February 13, 2022 
Time wasn’t a factor in the $40,000 Adequan Grand Prix under the lights at Desert International Horse Park on Saturday night. It was the factor.
Six of the 33 combinations to contest Olaf Peterson, Jr’s course jumped clear over the fences but failed to complete the 1.50m track within the allotted 83 seconds. Twelve more pairs collected faults on course and on the clock.
But for the efficient with footspeed, there was a clear path forward.
Karrie Rufer (USA) and Stern dei Folletti, runners ups in Thursday’s Grand Prix, were the first to find a fault-free path around the winding course and related lines. James Chawke (IRL) and Catinka 25 added their names to the jump off just one round later, followed by Kaitlin Campbell (USA) with Palina de L’Escaut and Ben Asselin (CAN) with veteran partner Veyron—all within the first 14 rides.
No more pairs were able to match the feat in the second half of the class.
Rufer continued her Desert Circuit hot streak in the jump off, posting a double clear to set the time to beat at 41.761 seconds. A rail took Catinka and Chawke out of the running while Campbell and Palina de L’Escaut left the jumps up but failed to catch the time.
Last to go, Asselin had the advantage of pole position but not of footspeed.
“If I’m being honest with you, I really didn’t see me being able to win this class,” said the Canadian team rider. “[Veyron is] a fantastic jumper and he’s got a monster stride, but he’s got such a lovely lope-y stride that it’s quite hard to make the time alloweds on him. So we really had to push for the first round to make the time allowed. We didn’t take any breaks anywhere.
“And then I saw Karrie go [in the jump off], I mean, she’s had great success all circuit. That’s an incredibly fast and careful horse. And so we just tried to leave it all on the on the table.”
Trusting in his longtime partner Veyron, Asselin took the inside turn to the double up the last line and galloped to the last.
“Mark Kinsella was in the warm up ring helping me, and he told me that I had to get nine strides down to the last jump. He said, ‘You know, you’ve got to move for seven [strides] and just pray that it’s there and that’s exactly what we did,” smiled Asselin.
“It seemed like a really far away when we were galloping down to it, but [Veyron] covered the ground and was able to kind of just balance up for the last fence and jumped it clean.”
The pair landed to an eruption of cheers from the Canadian contingent in the crowd and a volley of playful hops from Asselin’s veteran partner.
“I’ve ridden him now for about eight, eight and a half years. I know him like the back of my hand,” shared Asselin. “He’s always been a go-to horse for me in the past, and with him being so seasoned and his age, he’s 17 years old, I like to pick and choose the competitions to jump with him. And I knew that he would just rise to the occasion tonight. He’s not a horse that really needs any warm up rounds or anything like that. He felt the atmosphere tonight and we had a lot of fun.”
International competition picks up again Week V of the Desert Circuit, February 22–27.
