Kent Farrington’s Landon stays front runner for Paris with Challenge Cup win

Kent Farrington and Landon took the win in the $62,500 FEI 4* WEF Challenge Cup – fourth round – on the grass derby field as Kent weighed up his Olympic options.

“Landon’s the early front runner,” Kent said of the 11-year old chestnut Zangersheide gelding – the pair sit atop the world FEI jumping combination rankings. Kent, ranked individually second worldwide, has several options for Paris and will not be finalizing his choice any time soon. “I will choose at the last possible moment,” he said.  “That’s really simple. You just pick the one that’s going the best. The ones coming up behind [Landon] are still a little unproven but we’ll see – we’ve got our fingers crossed. I don’t like to jinx anything. They’ve got to prove a little more before I put their names up.”

Kent and Landon’s clear in 37.96 put them at the top of the 11-strong jump-off before Molly Ashe Cawley and Loukas de la Noue slotted into runners up on a time of 38.7. Canada’s Erynn Ballard enjoyed another podium finish in third with Libido Van’t Hofken ending her jump off round in 39.77 seconds.

“I love showing on the grass,” said Kent, who was bringing Landon out for the gelding’s first week of jumping at the  2024 Winter Equestrian Festival. “I always try to pace my horses here and not overshow. I try to use it like a spring training where I get them up to some bigger level events. If they’re in form and I can pull it off, that’s great. But most important for me is that they are not sick of showing before the season’s even started.”

Landon and Kent were part of the gold medal-winning US team at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile. The team performance gave the USA a ticket to the Paris Olympics later this year, and Kent and Landon also came home with individual silver. “The Olympics are obviously a great goal for this year,” said Kent. “I love representing our country and had to do a big pull to get there through the Pan American Games. So we sent a very strong team and ended up with a team gold medal so I was proud to be a part of that.” 

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