Saturday night’s $125,000 National Horse Show Grand Prix was one to remember. In a field of 15 obstacles, 25 competitors from five different countries piloted their mounts in an effort to go clear and move forward into the jump-off. Of these riders, the top seven made it to the second round with a time allowed of 50 seconds.
In a tight jump-off Kent Farrington, riding for the USA and Rabbit Root Stables LLC’s 2014 Zangersheide mare Toulayna (Toulon x Vuelta) laid down a speedy round to seal the victory, beating the runner-up Brian Moggre (USA) and Major Wager LLC’s 2009 Westphalian gelding MTM Vivre Le Reve (Ustinov x Chellana) by 4-100ths of a second, making it Farrington’s third victory of the week.
“I’ve been riding Toulayna since she was seven and I’ve had a lot of success with her so far, so it’s been a fun journey. I like this show because it is a great venue, and I brought a few younger horses this year to get some experience indoors and it’s been great. The plan tonight was pretty simple and that was to go as fast as I thought I could go. Brian’s horse is very fast, and they are very competitive against the clock so luckily, I brought a fast horse. Toulayna has always been very careful, she has a lot of blood and energy and really everything I look for in a modern show jumper.”