Equestrian: Jocelyn caps off Kiwi trifecta

BURGHLEY - Dan Jocelyn completed a rare journey from barrel racing at the Wainuiomata Pony Club to the rarified heights of the podium at the Burghley three-day event yesterday.

Jocelyn, 30, stunned the experts with superb riding at the elite event to take third on his gelding Silence. Impressively, he held the score he notched up in the dressage through cross-country and showjumping.

The only other rider in the elite 100-plus field to manage that feat was New Zealand's world champion, Blyth Tait, who won for the second time. Another New Zealander, Andrew Nicholson, was second.

It was the first clean sweep of a top-flight event by any country for seven years, when Todd, Tait and Vaughn Jefferis went one-two-three at Badminton.

Jocelyn, who as a youngster starred in the barrel races at Wainuiomata, six years ago decided to try his luck in England.

"I kept seeing Mark [Todd] and Andrew and Blyth coming back to New Zealand and competing, and watching them on TV, and I knew I wanted to do more in the sport than I was doing.

"I wanted to do Badminton and Burghley, so I brought a horse over and went through the motions, waiting until a good one came along."

That was Silence, an 11-year-old. Jocelyn's dream of riding at the Olympic Games came true last year, only to be shattered when Silence suffered a life-threatening injury just before he was to go into quarantine.

So Jocelyn watched the Games on television as vets fought to save Silence. He had his wither cut away, after it was shattered in three places. He had to stand still for three months in a stable while he recuperated.

"I've got over it now, but I was very disappointed because that was all I'd aimed to do - I had a good enough horse for the Olympics," Jocelyn said.

Until yesterday Jocelyn was hardly known outside the equestrian world compared with riders such as Tait, Nicholson, Todd and Jefferis.

He said he had never seen their giant presences as a hindrance.

- NZPA