2026 FEI Longines League of Nations Jumping: Germany Shines Under Ocala Sun

The German Team bested nine other nations in the second leg of the 2026 FEI Longines League of Nations™ (LLN) show jumping competition under the sun and palm trees in Ocala, Fla., last weekend. The four-man squad accrued only 4 faults over two rounds in the main arena at the World Equestrian Center (WEC) on Saturday, March 21. Prize money for the CSIO5*-LLN event was $770,000.  

The German Team in the victory gallop after the 2026 Longines League of Nations Ocala competition: Richard Vogel; Christian Kukuk; Rene Dittmer, and Andre Thieme. Photo by Cindy Lee/MacMillan Photography

Nations with teams competing there were Belgium, Brazil, Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, USA, and reigning champions Great Britain, who secured their place by winning a dramatic jump-off at the Longines League of Nations™ Final 2025 last October in Barcelona, Spain. The course designer for LLN Ocala was Irishman Alan Wade, who will also design the courses for the 2028 LA Olympic Games. 

In LLN competition, teams of four horse-and-rider pairs from the ten qualified nations jump two rounds, with each team being allowed one of the four as a drop score. Everyone jumps in the first round, then based on the scores from that round, three riders from each of the top eight teams return to jump the same course again with scores from the two rounds combined to determine the overall winner. The ten teams’ accumulated points are tracked over four qualifying competitions to determine the series rankings going into the finals.  

The League of Nations is the FEI’s newest “Nations Cup” competition. It all began in 2024 with teams from ten countries competing in a series of four events throughout the year leading to a final to determine the overall series winner. The WEC has hosted the North American stop of this series in mid-March each year thus far. The other legs are: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in mid-February; Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in mid-June; Gassin-St. Tropez, France, in mid-September, and the finals in Barcelona, Spain, October 1-4, 2026. Find out more about the FEI Longines League of Nations here. 

Horse-and-rider combinations for the German Team were Andre Thieme and DSP Chakaria, Christian Kukuk and his Olympic gold-medal mount Checker 47, Richard Vogel and Cloudio, and Rene Dittmer and Corsica X, with Olympic rider Otto Becker serving as their Chef d’Equipe. The Irish Team, all male riders as well, was a close second with 8 faults total. The Belgian Team, composed of two male and two female riders, was also in the hunt, finishing third on 12 faults.  

2024 Olympic gold medalists from Germany Christian Kukuk and Checker 47 clear the last fence in the 2026 LLN Ocala. Photo by Cindy Lee/MacMillan Photography

All three German riders went clear in the second round, with Vogel and Cloudio as their anchor pair. “I have great teammates here. They did a really good job. I went in almost in a bit of a comfortable situation, having one rail to give. In this format, it makes it very exciting; anything could happen, as we saw in the second round. I’m very proud of my horse, Cloudio. He came over from Europe for the Nations Cup; I just met him here, and he delivered double clear. I couldn’t be happier with him,” said Vogel, who lived for a time in the USA training with McLain Ward.  

Richard Vogel and Cloudio of the winning German Team sky the water jump during the 2026 Longines League of Nations™ Ocala. Photo by Kim MacMillan

Chef d’Equipe Becker was beaming in the press conference following Germany’s win, “What a week, what a team. I have no words. We had a great week and to win the Nations Cup today means a lot to me. I’m very proud. A big ‘thank you’ to the Roberts family [owners of the World Equestrian Center], to the organizers, to Longines, to the sponsors. Special words for the course builder; it was a fantastic course. I appreciate what we saw today and thought it was great advertising for the sport.” 

The U.S. Team, which was victorious in the LLN in Ocala last year, had a rough go in this year’s League of Nations Ocala. Originally the team was to have been a repeat of last year with Lillie Keenan, Laura Kraut, Aaron Vale and McLain Ward all tapped to ride by Chef d’Equipe Robert Ridland. However, a last-minute substitution was necessary when Ward injured his hand in a fall with a horse the week before, so Natalie Dean stepped up to fill in. In the end Dean, who jumped second in the order for the USA and was the Team’s best in this LLN Ocala, put in a fault-free ride in the first round with Marigold Sporthorses LLC’s Pedro van de Barlebuis.  

Best scoring rider for the U.S. Team in the 2026 Longines League of Nations Ocala, Natalie Dean on Pedro van de Barlebuis. Photo by Kim MacMillan

In a cruel twist of fate, the other seasoned and decorated U.S. riders all encountered just plain bad luck no one could have foreseen. First out for the U.S. Team was Lillie Keenan and her long-time partner Argan de Beliard, a horse that had an impressive four double-cleans in Nations Cup competitions last year. After pulling only one rail over the challenging course to that point, Argan stunned everyone by stopping at the final fence which caused Keenan to fall off. Horse and rider were both alright, but the rider fall resulted in mandatory elimination.  

“The biggest mystery was Lillie’s horse stopping,” said Chef d’ Equipe Ridland. “We’re not sure why he did that. The last fence was right towards the crowd. Maybe he saw something.” 

This left the U.S. Team with only three riders (and no other drop score) to try to qualify for the second round since only the top eight teams of the ten returned for the second class. After Kraut’s horse Tres Bien Z (who won the Washington International Horse Show Grand Prix last fall) also refused on the first attempt at the water jump and had an additional three rails down plus time faults, things began to look very bleak.  

Anchor U.S. rider Vale on Carissimo 25, a horse with a history of clean rounds and big wins, also grabbed an uncharacteristic four rails for 16 faults. This left the USA with 49 total faults so they failed to qualify for the second round in Ocala. They plan to move on to compete in the next two legs of the LLN, however, so they have the potential to improve in the LLN standings. Switzerland also had a difficult first round and did not return for round two.  

View the complete results and a list of competitors from the 2026 LLN Ocala here.

A drone show lit up the sky over the WEC main arena before the 2026 LLN Ocala awards. Photo by Cindy Lee/MacMillan Photography

France won the first round of the LLN in Abu Dhabi in February, with Germany second there and Brazil third. After two of four legs have been completed, the Longines League of Nations preliminary overall standings thus far are: Germany, first; France, second; Ireland, third; Brazil, fourth; Great Britain, fifth; Belgium, sixth; Switzerland, seventh; the Netherlands, eighth, Italy, ninth, and USA tenth. Track the 2026 League of Nations standings here.

Fans of the sport can relive the excitement of the Longines League of Nations™ Ocala on CBS Sports Network on Saturday, March 28, at 10 p.m. Eastern Time, with an encore presentation on Thursday, April 16, at 6 p.m. ET.