Four to Follow 2026: Kristina Harrison-Antell and Finley

On paper, Kristina Harrison-Antell and Finley are the outsiders of this year's Four to Follow, but their record says to watch them on the days that matter most.

Last year, the pair arrived at the Final with a pre-Final freestyle average of 71.332 and left with 75.470, a personal best and their first new one since 2022.

Desert Specialists

Some horses rise to a big occasion, and Finley seems to save it for one place in particular. At the 2025 Final in Thermal, he and Harrison-Antell finished 4th in both tests: 68.978 in the Grand Prix, still her career-best GP, then 75.470 in the freestyle the next day.

The Final was good to them, but Thermal always seems to be. Across four freestyles at Desert International Horse Park, they average 73.521 (73.410, 72.490, 72.715 and 75.470). Del Mar should be home turf. It's the show she grew up riding at as a junior. But there, they only average 70.159. That's a gap of about 3.4 points between their best venue and their most familiar one.

Last November made that abundantly clear. Going in, their average had them projected to finish 7th. They left the arena 4th, and no one else in the field outran their own averages by as much.

They're still the wildcard of this Four to Follow group, and their scores can swing either way (more on that below). But in Thermal, the swing keeps breaking their way.

Happy Accident

Harrison-Antell bought Finley without ever seeing him. In 2013, on a shopping trip for a young horse, she filmed an unstarted gray in the yard of Dutch dealer Bert Rutten. Once she got home, everyone wanted to know if she'd seen Bert's gray horse. Eventually, she figured she'd better buy it.

The horse arrived at quarantine with a surprise attached. The shippers called to ask why she hadn't mentioned he was a steel gray. He isn't, she told them, confused. But the horse waiting for her in quarantine certainly was.

Rutten had bought Finley after her visit. Finley was the gray who made the trip from Belgium, not the little unstarted horse she'd filmed. So, she'd bought a horse she'd never laid eyes on. She told the Chronicle of the Horse in 2022 that she still remembers that first ride, and that he felt lovely from the moment she got on.

He was only three, with less than 30 days of training under saddle, and she brought him along herself. As a veteran of the 2003 Pan American Games, Harrison-Antell knew what the job took. She's been his only FEI rider ever since, from his first CDI Prix St. Georges in 2019 to Grand Prix. Thirteen years on, they're the longest-running partnership in the Series.

It wasn't always smooth. Young Finley was terrified of other horses, and the warm-up ring was the hardest part of any show. A couple of times, she gave up on warming up altogether and went straight down centerline. Time and repetition helped, and so did a 2022 winter in Wellington, where he could touch noses with his neighbors over the fence and made friends for the first time. Now 16, he's one of the two oldest horses in this year's Final, a seasoned show horse who knows the Thermal arena well.

"I am so fortunate to own this incredible once-in-a-lifetime horse. He is my heart and soul."

Kristina Harrison-Antell on Finley, The Dressage Foundation, 2020

Wildcard

The upside for this combination is strong, but they are not without their question marks. Harrison-Antell is the only one of the four whose last three freestyles actually sit below her career average (−0.346). The pair's two 2026 Del Mar rides came in at 68.835 and 70.730 before the 75.770 personal best in Sherwood, so their scores have bounced around rather than climbed. They also have the widest typical range in the field, 69.6 to 75.8. They could have a very big day in Thermal... or they might not.

They arrive off another layoff, too, though layoffs seem to suit this pair. Last year they went six months without a freestyle before the Final and set a personal best when they got there. This year, their last freestyle was that Sherwood PB, more than five months out. It worked last time. Maybe it will again.

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