World no. 1 Kent Farrington expects to skip the World Cup Final in Paris in April so as to focus on the Rolex Grand Slam events and seek to be on the United States team for the World Equestrian Games in Tryon.

"I want to aim for the Rolex Grand Slam shows,” he told World of Showjumping the day before the start of the Winter Equestrian Festival of three months in Wellington, Florida.

Kent is a Rolex testimonee and won the Geneva leg of the Rolex Grand Slam with the events at s’Hertogenbosch, Netherlands on Mar. 8-11, followed by Aachen, Germany July 13-22 and Spruce Meadows at Calgary, Canada Sept. 5-9. A rider that wins three consecutive Grand Prix competitions at these events gets a €1 million bonus with different levels of bonuses for other successes.

Kent, who is based in Wellington, plans to use the three months at home to produce horses for the future and compete in high performance events. The growth of Wellington in the past 20 years, he said, has shown a “staggering” increase with a growing number of riders calling South Florida a home base.

After Aachen and Calgary there is the World Equestrian Games in Tryon Sept. 11-23.

“There are so many great shows and the horses can only do so much,” he said. "I don’t know that I have the horse experienced enough to do the World Cup Final. For the older horses, i don’t think it’s fair at this point in their career to do that many rounds. So for this year, I think it’s probably a pass,” Farrington said.

"We’ll try to do the Grand Slam,” said Farrington about his goals for the season. “Regardless of the bonus, they are the best shows in the world and the ones I want to aim for. I’m going to be trying my hardest, with or without the bonus.”

Text © World of Showjumping by Ken Braddick / www.dressage-news.com // Picture © Jenny Abrahamsson