After six years together, Kaitlin Campbell only brings out Palina de L’escaut for classes she knows the mare is likely to excel at, and this week, that included the $32,000 CSI4* 1.45m Classic. With a lightning-fast round, Campbell and Palina de L’escaut topped a seven-horse jump-off to take home the win in the Sunday afternoon featured class at Desert Circuit 3.
Mathijs van Asten and Noberlina VD Laarseheide Z set the early time to beat at 37.03 seconds over the Bernardo Costa Cabral-designed short course, and while Campbell felt that that time was catchable, she also knew she had Ireland’s Conor Swail aboard Theo 160 still to jump after her.
“[Palina de L’escaut] has a bit of a smaller stride, but it’s quite fast,” said Campbell. “I knew Conor was behind me and was going to go quite fast, so I just tried to put her pedal to the medal. I knew she was really careful today, and I was pretty confident she was going to leave all the jumps up. If Conor Swail is behind you, you can never think that you already have [the win]!”
While Swail and Theo 160 were quite quick, their time of 36.16 seconds secured them second place but came short of catching Campbell. With Campbell taking the win and Swail finishing in second, third place went to van Asten.
“It’s really nice that they have a CSI4* this early in the season and that they have these 1.45m classes that a horse jumping this 1.45-1.50m level can still get in there for good classes and good points,” said Campbell. “[Palina] was supposed to only show this week and then go home, but now she was so good, I kind of want to keep her here for next week!”
With Palina de L’escaut now 16 years old, Campbell’s selectiveness in classes for the mare is to preserve the horse’s longevity – and also because the Hanoverian, owned by SWS Training & Sales, no longer requires much extra time in the ring.
“She doesn’t really need to practice anymore,” explained Campbell. “At home she pretty much doesn’t jump ever. She just does a lot of walking, trotting and a little bit of cantering. At the shows, we try not to jump too much. We really only jump six or seven jumps in the warm-up area to try to keep everything calm. The more she goes and jumps, the hotter she gets and the bit more unrideable she gets, so we try to just keep everything really simple and easy.
“She had a nice break over Christmas. She actually went to a turnout place that we work with, and she just literally water treadmilled and turned out for like an entire month over Christmas,” concluded Campbell. “Then she came back a couple weeks ago, and she was still fit from doing the water treadmilling there but she had a nice mental break!”
Mathijs van Asten and Noberlina VD Laarseheide Z set the early time to beat at 37.03 seconds over the Bernardo Costa Cabral-designed short course, and while Campbell felt that that time was catchable, she also knew she had Ireland’s Conor Swail aboard Theo 160 still to jump after her.
“[Palina de L’escaut] has a bit of a smaller stride, but it’s quite fast,” said Campbell. “I knew Conor was behind me and was going to go quite fast, so I just tried to put her pedal to the medal. I knew she was really careful today, and I was pretty confident she was going to leave all the jumps up. If Conor Swail is behind you, you can never think that you already have [the win]!”
While Swail and Theo 160 were quite quick, their time of 36.16 seconds secured them second place but came short of catching Campbell. With Campbell taking the win and Swail finishing in second, third place went to van Asten.
“It’s really nice that they have a CSI4* this early in the season and that they have these 1.45m classes that a horse jumping this 1.45-1.50m level can still get in there for good classes and good points,” said Campbell. “[Palina] was supposed to only show this week and then go home, but now she was so good, I kind of want to keep her here for next week!”
With Palina de L’escaut now 16 years old, Campbell’s selectiveness in classes for the mare is to preserve the horse’s longevity – and also because the Hanoverian, owned by SWS Training & Sales, no longer requires much extra time in the ring.
“She doesn’t really need to practice anymore,” explained Campbell. “At home she pretty much doesn’t jump ever. She just does a lot of walking, trotting and a little bit of cantering. At the shows, we try not to jump too much. We really only jump six or seven jumps in the warm-up area to try to keep everything calm. The more she goes and jumps, the hotter she gets and the bit more unrideable she gets, so we try to just keep everything really simple and easy.
“She had a nice break over Christmas. She actually went to a turnout place that we work with, and she just literally water treadmilled and turned out for like an entire month over Christmas,” concluded Campbell. “Then she came back a couple weeks ago, and she was still fit from doing the water treadmilling there but she had a nice mental break!”