The history of the World Cup in equestrian sports

The central figure in the story is Swiss journalist Max Amman, a newspaper editor and avid equestrian sports fan in the city of Lucerne. In his travels, Amman had noticed that press coverage of Olympic horse sports was declining while other sports like golf and tennis were attracting more attention.

In response, Amman envisioned creating a new world championship for Show Jumping. “There was the Skiing World Championship and the Football World Cup and of course Formula 1 Motor Racing — I wondered if we could do something similar,” he said in an interview with the Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI) in 2008.

Having helped found international associations of equestrian journalists and Jumping riders in the seventies, Amman pitched his idea to the head of the FEI at the time, Prince Philip, who encouraged him to press forward. The concept was of a North American and Western European League, with a Final alternating between the two regions and the possibility of adding new leagues later in different parts of the world.

Thanks to the interest of Swedish organizers and from title sponsors Volvo, Gothenburg was selected as host for the first FEI World Cup in 1979. And it was France’s Hugo Simon and Gladstone who won the inaugural competition at the city’s Scandinavium arena, overcoming the United States’ Katie Monahan and The Jones Boy in second place. The southwest Swedish city has since become synonymous with the competition, hosting it 14 times to date, most recently in 2016 prior to last year’s Final in Omaha, Nebraska.

A parallel FEI World Cup Final for Dressage was created in 1986, with the first competition taking place in Den Bosch, The Netherlands. The current World No.1 in the sport, Isabell Werth of Germany, won her first FEI World Cup title in 1992 in Sweden with Fabienne, before completing her hat trick of titles in 2007 in Las Vegas and 2017 in Omaha (in addition to several silvers and bronzes). The FEI is also currently looking at establishing a new World Cup for Eventing to take the place of the FEI Classics circuit. 

This spring in Paris, there are places allocated for 44 Jumping riders (plus extras) from Western Europe, North and South America, Central Europe, Australia and the Arab and Caucasus-Caspian leagues, with the most (18 plus extras) qualifying through the Western European League. The finalists will be facing off in the 40th edition of the World Cup Jumping Final. For Dressage, there will be 18 riders in total, with nine coming from the Western European League.