December 16, 2025 
It’s been a particularly electrifying year for horse sport in 2025, and this week, as they do every year, US Equestrian is allowing us to weigh-in on our year-end favorites.
The field is deep, the competition fierce. But whether or not you actually feel prepared to cast a vote, there’s something you should know in advance: This horse and rider match-race only has two entries in the field.
Not that the others haven’t given it a proper shot. American rider Boyd Martin will finish out the year at No. 2 in the World Rankings, with just 14 points separating him from Great Britain’s Harry Meade. Martin earned top-five finishes at 24 FEI events aboard a string of 13 different horses this year, including finishing inside the top ten with three different entries at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5*.
Meanwhile, eventer Lauren Nicolson’s 12-year-old Zangersheide gelding Larcot Z has emerged as a standout horse in all three phases in 2025, earning podium finishes at six events, including two CCI4* victories.
On the show jumping side, we can’t forget Laura Kraut’s Bisquetta, whose super-charged year saw her finish second in the Rolex U.S. Equestrian Open Grand Prix CSI5* last winter in Wellington. She and Kraut helped to deliver Nations Cup wins for Team USA in Rome and Aachen, and brought home both the 5* Rolex Grand Prix of Ireland and the 5* Coachella Cup Grand Prix this month.
As a longtime fan-girl, watching Kraut and Bisquetta beat a startlist packed with IJRC top-10 boys on a massive track in Dublin this August may have made me a wee bit misty (in any case, it wasn’t the Irish livestream weather). Which makes it especially hard to write what I’m about to type next.
There’s really no other choice than Kent Farrington and Greya for the USEF International Equestrian and USEF International Horse of the Year in 2025.
Hear me out…
Having reclaimed the World No. 1 position in May of this year, Farrington has maintained an iron-grip on that white armband (does he even take it off to shower?). The American has a nearly 200-point buffer between him and Scottish rider Scott Brash (that match race superfans continue to salivate over), which is something of an accomplishment in itself, given that it’s Brash.
But Farrington has also done it all in record-setting style, winning seven 5* Grands Prix this season with the 11-year-old OS mare, Greya, alone—more single-season wins at the level than any horse in the past decade.
Farrington, himself, has a total of nine 5* 1.60m Grand Prix wins this year: three more than Brash, and six more than the next six riders in the world—all whom have three wins a piece.
To be fair, you could vote for Farrington for International Equestrian of the Year, and select another equine phenom for International Horse of the Year—or vice versa. But why would you want to? Would you slather your sandwich with Fluffernutter and skip the peanut butter? Would nominate Sonny for a Grammy without Cher?
And, truly, is there any pair in horse sport more perfectly suited for one another than Farrington and Greya? From their shared need for speed, to their ceaseless desire for excellence in all things, to their penchant for leading the line in the victory gallop, it would be hard to find another partnership that’s more in sync.
Heck, not since Rothchild has there been a horse that could mirror Farrington’s fierce, jump-off game-face or his molten-level intensity. Not until Greya, whose high head carriage, large sparkling eyes, and ears flicked back in concentration over the jumps comes as close to an equine version of Farrington as it gets.
The pair were in peak form last weekend in the Rolex Grand Prix of CHI Geneva, part of the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping, where one of the most prestigious classes of the year felt, in some ways, like a foregone conclusion. Farrington was on a tear after the “stupid riding” (his words) on display in the IJRC Top 10 Final earlier in the week aboard Toulayna.
To say he trotted into the shortened course as a man with a plan might be an understatement. But, in any event, Greya—like Cat Woman to Farrington’s Batman—was only too happy to answer the call. Of course, they won, beating second-place competitor Shane Sweetnam (IRL) and James Kann Cruz’s time by a full second; essentially an eon in show jumping-speak.
If all that has still not managed to convince you, let me leave you with some numbers.
According to Jumpr Stats, Farrington and Greya have jumped clear in 77% of their 13 rounds at 1.60m+, which is pretty much as good as it gets. Compare that to their 69% top 10 finish rate at the same height, and you’ve got all the makings for one of the finest partnerships the sport has ever seen.
For context, they’re Tiger Woods in 2000, with nine PGA tour wins. They’re LeBron James in 2007–2008, with his first MVP award and a 66-16 record with the Cavaliers.
And whether they win the vote or not, for show jumping fans everywhere, Greya and Kent are undoubtedly our 2025 International Horse and International Equestrian of the Year. Tell me I’m wrong.
