We’re back for another round of “Ride of the Week” brought to you by our friends at Hallway Feeds, where we feature the absolute best rounds the H/J universe has to offer. These clips are not only a thrilling spectacle of the world’s very best competitors at the top of their game, but also a valuable learning tool.
This week features a textbook jump-off round by Kent Farrington and Creedance in the Longines Grand Prix of St. Moritz CSI5*, a class which was packed to the gills with recently returned Olympians on fresh horses and victory on their minds. But none could match the tight corners and brave gallops Kent chose aboard his nine-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding.
The two get their engine revved and head into fence one with a huge effort, then make a long hard gallop across the arena with a slight bending line to two. Creedance is already turning in the air over that fence to his right to make a hard rollback and gallop to the double combination and eight turning strides to fence four. It’s another hard rollback turn to fence five with fence six set at a seemingly impossible angle on the way to seven. Kent and Creedance jump the oxer and an angle before taking a slightly longer route to seven than some of his competitors, and finally the last fence, a huge Longines spread.
“My plan was to try to win and I made sure that my plan was aggressive enough to win,” Farrington told Noelle Floyd after the class. “I think in the jump off, the second to last fence I went around when most of the other riders went inside because my horse is really fast across the ground. I thought it would be less risk and probably the same speed as going inside so that was my option there.”
They hit the finish flags nearly a full second ahead of the time to beat to win the Longines Grand Prix of St. Moritz, and Kent looks relieved as he sees the time, giving his chromey chestnut partner a warm rub and pat.
Kent and Creedance began their show career together at the end of 2015, and have had a successful year getting to know each other. They won a Table A CSI3* in Wellington in March, and then moved up and took two big wins at the Windsor Royal Horse Show in CSI4* classes in May. This is their first five-star win, and at only nine years old, it seems the sky is the limit for Creedance.