Although the Horse Industry is at a Halt, the French Farrington Hunter Division at KPF Looks Forward to a Bright Future

Wellington, FL – Although we are all dealing with an unprecedented health scare, the equestrian world, namely the hunter-jumper discipline, carefully carries on. For John French, 2020 began as a year of continued accolades, collaboration, and teamwork. The award-winning hunter rider is no stranger to masterfully working with his equine teammates in the show ring to achieve success. Earlier this year, French became a part of a training team with renowned Olympic show jumping athlete Kent Farrington and Farrington’s riding assistant, Claudio Baroni. This powerhouse trio have combined their resumes to develop a comprehensive Hunter Division at Kent Farrington, LLC (KPF) and have already produced top athletes with solid results at the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF). Even through these difficult times, the operation runs smoothly and the horses are cared for impeccably with Hunter Division Barn Manager Erin McMurry at the helm. Along with kicking off the season aboard Farrington’s hunters, French was nominated for the National Show Hunter Hall of Fame.

Legendary Past & FutureWith a mutual respect for one another’s experience and expertise, both French and Farrington see a bright future for this new in-house Hunter Division. Prior to working alongside French, Farrington would import his hunters and send them out to other trainers to be shown. Now with French on the team, they are able to develop a strategy for training and showing the horses together from KPF’s facility in Wellington, Florida.

After spending many years as the “catch-ride king,” only seeing many of his mounts at horse shows, French is enjoying the opportunity to be a part of the full training process.

“Before, I was catch-riding quite a bit. My job was to jump on and show the horse in the ring. There may have been things I would want to work on, but that wasn’t what my job was with most horses,” French noted. “So I didn’t have a chance to study the horses in a collaborative training process like this. Now, together with Kent and Claudio, we work on developing a training program that brings out the best in each horse.”

Success Stories UnfoldSuccess in the show ring is familiar to both French and Farrington, and was once again proving to be true in both the hunter and jumper arenas this season. As Farrington won in the Grand Prix ring, French earned tricolors and top ribbons on their first group of imported hunters competing at WEF. After multiple championships, KPF’s young hunter Babylon was named Circuit Champion of the three & four-year-old Pre-Green Hunter Division (pictured at the top of the article). Both Montage and Lucky Strike earned tricolors in the 3’ Green Hunters and the 3’3” Green Hunters. Chagall picked up top calls in the competitive 3’6” Green Hunter Division. French also earned a championship and top ribbons in the 3’6” Performance Hunters aboard Visse Wedell’s stallion, Fabriano.

Their show ring success certainly drew attention and interest in the horses. French noted this in the not-to-be-missed cover story from the latest issue of The Competitive Equestrian. “People are asking about purchasing, but Kent says that we aren’t in a hurry. He knows that he has good horses and that they’re only going to get better, so we don’t need to sell them right away. And it’s nice for me that the horses aren’t going to be gone and out from underneath me as soon as I get them.”