NEWS

May 31, 2010


THE DEVON HORSE SHOW AND COUNTRY FAIR DAILY

SOME LIKE IT HOT

As the temperature went up into the 90's, so did the scores in the Dixon Oval on day one of Senior Week. John French who flew 3,000 miles from California to ride just one horse was the first rider in the winner's circle with his incredibly athletic horse Truman. To French, "There is nothing more exciting than to come to Devon which is so prestigious, has such a great atmosphere, and to see where you stack up against these other horses, and what you have. One of the best things about this show is having one ring devoted to the top horses, where everybody is watching.....most of the time (in other venues) people don't get to watch, but here all the top professionals are going to be watching."

French has won this very same First Year Green class 3 times in the last 4 years but says that there is something quite special about Truman.  "I bought him right before Thermal, and only showed him once or twice in the Pre-Greens and moved him right up to the First Year Green division the second half of Thermal.  He has one of the best minds.  For him to just to go in there today, in the first class and never spook...he really tries to do a good job. He's a horse that's going to go on for a long time and be a famous horse, I know he is."

Successful horses are something John knows more than a little bit about. At Tuesday evening's National Show Hunter Hall of Fame Annual Awards Dinner, two of the horses he rode last year were voted as the best in their divisions by his peers. Small Affair will receive the First Year Green Horse of the Year Award, and Rumba will receive the Second Year Green Horse of the Year Award.

Speaking of Rumba (winner of the Inaugural International Hunter Derby Finals with French in the irons), John will head back to Kentucky for the 2010 Hunter Derby Finals, as well as ride in the WEG Hunter Derby Demonstration this coming fall aboard the beautiful bay stallion Crown Affair.


Reprinted with permission of The Devon Horse Show and Country Fair

Photographs courtesy of Alden Corrigan and Meg Wiederseim

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