The New Zealand team lie in equal fourth place after two days of dressage.
All pictures by and used with kind permission of Clifton Eventing. Check their facebook page regularly for super pictures throughout the event.
I had a quick chat with Jock Paget, currently lying in equal 17th place on Clifton Promise at his first Games, about the Olympic Experience. Jock told me he was really happy with his dressage, “I was a little disappointed that I missed the first change and he was half a stride late which was annoying because he’s normally really good at his changes, that probably shouldn’t have happened, but I was really happy with the rest of the test”. Poised and mature, Jock told me he didn’t have a chance to get nervous, “the good thing about that arena is that despite it being big, and it being the Olympics, you’ve got so much else to worry about that that if you can just stay focused, you don’t even think about it, you’re just too busy doing your job – that was the case for me.”
Jock talked about his teammates, especially the marvel that is Mark Todd, currently lying 3rd after conjuring a 39.1 out of the relatively inexperienced Campino, “Toddy is just a legend, isn’t he? To come out, with all the pressure on him, and he just nailed it. The horse did the best test he’s ever done, everything went perfectly. Andrew had a really tough situation, you plan your warm-up right to the last minute, and then to find out you have to wait another ten minutes is a real pain in the a** but Andrew was as cool as a cucumber, he took his horse for a stroll, waited for it to start back up again and then he went in and did a really competitive test; it was very cool to watch him do that, it was pretty impressive.” After his test Andrew made no bones of his unhappiness about the situation, but apparently has put it behind him now and is looking ahead to the jumping phases, “He’s been in the sport for so long he’s had plenty of highs and lows, he’s good at handling everything now. Everyone is in good spirits, ready to tackle tomorrow.”
Jock was on his way to a team meeting with Erik Duvander, but he already had a pretty good idea what his cross country instructions would be, “I’d imagine he’s going to tell us to go hard and fast, straight and true. I think it’s going to be quite a tough course, especially if you go fast but we have got good jumping horses and good cross -country riders (massive understatement!) so hopefully with a bit of luck, everyone’s going to need a bit of luck, but hopefully it will all go to plan.” I asked Jock if there was anything in particular on the course he was worried about, “Just not to go too fast too early, there are a lot of big hills that are going to tax the horses. I just want to make sure that I set off and get smooth before I get fast; you don’t want to get too fast too early because I think you’re going to run out of puff by the sixth minute, then you have a section of the course that puts them to sleep a bit before you have to re-start them again, so I think it’s going to be important to ride the course smart and be clever. You’re not going to be able to just gun around it, or just cruise around it, you’re going to have to be fast in the right place, give them a breather in the right place and then be fast again in the right places, I think it’s actually going to take a lot of riding.”
Since Jock already rides alongside the person most people want to meet, I asked if he’ll get a chance to stay on in the Olympic Village after the eventing is finished and meet some of his own athletic idols, “I’ve got to go back to work actually, all the other horses need to be worked, they’ve all got their own targeted events that they need to do well at (notably Clifton Lush goes to Burghley) so I’ll just go straight home and back to work, hopefully on a high.” Hopefully indeed. As I write this on the eve of cross-country with butterflies in my stomach already and wondering how on earth I’ll sleep tonight (could time possibly go any slower) Jock tells me he doubts he’ll have any such problem, “I should sleep well, I normally sleep like a baby!” Sweet dreams to Jock, and wishing the entire Kiwi team hard and fast rides, straight and true. Is Erik Duvander eventing’s answer to Friday Night Lights’ Coach Eric Taylor,”Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose”? New Zealand forever! My heartfelt thanks to Jock for chatting tonight of all nights. Go safely cross country to all the horses and riders, and Go London 2012 Olympic Eventing!
