‘Corey’ follows in his grandmother’s footsteps with WEF Challenge wins

Shane Sweetnam might relate to waiting a long time for a bus – only for two to come along at once. He broke his Grand Prix drought of 2025 last November with ‘Corey’ and now it seems he just keeps winning with the horse ‘aka’ Coriann Van Klapscheut Z, as they landed their second WEF Cup Challenge of 2026 in week 12 of the Winter Equestrian Festival [WEF].

Corey is a horse that just keeps on giving for Shane Sweetnam this winter. Photo: Sarah Eakin

“Any win in the WEF [Challenge Cup] is a big deal,” said the Irishman who topped a stacked field of 60 rider and horse combinations, peppered with new international challengers who have arrived in time for the Rolex week finale. “I haven’t won that many and now actually it’s two in a row – it’s great.”

One of the new faces in town this week at WEF – Britain’s Jack Whitaker and Jack JL will be competing Saturday night. Photo: Sarah Eakin

Today’s class also served as a qualifier for Saturday Night Lights and the grand finale of the $1,000,000 CSI5* Grand Prix – a Rolex Series Event. Shane competes on his lead horse James Kann Cruz for the highly anticipated contest, but for the WEF Challenge he set ‘Gizmo’, as he is known at home, aside and brought Corey out to fill an important role.

“There were two plans,” Shane said. “One to qualify and two, to win the class. [James Kann Cruz] jumped the Nations Cup in Ocala last week so he’s not as fresh and Corey is in a great place and I thought he could definitely go clear and have a chance of winning.”

Both plans came to fruition when Shane and Corey finished on a time of 39.71 seconds in the jump off, nudging Germany’s Richi Vogel and Cloudio into second – the only other clear against the clock – with their time of 40.53 seconds. Daniel Bluman and Hammer Z claimed third place stopping the clock on 39.55 seconds but saddled with a four fault penalty.

Already a WEF week 12 winner, Richi Vogel was back on the podium in the WEF Challenge Cup – this time with Cloudio. Photo: Sarah Eakin

“He’s a brilliant horse,” said Shane of Coriann who has quickly stepped up to be a serious understudy for his stablemate James Kann Cruz. “He’s so consistent and especially now in the last six weeks we’ve really sort of figured each other out,” he said. “And we’re in contention for most classes and when we do have a rail it’s unlucky. It’s funny actually [Eric] Lamaze used to ride his grandmother, Coriana van Klapscheut, and she won a lot of WEFS [WEF Challenge Cups] in this ring as well, so it’s in his blood.”

This could be interesting:

High ring IQ advances Shane Sweetnam’s Coriaan van Klapscheut Z