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. 

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Stepping out to the rail of the Grand Outdoor Arena, flanked by the towering Equestrian Hotel on one end and grandstands on the other three, everything felt shiny and new at the World Equestrian Center (WEC) last weekend. The Florida sun was shining over the 387-acre facility which was completed in December 2020, but still looked like it might have opened yesterday instead of three years ago.

In addition to the existing hotel, a new hotel called The Riding Academy had opened just as visitors arrived for the Fédération Equestre Internationale’s newest “baby”, the FEI Longines League of Nations show jumping competition. And, the crowds came in throngs to see the WEC host its first really global event.

Ocala League of Nations Recap

On Thursday night of the same week, the $330,000 CSCIO-5* Lugano Diamonds Grand Prix gave the League of Nations nominated riders, and other international stars, a first look at the Grand Outdoor Arena and course designer for the week Alan Wade’s (IRL) tracks in Ocala. While it wasn’t actually part of the League of Nations competition, it was top-level sport and fans packed the stands that night, too.

Swiss riders took the top two spots in the Lugano Grand Prix, with Martin Fuchs and Leone Jei grabbing the win and $108,900 and Steve Geurdat riding Albfuehren’s Iashin Sitte in second. The USA’s Callie Schott finished third with Garant.

The Ocala League of Nations took place on Saturday, March 23, 2024, during a week of top-level international (CSIO-5*) jumper competition at WEC. Forty horse and rider combinations from ten nations came to battle for national pride on U.S. soil for the second leg of this new Nations Cup-style competition: Belgium, Brazil; France; Germany; Great Britain; Ireland; the Netherlands; Sweden; Switzerland, and the USA.

Riders for the U.S. Team were (in the order in which they jumped) Laura Kraut on St. Bride Farm’s 14-year-old Hanoverian gelding Baloutinue, Aaron Vale on Debbie Smith’s 11-year-old Holsteiner gelding Carissimo 25, Kent Farrington on Haity McNerney’s 11-year-old Zangersheide gelding Landon, and McLain Ward on Beechwood Stable’s 16-year-old Holsteiner mare Callas.

After all 40 horse and rider combinations had their turn around the technically challenging first-round course, and each team dropped their lowest score, the USA, Ireland and the Netherlands each sat on zero total faults. But, the total accumulated time over the course of the top three riders from each team was used to break the tie, leaving the USA slightly ahead of Ireland (1.12 seconds faster). The Netherland’s team time was the next one in line, 1.79 seconds slower than the USA.

Moving down the list of first-round scores, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Brazil followed and qualified to move on to the second round. Unfortunately, Great Britain and Sweden did not have the best day, so they ended up being the two teams who did not jump in round two.

In round two, the Irish Team was not to be denied and they pulled ahead to take the win, adding only five faults (one rail and one time fault). As the awards ceremony began, the skies opened up and rain came down in sheets, but the guys from the Emerald Isle (Darragh Kenny riding Amsterdam 27, Daniel Coyle riding Legacy, Cian O’Connor riding Maurice and Shane Sweetnam riding Otis Blue) didn’t seem to mind a bit as they celebrated on podium.

“I said we wouldn’t [be] the favorites tonight, and it suits us. But, as I said, we always ride better than you think we are,” said Ireland’s Chef d’equipe Michael Blake with a smile in the final press conference.

O’Connor had nothing but praise for the WEC, “It’s one of the great wonders of the world. The facility is fantastic. Sometimes the unsung heroes of our sport are the grooms, and for them, the way they’re looked after… the stables and the level of detail here is second to none. We’re absolutely delighted to be here. A big thanks to Roberts family for building this wonderful facility for us.”

Switzerland’s riders, including FEI World Rankings number 3 Steve Guerdat on Is-Minka, had an exceptional second round with their three riders adding no faults to their total from the first round. They finished as the runners-up in Ocala.

With the exception of Kraut and Baloutinue, who jumped clear in both rounds, the other U.S. riders were not as lucky in round two, with Ward taking down one rail with Callas and Farrington two rails with Landon to end the competition on 12 faults and in third place. (Vale did not jump in round two.)

US Chef d’equipe Robert Ridland commented on his team’s performance after the awards ceremony, “We achieved our objective, which was to be on the podium. Obviously, we’d have rather been where Ireland was, but when you’re dealing with the top 10 teams in the world, third is a valid achievement.”

Check out the complete results from the 2024 FEI Longines League of Nations Ocala.

How the League of Nations Competition Works

The League of Nations is a revamp of sorts of the Nations Cup format (although old-style Nations Cup competitions do also still exist at other shows). In the new Longines League of Nations competition, the top 10 nations from the FEI’s show jumping rankings field four-athlete teams in the first round of competition (with the best three scores from each team from the first round counting toward their score). For the second round, the best eight teams return, this time with three athletes each.

The three returning athletes are selected by each nation’s chef d’equipe. In the second round, they start in reverse order of placing from the first round. The final results are determined by the combined penalties of each team’s three best athlete scores in the first round and all of the team’s three athlete scores in the second round.

The first leg had been hosted by the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi in February, where Germany took the top spot. Two more qualifying legs are planned in St. Gallen, Switzerland, May 30-June 2, and Rotterdam, the Netherlands, June 20-23. The final will be October 3-6 in Barcelona, Spain. For more information on the FEI Longines League of Nations, click here.

All legs of the League of Nations competition may be viewed (both live and on-demand replays) on FEI TV via Clip My Horse (paid subscription required although a free 30-day trial is available). For more information, click here.

View replays of the Ocala competition here.

More About the WEC Venue

The WEC in Ocala is billed as the largest equestrian competition facility in the world. In total, there are 6,000 acres owned by the Roberts family in Ocala, so there is much more space available for future expansion.

Currently there are two main outdoor arenas, a grass outdoor arena, five indoor arenas with spectator seating (and a sixth opening soon), 15 outdoor arenas with more planned, over 20 barns and 3,000 stalls, turnout paddocks, lunging areas, wash racks, tack rooms, a veterinary hospital, feed and bedding suppliers, with polo fields planned for the future.

On the human side, there are the two aforementioned hotels, plus “Home Away From Home” cabins, an RV park, walking trails, a pool and splash pad, a chapel, medical and physical therapy facilities, a spa, dining and shopping. Two multi-use exposition centers are already on the property as well, and a new 80,000-square-foot shopping venue is in the works near the WEC’s main entrance with a projected completion date in 2025. Find more information about the WEC here.

This article about the Ocala Longines League of Nations qualifier is a web exclusive for Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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