Jock Paget, photo by Samantha Clark
The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials are just over a week away, and 2013 Badminton champion Jock Paget has been blogging on the Burghley site leading up to the event. In his most recent entry, he explained how he uses smaller horse trials as schooling situations for a big event like Burghley. It’s easy to get caught up in the competitive spirit at any horse show, but keeping the end goal in sight sometimes it’s better to sacrifice a lesser event and train your horse.
From Jock Paget, via burghley-horse.co.uk:
I took Clifton Promise to Aston Le Walls and finished 32nd out of 39. I should have gone slower across country and finished last!
I did a lot of slowing him down and speeding him up, slowing him down and speeding him up and adding in extra strides just to make sure he’s good for Land Rover Burghley. He used to hate doing this as he’s a thoroughbred and wants to race but he’s got so used to it now.
All the horses I rode at Aston were ridden this way because very rarely do I go to these type of events to win and more often than not I use them solely for training purposes.
Jock also discussed his own fitness, and how he has cut out the alcohol to get down to his target weight before Burghley.
I’ve been going to the gym three times a week working with a personal trainer on my core strength and stability doing lots with a Swiss ball and lifting weights to strengthen up and improve my balance.
I’ve also just started my Burghley Diet so I am now on non-alcoholic beer! I started the year weighing 82 kilos (180 lbs) but for the big three day events I like to weigh 76 kilos (167 lbs). I just weighed myself ten minutes ago and I’m 74.7 kilos (165 lbs) which means I can have couple of normal beers tonight! I’m finding that it is easier to lose the weight before the big three day events than it used to be and this time I lost the weight very easily. I do it because it’s unnecessary for me to be any heavier and the lighter and fitter I am the better it is for the horse. I feel good and strong at the moment.
Best of luck to Jock at Burghley! Can he continue on for the Rolex Grand Slam? Stay tuned for EN for more from Burghley as the event approaches.
