Jonathan Paget’s Helmet Cam and Clifton Eventers

This article was originally published on Eventing Nation

As snow falls and the temperature drops here in Kentucky, I wonder a) why on earth do I live in Lexington, b) how soon can I migrate south, c) when is too cold for a black Labrador to paddle in the pond, and d) how can he not be freezing if the snow isn’t melting on his coat?  I also start browsing the internet, dreaming of warmer climes, and look: Clifton Eventers in New Zealand has obliged by posting their latest helmet cam ride from the Richfields International Horse Trials, which was also their National One Day Eventing Championships.  Clifton Eventers, of course, is a New Zealand based company that produces event horses for competition and sale–all of their horses’ names begin with “Clifton.”

Clifton Promise was for me, one of the most outstanding horses at Rolex 2010, and I was thrilled to see him come back to the Kentucky Horse Park and fulfill his potential at WEG in the autumn, finishing seventh overall. I spoke to Francis Stead, the owner and founder of the Clifton empire, and rider Jonathan “Jock” Paget at Rolex, and then caught up with them again a few times during the Games.  Francis is from England originally, and although the original plan was for Jock and Promise to spend this past summer preparing for the WEG in the US, they ultimately decided that Promise would have an easier campaign, travel wise, in England, and Jock would benefit from being under the eagle eye of what he described as his “three wise men”, kiwi team mates Andrew Nicholson, Mark Todd, and Trainer Erik Duvander.  Those four were practically inseparable during the WEG.
The website (CliftonEventers.com) is easy to navigate, and updated regularly, although I have to admit I had to look up “agistment”–in case you don’t know it’s derived from cattle for grazing, but anyway…
With over a hundred Clifton horses already in the US, and a thriving business, and with a successful corporate career under her belt, Francis Stead knows her marketing, and the Richfields helmet cam video is the second one posted on their website.  The website says they would eventually like to add running rider commentary to the videos, and already the two they’ve produced are a different animal to the amateur ones I’ve seen on Youtube, which I find charming, and of course my personal favorites, the Run Henny Run videos.

From the very start, Jock is very aware that the camera is running all the time, saying hello the starter/steward and warning them they are “on tv.”  Also, in this particular case, the “glance off,”  as it it described in the article, at fence 17, is edited out. The horse seems to be having a great go and also seems to be going extremely quickly.  The speed is also alluded to on the site, rather proudly, as they boast that Jock only gets 4.8 time penalties despite said run-out.  Not sure if I would be too proud of that but still….

Here’s the video:

What do you think? Are helmet cams going to become a tool to sell horses? I was just enjoying the sunshine in the video and the exhilaration of feeling like I was galloping around a big track again (armchair competitor, ha ha!).  It’s fantastic to be able to see different courses from all over the world from this perspective definitely. Will there be a compilation CD by next Christmas?  I loved that about half way through this ride you can see the shadow silhouette galloping alongside, so visually I’m a complete convert.  However, if they are going to be used as a marketing tool, and with editing being so slick now, (present company excepted, sadly!), I rather wish they’d left the full video as is, but at least they did acknowledge the run out.

I think helmet cams are destined to become ever more popular, whether for fun at the lower levels or maybe for more serious purposes, but as much as I enjoyed the Clifton video, it just made me realise how special those rides around Rolex and the WEG were with Peter and HJ Hampton, and I’m so grateful we were privileged to share them.

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