IJRC Welcome Kent Farrington, Lauren Hough and Tiffany Foster as representatives of NARG in its Board.

20 July - The 14th of May the International Jumping Riders Club (IJRC) and the North American Riders Group, (NARG), have signed an historic letter of intent.

The result of this is that by working together they have crafted a solution that allows NARG to work within the IJRC to strengthen its ability to represent the global voice of show jumping riders. 

The North American Rider's Group (NARG) was founded in Lexington, Kentucky on September 24, 2008, to represent the viewpoints and interests of all riders, trainers and owners in equestrian sport in North America. The NARG focus is to encourage growth of equestrian sport by improving the quality of events and controlling costs.

The  IJRC agreed that it has a challenging opportunity to show how its Board can fully represent all riders’ voices.

The cooperation between IJRC and NARG has been realized by naming Kent Farrington, Lauren Hough and Tiffany Foster asrepresentatives of the North American association to be part of the IJRC Board.

They are three of the best international American riders:


Kent Farrington started riding aged eight at the carriage stable in downtown Chicago. He found an old photo of his mother riding a horse, and said to her that he wanted to try it himself. So he began taking lessons once a week at a riding school. He turned professional in 1999 when he accepted a job with four-time British Olympian Tim Grubb. In January 2001, Kent took a position at Fairfield County Hunt Club, where he worked alongside two-time US Olympian Leslie Burr Howard. 

The most memorable moment in his career was winning his first CSI5*. Although his father didn’t have anything to do with horses, he greatly influenced Kent especially in terms of making decisions and pushing himself. Kent's heroes are Canadian Ian Millar, Czech Hugo Simon and US rider Conrad Holmfeld. Kent says his show jumping philosophy is about perseverance, so it's important to focus on the things you can control, not on the things you can’t control.

 Tiffany Foster began taking lessons at age eight. She says that her life has included horses ever since her parents bought her a rocking horse when she was a baby. Tiffany’s coach is fellow Canadian Eric Lamaze. In 2008, she broke her back while schooling a young horse. She crushed vertebrae and had two steel rods, a plate, six screws, and six clips inserted to hold everything in place. Doctors feared she would never walk again. Since then, Tiffany has knotched up a number of key Nations Cup performances and was chosen to represent Canada in the 2012 London Olympic Games with Victor. Her target is to represent Canada in the 2016 Olympic Games.

Lauren Hough was born into a family of equestrians, Lauren Hough was riding before she could walk. Her father, Charles ‘Champ’ Hough took an Eventing Bronze Medal at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki and her mother, Linda, was a successful Hunter rider for many years. Lauren credits her parents as being her biggest inspiration. Having worked with so many amazing horses over the years, Lauren is unable to pick a favourite, and despite her many accolades her motto remains: “It’s all about the horse.”

Qualifying for the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 aged just 23 was a key moment in her career, as well as winning the National Horse Show Grand Prix back-to-back in 2001 and 2002, and winning the Team Gold Medal at the Pan American Games in 2003. She then went on to win the CN Reliability Grand Prix at Spruce Meadows National (2007), along with a host of other highly prestigious prizes, including the 2010 Longines Global Champions Tour Hamburg Grand Prix.

The IJRC Welcome them as representatives of NARG in its Board.