Patience was the name of the game for Alberto Michan
A year and a half ago Carol Coleman made a discovery in Holland. This afternoon, that discovery, Joint de Canabis Van de Doornhoeve closed out the jump off in the $25,000 Grand Prix to win with Alberto Michan on the last day of ESP Spring 5.
“I saw him jump some of the verticals and oxers at the indoor ring where he was and I texted Aby [Alberto] immediately,” Carol, one of a group of supporters, present at the Equestrian Village to witness the win, recalled. “I said this is the horse we’ve been looking for.”
Early plans for the 11-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding did not come to fruition. “We went to try him, and we fell in love right away with him,” said Aby, who was born in Mexico and rides for Israel. “And the idea was first to try to make it to the Olympics last year – but he was green.”
A further setback ensued resulting in a few months on the sidelines for Aby. “He got a little confused in a jump, and he swam a little bit through it,” he recalled. “I fell, and I broke my foot in six, seven parts. So I was out for a while.”
After success in Ocala at the World Equestrian Center last summer, Aby and Joint De Canabis Van De Doornhoeve finished the year with good results and were ready for a strong season at the Winter Equestrian Festival [WEF] when they hit another bump in the road.
“I went on holiday and came back, and we don’t know what happened,” said Aby, after the horse required two months off to recover from a hoof injury that ate into the amount of competition time at WEF. “I tried to rush him for the Nations Cup, he was not ready physically, and then we took it slower, and we’re starting back,” Aby said. “We did two small classes, and then we did last week the Grand Prix, which was double clear, and now this week he was a winner.”
Thirty-three entries took the Derby field at the Equestrian Village in Wellington for the closing day of the ESP Spring Series with 12 making it through to the jump off. Lebanon’s Jad Dana was eyeing up the winner’s spot after a characteristically fast jump off with Caro W in 37.352 seconds.
“He has a big step. He’s not the quickest,” said Aby who plotted his distances early in the jump off course to give himself a shot at victory. “Two lines, especially one to two and two to three, people were doing eleven and ten, eleven and eight and I have a very big stride so I said look, if I gamble there a little bit try to do the ten and seven then maybe I can get a little bit ahead of them and it will all go through to that turn to the oxer.” The pair pulled off the numbers in the final turn and the cheers went up for the fastest time of 36.075 seconds. “We were able to beat Jad, who is a phenomenal, very fast rider,” said Aby.
Patience has paid off and fortunes have turned around for the Aby and Joint de Cannabis Van de Doornhoeve. “I think he can jump the big jumps, so that’s our aim,” said Aby. “I’ll try to keep working, and getting him where he needs to be, because the horse has a lot of quality and has a lot of promise.”
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