Written by Tony Millett.
James Paget second left in cerise and white stripesThis story is about the Greatwood way to beat the odds when they are stacked against a young man: a normal race-day at the Les Landes racecourse in Jersey reveals a very abnormal story of ambition and perseverance - the story of James Paget.
The 4.15pm flat race on Sunday, July 24 was the Animal Health Trust Celebration Mile (Handicap). James Paget is aboard the Jersey-trained twelve-year-old Fast Freddie - one of a field of ten. It was an action-packed race complete with the spectacular unseating of Michelle Hooper and a stewards' enquiry.
James and Fast Freddie, in third and fourth place for much of the race, finished a good sixth. A remarkable achievement for a young man whose first encounter with a horse was a little under four years earlier.
You can watch a recording of the whole race on You Tube.
James attended Greatwood’s Get Going programme during the summer of 2012. He came to the charity from the Amber Foundation (a residential charity that offers a fresh start to homeless unemployed young adults and helps them gain employment and accommodation) via the Princes Trust.
James at Greatwood "I was living in a hostel when I met someone that had been to the Northern Racing College (NRC) when my ears pricked up and I thought that may be something I would like to do. Also when I got talking about racing one of the members of staff at the hostel informed me that he used to be a jockey. Through the Princes Trust I went to Greatwood where they gave me the opportunity to apply to come to the NRC on their 12 week residential foundation course.”
After successfully completing Greatwood's Get Going programme and gaining an accredited qualification in Basic Care of Horses, James was then given a place at the NRC.
“My first week was really interesting and I liked the fact that they had you doing everything from mucking out to riding within the first week. I’m not so keen on the mucking out, but when I rode for the first time it makes the mucking out well worth it!"
"The first 6 weeks have gone so quickly I can’t believe it, I’m looking forward to the next 6 weeks of working hard and getting a placement with a racehorse trainer as I now know it is definitely what I want to do!"
Cheltenham Festival 2015 At the Northern Racing College, James excelled and loved riding out every day and caring for the horses. The qualifications James gained at the Northern Racing College were sufficient to secure full time employment with dual-purpose racehorse trainer, Neil Mullholland, at his yard near Bath.
It was his work at Neil Mulholland's yard that gave James Paget the thrill of a lifetime: at the Cheltenham Festival last year he proudly led Barry Geraghty and The Druids Nephew into the winner’s enclosure at the home of steeple chasing - to the roar of a near capacity crowd - after the eight-year-old bay gelding’s gallant victory in the Ultima Business Solutions Handicap Chase.
James Paget was sent on his way to a career with horse racing by Greatwood: “Before I went to Greatwood I had never had any contact with horses, but as soon as I walked through the gates I knew that I wanted to work with horses for the rest of my life.” The odds on his having a successful racing career just got shorter.
[Jersey photos courtesy www.kandidprints.com and Cheltenham photo courtesy GJMultimedia - their copyright]
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Written by Tony Millett.
Sarah Dalziell-Clout, New Zealand's Director of High PerformanceNew Zealand's eventing squad for the Rio Olympics - four of its five members travelling to Brazil are based in the Marlborough area - are aiming to win two medals at the Games.
This week Sarah Dalziell-Clout, high performance director of Equestrian Sport New Zealand joined team members at their training camp near Chepstow.
She arrived from New Zealand three weeks ago - just in time to attend the Barbury International Horse Trials: "They showed me the gallops there - they're wonderful. And I loved the trials - it's such a great setting in that bowl in the hills."
Sarah told Marlborough.News that they have been upfront about their ambition to achieve one team and one individual medal: "Our team has pretty incredible depth in riders and horses. You always need luck on your side on the day - making sure the horses are sound."
"Now I just want to wrap the horses in cotton wool, but they have to keep training."
And they were still training this week.
Team member Sir Mark Todd - who brings to the team the experience of preparing for nine Olympic Games - was warming up and then completing a full dressage test [see photos below]. He and Leonidas II were watched by coach Erik Duvander and other members of the team.
Minal's Jonelle Price told Marlborough.News she has a good preparation for the Games with her 11-year old dapple grey Faerie Dianimo. Known in the yard as Maggie May, she is a feisty mare - in Jonelle's words 'an opinionated athlete': "A couple more gallops and then we're off."
Mr and Mrs Price watching the training sessionJonelle and Maggie May had finished seventh at the previous week's Aachen 3* competition. After their dressage test they were in second place and added just eight show jumping faults and 6.80 time penalties in the cross country.
"To get to the Olympics is why I do this sport," Jonelle told me. "Within eventing the World Equestrian Games are held in the same regard. Outside the fraternity the Olympics are recognised by the whole world. Any sporting person's dream is to get to the Olympics."
Jonelle's husband Tim is the squad's travelling reserve: "He's on a bit of a holiday as things are. But he has to be ready until the trot up" - when the horses are checked to make sure they are fit to compete.
The Rio Games may be a watershed for eventing. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) want more gender equality and more teams at the Tokyo Games in 2020. Sarah Dalziell-Clout says eventing scores well on the gender front, but getting more teams into the competition may mean some 'dumbing down'.
Talks are going on between the national organisations and the International Equestrian Federation (known as the FEI) and negotiations with the IOC will follow: "We could end up with the Olympics not being the sport's pinnacle. They have to be careful not to lose the Olympics premier position to the World Equestrian Games."
Sir Mark Todd relaxing after his dressage test 
Sir Mark & Leonidas... 
...it was nearly as hot as Brazil.
After the training: Sir Mark listens to the coaches
The New Zealand team's horses and their grooms fly out to Rio on July 29 - with a twelve hour flight ahead of them. The riders and the rest the team follow the next day.
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Written by Tony Millett.
Jock Paget For Marlborough based eventing rider Jock Paget, the Rio Olympics will be his second Games with New Zealand's team. He was part of the Kiwis' bronze medal winning team at the London Olympics.
In the midst of preparations to go to the Aachen horse show, he told Marlborough.News that New Zealand has a really strong squad. He and Jonelle Price (Minal) have Olympic experience, she has World Championships experience and Clarke Johnstone is in great form. And then there is Sir Mark Todd: "Well, he's done everything - a few times."
In fact it will be the seventh Olympics at which Todd (who is based at Badgerstown) has competed for New Zealand and the ninth in which he has been involved. He was selected for the boycotted Moscow Games, he was in team in 1996 but his horse went lame and, after his 'retirement', he was the team trainer in 2004.
The squad for Rio has Tim Price as its travelling reserve and the very experienced Blyth Tait as its non-travelling reserve.
With a rueful smile, Jock Paget adds a word of caution about Olympic prospects: "We went to the World Championships as a favoured team and it all went terribly wrong - except for Jonelle. We just have to do well on the day - and hope that's enough."
Jock is taking the 17-year-old gelding Clifton Lush to Rio: "He's been an amazing horse for me." He has ridden Clifton Lush for five years and together they have been third and sixth at Badminton, been placed fifth at Burghley twice, won the Bramham International in 2011 and the British Open Championship in 2013.
Jock Paget and Clifton LushAlso travelling with Jock and Clifton Lush will be senior groom Anke Hoyer. The team will be supplying all that is needed by way of logistic, veterinary and farriery staff.
Not long after the London Olympics Jock suffered a major problem that threatened his future and took a great deal of perseverance to resolve. After winning Burghley in 2013 - a major success as that year it was an especially tough field - his horse Clifton Promise failed a drugs test.
He knew that he and his stable staff had not purposefully fed any banned substance to the horse and he had been using the same feed and supplement without any problems for many years.
With the help of his sponsors and his home federation - Equestrian Sports New Zealand - he set out to discover how the test had been failed.
He found an endurance rider whose horse had been failed because of the same substance. This rider had used a veterinary practice which knew how to look for contamination. They tested everything in the yard from buckets to taps and did DNA tests to get a timeline so they could tell exactly when the rogue substance had been introduced.
It turned out that a supplement that Jock had been using for years had become contaminated before it reached the yard. A weed had got into a batch and in an unnoticed reaction produced the banned chemical.
Fortunately the manufacturer had kept a sample of the batch from which Clifton Promise had been fed. They sent it for testing and the result was positive.
It had taken Jock ten months to be totally exonerated and clear his name. Clifton Promise was retired earlier this year.
With the Olympics approaching, Jock did not want to risk a repeat of that stressful episode. Clifton Lush has been independently tested and so has the current batch of the supplement and feed. Both were declared clean so he has bought enough of that batches to last through the Olympics: "We know everything we're using is safe."
Jock Paget is 32 years-old. He was born in New Zealand but moved to Australia when he was five. He came to riding quite late: "Where I grew up there no horses to be seen."
He left school at 15 and worked as an apprentice bricklayer. Four years later he rode a horse his father had bought, and when his apprenticeship was complete, he got a job as a working pupil.
Aged 26 he came to Britain with Clifton Promise and was based in Surrey till he moved to Wiltshire at the end of 2014: "We call Wiltshire the eventing capital of the world."
He married last November and lives near Marlborough.
Since his comeback Jock has been doing well again. Jock took Clifton Signature to ninth place in Germany's premier eventing competition, the Aachen three star, well into the prize money. He was 2.20 points behind his fellow New Zealand team member Jonelle Price who took seventh place.
Jock's main sponsor is AnaCap Financial Partners with support from other companies including The Pure Feed Company and Childeric UK. You can watch a short video made by Cavewood Productions here.
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Written by Tony Millett.
Harry Meade & Sparky's Reflection (Photo: Adam Dale)Wiltshire-based rider Harry Meade took the £2,000 first prize in the Retraining of Racehorses Championship at the St James's Place Barbury Internaitonal Horse Trials at the weekend.
Meade won with his versatile new ride, Sparky’s Reflection.
The bay gelding was originally trained over hurdles by Henrietta Knight, but has since had a varied career with his owner Amy Martin, including Pony Club, hunting, advanced eventing – and galloping along the Norfolk coast.
Harry Meade was very pleased at the way Sparky's Reflection performed: “Having come from Henrietta, he’s probably had as good a start as any eventer, and he’s been a real family horse with Amy."
“He might have been a lazy racehorse, but he’s a sweet, charming character and I’d like to see how far he can go in eventing.”
Zoe Wilkinson finished second on Craignure and racehorse trainers’ daughters Kristina Cook (Watergate) and Harriet Dickin (Tilt du Chatelier) came third and fourth.
The RoR Championship bowl presented by Alan King (Photo: Adam Dale)As Kristina Cook completed her clear showjumping round, she was clearly thrilled: "Wow - that feels like I've just won gold at the Olympics, Wally [Watergate] tried so hard, thoroughbreds are such a generous breed".
Ginny Howe led going into the final jumping phase on Creeslough, but the horse put in an abrupt stop at a fence on a slope.
The Retraining of Racehorse Eventing Championships is sponsored by RoR and the National Trainers Federation. The prizes were presented by Barbury's home jumps trainer, Alan King.
Retraining of Racehorses is the official charity for the welfare of former racehorses. It aims to raise funds from the British racing industry to help support charitable retraining and rehoming of retired racehorses.
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![Celebrations...Formula One style? [Click on photos to enlarge them]](/images/images/Equestrian_-_Horsebox/BARBURY_HORSE__TRIAL_2016/BRBRY_16_ERM_CHAMPAGNE_.jpg)
