2017: An exciting year of Show Jumping to come

But while the World Cup Final in Nebraska is currently in the spotlight, the ensuing 2017 Jumping season will be rich in activity across the world. From Mexico City and Miami Beach to Rome and Barcelona, Shanghai and London to Paris and Washington, Toronto and Gothenburg to Los Angeles and St. Tropez, the upcoming international competition calendar is packed with big events. And now is as good a time as ever to start looking ahead at the year to come.

Show Jumping, like Dressage and Eventing, is an Olympic discipline, and the Olympic Games are a highlight in any sporting field. After last year’s Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, riders are now in the cycle leading up to the next Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan in 2020. The best in the world are already thinking ahead to Tokyo and developing their top horses, especially as practitioners of a sport where their equine partners are an equally important part of the athletic pair. As an example of the importance of this long-term training, one need look no further than Canadian Show Jumping legend Ian Millar, who had to drop out what would have been his 11th Olympic Games last year after his 13-year-old gelding Dixson underwent surgery.

Also taking place every four years, halfway between the Summer Olympic Games, are the FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) — the major international championships for equestrianism. The last WEG were held in the picturesque region of Normandy, France in 2014, and the next ones will be in 2018 in Tryon, North Carolina on the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Coming up much sooner, though — just after Omaha, in fact — is the Longines Global Champions Tour. The glamorous and lucrative circuit will bring together the top 15 ranked show jumpers in the world as they criss-cross the planet, starting in Mexico City on April 6th and wrapping up in Doha, Qatar in early November. This year, Great Britain returns to the circuit in a big way at the historic Royal Hospital Chelsea, on the banks of the river Thames from August 4th to 6th. Sweden’s Rolf-Göran Bengtsson will be looking to defend the 2016 title he won with his mounts Unita and Casall Ask, the latter of whom is retiring this spring.

And as part of this first 2017 preview, one can not forget the FEI Nations Cup series, described as “equestrian sport’s oldest and most prestigious team challenge.” National teams from across the world are just now starting their qualifying campaigns for the global CSIO 5* Final, which begins on September 28th in Barcelona. Team Germany will be aiming to repeat as champion after overcoming Team Great Britain last year.