The fundamental way that the World Cup works, with the leagues, is very important. It isn’t the best 40 in the world—it’s the best so many from each region. That helps to spread the competition out throughout the world and give different people an opportunity to compete with the best. I think that’s a valuable thing for a lot of people, because it exposes them to the highest end of the sport.

Unlike many years at the Rolex FEI World Cup Final, this year’s field looks like a bit of an open book. Of course, the dynamos of Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, Marcus Ehning, and all the other Europeans are on their way, but I don’t think they’re unbeatable. McLain Ward looks poised to be our best hope for an American win since 1987. If I had to pick three favorites, they would be Michaels-Beerbaum, Christian Ahlmann and  Ward. I’d put them in that order, but any of them could win it.

One major problem for the U.S. riders, however, is that we don’t have difficult enough preparation. I’m not separating East and West coasts. As a country, we don’t have high enough level of competition to be able to prepare properly for this competition. It’s courses, venues, footing, ambiance, everything. We’re not stretching ourselves enough. You can blame it on  anything, but the fact is that we’re not pushing each other hard enough, and we don’t have difficult enough competition to prepare properly for major championships.

There are wonderful horses, but right now there is a lack of enough top horses to go around for all the very good riders in the world. It’s easy to say it’s just a problem in the United States, but everybody’s in the same boat. We have to keep trying to find horses and bring superstars along. I think right now, we have one of our best chances in long time. Things are thin for us in terms of horseflesh, but they’re thin for everybody. But at the top level of our sport, our depth is very shallow.

I do think that the World Cup Final is a very important thing for our sport. If you come from a country strong in horse and rider talent, you might not get many chances to represent your country at major championships. And, if you’re from a country weaker in talent, you might be dragged down in the team results by your teammates sometimes. But at the World Cup Final, everybody has a chance to shine individually.

What’s really good is that it’s a wake-up call for everybody. I don’t care if you’re a German rider, or from Thailand, or wherever, it’s a chance to knock heads with each other and see how good you really are.  I think this is really crucial on a yearly basis so that we can try and get better all the time.

For the best—and that’s a tiny little group—they can expect to win if they don’t have bad luck. For the others, they need some luck to win. I think a lot of these riders look at a thing like the World Cup in different ways. Some go with the intention of winning. Some are just looking to finish with a personal best. And for many it’s a steppingstone in their education.

You have to really put it together for three days there to get to the top of the heap, and very few riders can really do that. Lightening can strike and someone can win one leg, but it’s a much different thing to put all three legs together and come out on top. Someone like Meredith—with her horsepower and experience and skills—can plan on putting the three legs together.

It’s difficult to go into one of these competitions unless you can plan to be successful. The consistency is very hard, and it’s also extremely hard to start out well. At many of the shows, you get going and rev up as the week goes on. But for this, you have to be firing on all eight cylinders right from the first day.

The first round is a speed round, and you can’t shoot yourself in the foot on the first day. If you want to control your destiny, you have to win the first round. But that’s a hard thing, because it’s also easy to ruin your chances in trying so hard. It’s probably easier to self-destruct in the first round than to win it. You have to compromise and say, “I have to go as well as I can while preserving my horse for the next two legs.” You have to be confident that the field will come back to you, but not expect it to come back to you too much.

You’re talking about five rounds in total—the speed round, the second round and its jump-off, and the two rounds on the last day. But it is a long road. If you’re in the middle of the pack early on in the game, it’s very easy to feel like the field isn’t going to come back to you. But if you look at it historically, it can change so quickly. You don’t have to win every day to win in the end—you just have to place consistently well in every leg. And that’s difficult to do.

I think that for riders with less experience, in the heat of battle, they have to make themselves remember that it’s just as hard for everybody else and it’s a long three days. Just because somebody’s ahead of you by a rail doesn’t mean it’s any easier for them to jump a clear round.

How The Riders Get To The Final
World Cup-qualifying classes (CSI-Ws) are held at designated shows throughout the world. Geographical areas are divided into various leagues, such as Western Europe, U.S. East Coast, U.S. West Coast, Canada, South America, South Africa, etc. Riders earn points for placing in those classes, and at the conclusion of the qualifying period, the top-ranked riders from each league qualify for the Final. Each league has a different number of riders who qualify for the Final, based on that league’s performance in past Finals.

For instance, the Western European League qualifies 18 riders, the U.S. East Coast seven, the U.S. West Coast three, and various other leagues will be represented by between one and three riders. The FEI has a wild card slot—given in 2007 to Rodrigo Pessoa of Brazil—and the United States was granted two wild card spaces, as host country. The following riders are listed in the respective leagues in which they qualified, in the order of their final placings in the league.

As of press time, three leagues had not completed their qualification classes—Canada, U.S. East Coast and U.S. West Coast—so some changes may occur.

Molly Sorge

Click here for the Rolex FEI World Cup show jumping roster.