Round up of the Cross Country phase at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trails 2013.
Jock Paget has a double-handed grip on proceedings at the end of cross country day at The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials. Occupying the top two spots with Clifton Promise and Clifton Lush, Jock has given himself every chance of adding the Land Rover Burghley trophy to his ever-expanding collection of silverware.
"I had a few hairy moments on both horses, including one at the Cottesmore Leap (fence 21) on Promise, when we almost jumped a fence judge," revealed Jock. "The jump judge was apparently flagging me down to stop from the side of the fence because the Ground Jury wanted to look at Promise's nose, which had spots of blood on it. I saw her waving a flag as I came round the corner, but by that time I had seen my distance and was committed on my stride."
Having ascertained that Promise had bitten his tongue, but that it was not adversely affecting him, Jock was allowed to carry on. Coincidently he had also been stopped mid-course on his first horse.
"Whereas the hold helped Lush [who had knocked his nose with his knee], it wasn't really in Promise's favour," he explained. "It took a while to get him back in his stride and focused again."
Jock and Promise have a fence in hand for tomorrow's show jumping. On a distinctly Kiwi dominated leaderboard, Andrew Nicholson lies in third, fifth and eighth places with his trio of rides, Avebury, Nereo and Calico Joe. Avebury and Calico Joe were two of only three horses to beat the clock and finish under the 11min24sec optimum (the third was Clifton Lush).
