Kent Farrington competing at Spruce Meadows 2017. Ph. ©Tori Repole for NF
With more than 1,000 votes over second placed rider Peder Fredricson, the USA’s Kent Farrington was voted by NoelleFloyd.com readers as the 2017 Rider of the Year.
Farrington received 41% of the vote over Fredricson, Mclain Ward, Harrie Smolders & Philipp Weishaupt, capping a dominating year for the 36 year old Olympic silver medalist. While 2016 marked his debut in an Olympic Games, 2017 marked an even stronger year for Farrington. He reached the top of the Longines FEI World Rankings for the first time, and held on to that position for eight months to close out 2017 as the number one rider in the world.
Just three weeks ago, Farrington became the next Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping contender after winning the Rolex Grand Prix at CHI Geneva. That major career milestone capped a year that will be hard to top, but if any rider is up to the challenge, it’s Farrington.
Read more about Farrington’s year of domination at this link.