Capital Challenge Memories With John French
Q: What is your favorite thing about the Capital Challenge Horse Show?
A: My favorite thing is that it's an ultimate hunter show. They have the best of the best. They have the top young horses and the North American Green Hunter 3-3’3” Championship. The regular hunter divisions are probably the biggest of the shows that we go to with the toughest competition all year. They also do special classes for the riders — we have the hunter challenges, and we have the World Championship [Hunter Rider] Professional Finals, amateur finals and junior finals. It's really geared to be a special hunter show.
The fact that anyone can enter Capital Challenge without qualifying throughout the year means you might even get horses that are recent imports coming to the show. I also think people come to look at horses and see what horses they might be interested in for the next year, so it's a special show in that way, too.
Q: What do you think about the atmosphere of the show?
A: That indoor arena is very special. It's the first indoor show of the season, so everybody tries to attend this horse show. They do a great job making it feel special with the VIP and classes in the evening, and they have multiple judges, which is nice. They do everything to make it a special event.
John French with Small Affair in 2014. Photo by Jump Media
Q: What makes this show so meaningful to you?
A: I grew up in Maryland, and I grew up at the same barn with [CCHS manager and co-founder] Oliver Kennedy. We were barn rats as kids. Now he's running a show like this, and I'm riding and competing, so it's just fun that it turned out that way. I also get to see a lot of people at the show that I knew growing up or that I haven't seen in years. I always try to meet up with some of them while I’m at the show and make it something special where we can talk about the years growing up and how we made it. Being a successful professional was always a dream of mine as a kid, but I never thought it would actually happen.
Even my family gets to come and watch me, which is not something they normally get to do. My mom passed away a couple of years ago, but she would always come to watch me ride at Capital Challenge, so I always tried to do my best in front of her.
John French in his presentation for the 2000 WCHR Pro Finals. Photo courtesy of CCHS.
Q: What’s it been like to watch the show develop and grow over the past few decades?
A: I know the first time I won the World Championship [Hunter Rider] Professional Finals was in 2000. I've been going to Capital Challenge for at least 26 or 27 years. It's always been a big show and a prestigious place to win, but I think it’s even more so now. Not only with the hunters — it's grown in the equitation, too.
For me, the World Championship Hunter Rider Professional Finals was a big thing when I was younger, and it’s nice to see classes for professional hunter riders. Capital Challenge has additional classes, like the Developing Professional Challenge, which recognize the riders. The special awards aren’t only for riders, but also for owners, trainers, and grooms. Capital Challenge does it all.
French and Babylon at the 2021 CCHS winning their first of three WCHR Pro Challenge classes in a row. Photo by Shawn McMillen Photography
Q: What’s been your most memorable win at the Capital Challenge Horse Show?
A: Probably the first year Babylon won the [World Championship Hunter Rider] Professional Challenge. He was only a first-year horse, and he was coming into his own that year. He started out sort of green because he was only six years old doing the 3’6” height. I didn't have another horse to ride in the Professional Challenge, and I thought, “Well, let's try it with Babylon and see.” He was champion that week in the first years, and he won the Professional Challenge against horses that had been doing it for years.
Since I started that horse from the very beginning, it probably meant the most to me. I had him as a four-year-old, so for him to turn out to be that special and win at a show like Capital Challenge was exciting. Not only did he win it that year, but he also won it the next two years.
Small Affair is another special horse that I had success on at Capital Challenge. I've always had good luck at Capital Challenge. I don’t know why. Maybe I feel relaxed when I come back to Maryland.
Q. What are you looking forward to at the upcoming 2025 Capital Challenge Horse Show?
A: I have more students than I used to, so I'm looking forward to doing well with them in the junior hunters and equitation, and I'll have a few green horses that I haven’t shown that much in the U.S. Also, I have two first-year green horses, Crystal Blue and Kaiden, that I’m excited about. I think they're top-quality horses.
What I'm really most excited about is Riley Babb, a 22-year-old young professional who works for me and will be able to compete in the Developing Pro Challenge. Down the road, I think he will probably be taking some of the rides for me, so I’m excited about helping him achieve his goals because I think he's a super talent.