For Pessoa, 2017 became the year that he transitioned into a completely new role, embraced it, and succeeded. The veteran, Olympic gold medalist and decorated international rider accepted the position of Ireland's international show jumping team coach. Leading a group of riders that are among the most successful individually but in recent years has had trouble shining as a nation presented plenty of special challenges. Coming off the heels of a tumultuous 2015 Championship that cut Ireland out of the

There is only one owner in the world that is directly responsible for the success of two riders in the world top 20. With Germany's Daniel Deusser and Italy's Lorenzo de Luca as its most high-profile ambassadors,

While 2016 marked his debut in an Olympic Games, 2017 marked an even stronger year for Farrington. He reached the top of the Longines FEI World Rankings for the first time, and held on to that position for eight months to close out 2017 as the number one rider in the world. Just three weeks ago, Farrington became the next Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping contender after winning the Rolex Grand Prix at CHI Geneva. That major career milestone capped a year that will be hard t