We often meet up with UK-based Kiwi riders at Puhinui International Horse Trials who have popped back to their homeland for a break at the end of the eventing season but Jock Paget’s stay is of a more permanent kind
32 year old Jock has made the move back to New Zealand to start a new career as part of the team delivering the ESNZ performance coaching programme. His new high performance development coaching role starts in February but it will not prevent Jock from pursuing a place on the New Zealand eventing team for the World Equestrian Games in 2018 or the Tokyo Olympics
Sir Mark Todd was also at Puhinui and he too has been doing some coaching but he will be returning to the UK to start the new season with Badminton in his sights as the first 4* of the season.
Mark and Jock kindly took some time out from a signing session for fans (who were eagerly waiting in the background!) for a quick chat about their activities and some thoughts on the new WEG and Olympic formats
“It is the World Championships, it is the Olympic Games, why not leave it so that these are the competitions for the horses and the best riders in the world. I don’t think that dumbing it down to 3* level is good for the sport”
