Sad news from the UK with the announcement that Clifton Lush had to be put down after incurring a severe paddock injury.
Aged 18, Lush had been in retirement since the Olympics where he had travelled out as the horse Jock Paget hoped to ride. Unfortunately that wasn’t to be, as he injured his head in the Rio stables and had to be withdrawn.
Lush competed at Badminton Horse Trials four times, finishing sixth in 2016, third in 2015 and 14th in 2013 with Jock. He was also ridden at Badminton in 2010 by Joe Meyer, but was eliminated on cross-country. Joe rode Lush at Luhmühlen and Pau four-star events too, finishing just out of the top ten on both occasions.
Jock took the ride on Lush in 2011 and won the CIC3* at Bramham that year before going on to finish fifth at Burghley. He was fifth again at Burghley in 2012, and then won the British Eventing Open Championship at Gatcombe in 2013.
The chestnut gelding was by Half Iced out of All for Love (a Le Grande Seigneur mare) and was owned by Frances Stead and Russell Hall, and Lucy and Shaun Allison.
Jock, who is now based back in New Zealand, wrote a moving tribute to the horse on his Facebook page:
It is absolutely devastating that we say goodbye to Clifton Lush, he was flying around his paddock as he sometimes likes to do and suffered an injury that he won’t recover from to have a comfortable enough retirement. This is obviously a major blow to anyone who had the pleasure of meeting him. He was such a legend and he was living proof that with enough heart you can do anything. I had the pleasure of working with Lush for six years and I am hugely grateful for everything he taught me and how he gave everything and then some when I needed him to: he made the biggest of tracks feel like nothing, but he would never give anything away in the warm-up. He was a true warrior and loved his job. Huge condolences to his owners Lucy and Shaun Allison and Frances Stead and Russel Hall; he was retired last year with the greatest intentions and it’s a crying shame that this little legend won’t get the retirement he deserves. He is being cremated and the ashes will be spread in Lucy and Shaun’s orchard. RIP buddy.
Our thoughts are with Jock and his team, as well as owners Lucy and Shaun, and Frances and Russell.
