Edited press release from Desert International Horse Park

The second, and final, week of Major League Show Jumping competition at the Desert International Horse Park is off and running, and on December 12, it was Shawn Casady and Cool Quarz who were running the fastest. They sped to victory in the $32,000 CSI5* 1.50m MLSJ BRAINJAVA Welcome Speed as FEI competition got underway at Desert Holiday 2.

Course designers Alan Wade and Colm Quinn set the track for the Thursday afternoon featured class in the Grand Prix Stadium, with 59 horses taking it on. Of those 59 entries, Casady (USA) and Cool Quarz (Quarz Ask x Cassini I) went relatively early in the order, but none of the 40 horses and riders that followed them would be able to catch their lightning-fast time of 67.62 seconds.

Coming the closest and taking home second place were Nayel Nassar (EGY) and Evergate Stables LLC’s Ivory TCS (Falaise de Muze x Ukato) with a time of 68.39 seconds. Third place with a time of 69.82 seconds went to Patricio Pasquel (MEX) and his own Alicia Santa Rosa (Presley Boy x Cornet Obolensky).

“These courses really suit [Cool Quarz] – the Alan Wade type tracks where you can just subtract strides throughout the entire course,” said Casady. “Walking the course, I knew where I could do all the leave outs and take some shots. I went for it, and I left them all up.”

Casady continued, “One to two was six or seven, I did six. Kind of consistently throughout the entire course, I was just plucking one out. I don’t really know how many people did five [strides] to the last jump, but I don’t think up until that point anybody had done it. I’m sure people did it in the second half after they saw it be done; hopefully they did!”

Casady has been partnered with Cool Quarz, owned by Karrie Rufer’s Morning Star Sporthorses LLC, for a little over a year, and in that time, Casady has meshed extremely well with the 12-year-old Holsteiner gelding.

“Since I started with that horse, we’ve always just been really connected together,” said Casady who came to the Desert International Horse Park fresh off a top six finish with Cool Quarz in the inaugural Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Los Angeles. “Obviously being on the West Coast, these are the bigger shows. So even last spring, it was always about kind of building up for these shows – every class trying to be a little bit better, a little bit more efficient, a little bit faster, and I think it’s showing with him.

“He has just a huge heart, big scope and just he really wants to win. He really fights for it,” concluded Casady. “He’s been a blast.”