Barron is a chestnut Belgian Warmblood gelding foaled in 2004, sired by For Pleasure and out of Vita van het Reithof.[1]
He was purchased for American show jumping rider Lucy Davis in 2013.
Barron was originally named Underground des Hauts Droits,[1] but was renamed for Davis' grandfather, Robert Barron Frieze, a jockey's agent.[2] In an interview, Davis described Barron as a good horse but said that he could be flighty, and noted that he wears earplugs while in competition because he does not like crowd noise.[3] He competes in a Kimberwick bit and double reins, and is groomed by Tasha Houghton.
Davis and Barron's first major competition together was in the 2013 World Cup Final.[4] Barron and Davis competed in the 2014 World Equestrian Games as part of the US show jumping team, which won bronze.[5]
The same year they won a total of three 5-star Grand Prix jumping competitions, and Barron was named Horse of the Year.[6] In the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, they knocked down one rail in the team competition but finished within the required time limit. The team won silver.[5][7] In the individual competition, Barron and Davis knocked down the rails of two jumps and Barron stepped in the edge of the water jump, incurring a total of 12 faults. They did not make the individual finals.[8]
