High ring IQ advances Shane Sweetnam’s Coriaan van Klapscheut Z
Ireland’s Shane Sweetnam and Coriaan van Klapscheut Z landed a victory in the $116,000 WEF Challenge Cup round 10 CSI4* as the 10-year old Belgian Warmblood continued to hone his craft while in competitive action.
“Where he learns is in the ring,’ said Shane, ranked 9th in world show jumping rankings. “He’s got very good ring IQ. When I used to school him at home, trying to make it smoother – yeah, it was okay, but honestly, I found he learned more in the ring. And the more rounds I did, the better he got.”
Shane and ‘Corey’ as he’s known at home in the barn, owned by Shane and Voquest LLC – jumped clear in a time of 34.53 seconds to significantly distance leaders Mario Deslauriers and Inside Of My Heart with their time of 38.12 seconds. Germany’s Christian Kukuk and Viki Van Gogh put up a challenge – last to go in the jump off – but had to settle for the runners up slot with a time of 34.53 seconds.
Shane reflected that Corey was given a steep learning curve last year. “He would step up to the [International] level quicker than he was meant to last year because he was quite green,” said Shane. “But he got some really good results last year as well. But he was still learning. Where this year I’ve found that he’s a lot more mature. So every class I expect him to be there or thereabouts.”
This Winter Equestrian Festival [WEF] Corey has been on form – and set Sweetnam up for a good winter season last fall when the Irishman won his first Grand Prix of the year at the ESP Pre-charity show in November. Week 4 also gave Corey and Sweetnam a $215,000 CSI4* Grand Prix win and the pair finished third in the $200,000 JTWG Inc CSIO4* Grand Prix to close out week eight of WEF.
Maria Israelsson who has been at the helm for Shane Sweetnam for 10 years as his groom recalled that ‘Corey’ originally arrived at the barn about a year and a half ago, aged 8, with a few quirks. “At the beginning, he was very difficult to wash,” Maria said. “Because first of all, he didn’t want to walk into the wash stall because he was spooking at the black rubber mats. And then he would spook when the water would run. He’s gotten a lot better. But he’s very sharp. If he doesn’t like something on the ground, he’ll skip away from it.”
Companionship helps to soothe the gelding and his main ‘barn buddy’ is Shane’s leading horse James Kann Cruz. “Sometimes when there’s a lot of things going on. He [Corey] doesn’t like to be on his own,” Maria said. “He always wants to have a friend. So it’s a little bit of a sharper horse that way. But he’s very sweet to look after.”
Shane and ‘Corey’ will be back in action for Saturday Night Lights and the $215,000 CSI4* Grand Prix. “He’ll do the Grand Prix on Saturday,” Shane confirmed. “He’s already carrying a lot of the weight of this circuit. So yeah, we’ll see. Maybe he can do Miami and then we’ll see what happens for the summer. I’m just trying to get through circuit first and see where we’re at with all the horses.”
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