Back at the Table with the A-Team

The A-Team is back and somehow January already feels long. Between Diarm's medical misadventures, Spike's family odyssey to Cape Town and Sam getting ID'd at 40, it's a suitably unhinged reunion… before we finally get to the sport. From why flag penalties moved from 15 to nine, to what really separates a championship horse from a five-star horse, to Ireland's new high-performance era under Sam Griffiths, it's a state-of-play start to 2026 with perhaps more questions than answers... Listeners sent in plenty of those questions, so this is Part One - the Q&A show follows next! Guests Nicole Brown (Host) Sam Watson, five-star rider and EquiRatings co-founder Diarm Byrne, EquiRatings co-founder Spike Milligan, FEI team vet with decades of championship experience EquiRatings Eventing Podcast: Don't forget to follow us on Instagram and Facebook.