New Zealand-born International Show Jumper Grant Wilson has been named as Show Jumping coach to the Irish senior Eventing team, replacing Ian Fearon who took a step back from his coaching role with the team last month.
Grant Wilson has been named as the new Show Jumping coach to the Irish Eventing Team
Wilson has been based in Brussels (BEL) for almost 25 years and has represented New Zealand at Nations Cup level and at the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen (GER). Grant has worked with the Belgian Junior and Young Rider European Bronze Medal winning Show Jumping team, as well coaching globally in Australia, USA and the United Kingdom.
Grant Wilson has trained Belgian Olympic Eventing rider Karin Donckers for more than 13 years, and also works with Astier Nicolas – member of the French Gold medal winning Eventing Team at the Rio Olympics and with Canada’s Rebecca Howard who finished 10th individually in Rio. He also works with several of New Zealand’s Eventing riders including Dan Jocelyn, Blyth Tait and James Avery, as well as British Eventers such as World Equestrian Games team gold medal winner Tom McEwen, Holly Woodhead and Rodney Powell.
Speaking about his appointment, Grant Wilson said:
“It is a great honour to be appointed the Show Jumping Coach for the Irish Eventing Squad through to Tokyo 2020. Ireland have some very exciting and talented riders, and I look forward to the challenge of carrying on with the great success of the Individual and Team Silver medal wins at the World Equestrian Games in 2018.”
Irish Eventing Team Manager Sally Corcadden added;
“We are delighted to have secured a Show Jumping Coach of the calibre and experience of Grant Wilson for the build up to Tokyo 2020. Not only has he competed at the highest level in pure Show Jumping, he also brings invaluable knowledge of the sport of Eventing through the many riders he has prepared for previous Olympics. He has already held some clinics with our riders in Ireland and the UK, and they were very well received. This year will be spent getting to know the horse and rider combinations both in training and competition, which will help focus Olympic preparations in 2020.”
