Kent Farrington Ph. Tori Repole for NF.com
This week, news was released that despite breaking his leg in a fall at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida in February, Kent Farrington is still holding on to his ranking as show jumping’s World No. 1. A margin of just over 100 points separates Kent from World No. 2, Harrie Smolders, and while we’re sure this may be a source of some consternation for our hero, we have little doubt that Farrington will be back in the saddle and winning all the classes again very soon.
Until then, here’s hoping that Kent is using his mandatory bed rest time to catch up on some of those long-procrastinated tasks that he’s been meaning to get to. Here, our **very serious** roundup of eight things Kent Farrington is absolutely/probably/maybe doing to pass the time on bed rest.
(Get well soon, Kent!)
1. Upping his Rubik’s cube game
Did you know Kent Farrington is one of a handful of people in the world with the brainpower and concentration necessary to solve a Rubik’s cube? (That’s true.) With 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible configurations, there’s plenty to keep even the brightest minds occupied.
2. Plowing through seasons 1, 2, and 3 of Broadchurch on Netflix
A sleepy English beach town. A ghastly murder. A bright-eyed detective and her crotchety Scottish partner. Come for the suspense, Kent, but you’ll stay for the emotionally charged side looks and clever banter.
3. Reviewing past rounds
When you’re the best rider in the world, the only one to beat is yourself. It’s a safe bet that Kent—a lifelong student of the sport—has been analyzing what went right and wrong during his recent winning rounds at Geneva, Spruce Meadows, and Valence. Whether he’s also been studying the technique of hot-on-his-heels Harrie Smolders is anybody’s guess.
4. Mad Libs
Lots and lots of Mad Lips. Why? Because they’re Mad Libs. The “world’s greatest word game” needs no explanation.
5. Answering fan mail
When you’re as busy as Team KPF, there’s not a lot of time to catch up with your many adoring followers around the globe. And while answering emails and signing your way through stacks of headshots to send out to fans may not seem like a lot of fun, it is a necessary chore of celebrity. (Did you hear that Mom? Keep an eye on that mail!)
6. Expanding his portfolio
Kent’s been on E-Trade since he was just 13 years old, and with heaps of prize money earnings in 2017 (the purse for the Rolex Grand Prix at CHI de Genève, alone, was worth a cool $1.2 million), chances are he’s working with a size-able slush fund. The only question now: to Bitcoin or not to Bitcoin?
7. Taking a deep-dive into Game of Thrones fan theory
Will there be a GOT baby in Season 8? Is Bran really the Night King? Even the best rider in the world is entitled to geek out on Reddit like the rest of us, and with the final season of Game of Thrones more than a year away, we all have plenty of time to theorize.
8. Shopping for tack
As a notorious bit and noseband collector, we’re sure Kent is using his time out from the sport to study his peers’ tack and do some serious online shopping damage of his own. What revolutionary hardware will his horses show up in when he’s back in the game? Only time will tell.