Nights out prove key for Ben Merritt 

All night turnout makes for a happy horse as far as Ben Merritt is concerned. Having acquired LCC Kannan Cavalier just three months ago, the pair claimed victory in the $10,000 Grand Prix at Wellington International to close out ESP Fall I – and by the end of a successful day on the grass of the Derby field, the 10-year old will be back on grass in his paddock tonight.

“Little by little, he’s kind of starting to go our way,” said Ben, who brought the horse home from Tryon and has shown him some ten times since. “He’s a bit of a strange horse, but in the ring, he tries really hard. And he’s so careful, he’s so fast. He’s kind of got it all, but he’s a little bit different, like he goes out all night, every night. We try to get him out as much as possible and just keep him happy.”

Only two horse and rider combinations made the jump off out of a class of 14, with Englishman Ben – taking on Colombia’s German Camargo and Ophelia – pulling off a win in a time of 50.952 seconds after which German took four faults in a time of 50.988.

“Although he’s fast, he gets a little strong and it’s a little tricky to kind of keep him relaxed,” Ben reflected of the new horse owned by Annie Irwin. “And so I looked at the jump off and thought it didn’t really suit him, being such a kind of gallopy jump off. I just thought I’d just take them as they come…And with only two in it, you’ve got to be quick enough, but not too risky.”

Ben has potential plans for Kannan to go to a two-star competition in TerraNova in January, but is keeping an open mind. “I think with him being so careful and so sensitive, it’s important that we don’t get ahead of ourselves and push him too fast, to the point where he loses that ‘real try’. He will have a couple of weeks off now to let him take a breath and see how he is.”

Turning horses out overnight is part of Ben’s more natural approach. “It’s something that we do a lot,” he said. “The seven-year-old that I rode today, he goes out as well all night. A couple of the customer horses do.”

The extended turnout seems to work particularly well with LCC Kannan Cavalier. “He was quite a worried horse in general when we first got him,” he said. “And I think just letting him go and be a horse, you know? Probably coming from England, I have a little bit more of a kind of, ‘it’s a horse, it should go in a field’. It’s happier out there. And so it kind of works for us. I know it’s not for everybody but if it suits the horse and they’re happier, then I’m all for it.”

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