‘Get on with it.’ She’s got the good old Kiwi side to her. Sometimes you need to be told to get on with it,” Nicholson said. “But she certainly is an integral part of the success.”