We are sat opposite each other in Emily’s boarding room in Cobham Hall girls school, a school in which we both attend. Emily has been boarding routinely every Thursday since she joined in year 7; this is the only day of the week she is away from her horses Lander and the 4 year old twins Simba and Nala. She seems very much at ease, lying comfortably on her stomach, phone in hand.
I take a few minutes to prepare everything for the interview, while doing so, I notice Emily grinning at the screen in front of her, I ask her why this is, and she turns her phone screen to face me; it is a Facebook video of an eventer jumping rather remarkable heights. I express my surprise, she just shrugs with a smile and goes back to her video. When finished, she turns her attention to her personal eventing page which has a following of almost 7000 people.
I start the interview by asking what exactly an event rider is and in her own words she explains, "an event rider is the equestrian equivalent of a triathlete; they do dressage then move on to show jumping— which is another sport entirely and includes jumping over obstacles, and then moves onto cross country."
Emily has been riding since she was 4 years old, but started event riding when she was around 9. I was curious as to why she had stuck by this sport for so long, "I have always loved the cross country element and it interested me in the way that your horse would have to be the ultimate athlete in order to compete and be successful in all three elements"
It is evident that Emily spends a lot of time with her horses and she admits it does very much interfere with her social life, when I ask her if she’s bothered by this fact she simply smiles and assures me, "it’s what I enjoy doing."
Her talent doesn’t go unrecognised. Emily tells me about her biggest accomplishment being selected for the South East under 18 CCI J* team- in simpler terms, an international complete contest junior team. She has no plans of slowing down any time soon "I intend on riding for the rest of my life, it seems to have always have been there and when I think about not riding I don’t know what I’d do with my time," it is a very time consuming sport, and Emily admits at times, school deadlines can be difficult, but her commitment is admirable and gains her popularity amongst her peers at school.
Emily Nicol is seen as an inspiration to young eventers all over the country, it is no mean feat to be so successful at such a young age, but to her, it’s not only a sport, eventing is part of who she is, and in her own words:
"I wouldn’t have it any other way"
