Western European League 2019/2020 (show jumping)

The Western European League of the Show Jumping World Cup 2019/2020 (Longines FEI Jumping World Cup from 2019 to 2020, Western European League) was the 42nd season of the Western and Central European League of the Show Jumping World Cup . The World Cup is the most important tournament series in the indoor season in the Western European League.

Course of the tournament series

There were only minor changes to the preseason: the World Cup tournaments in Lyon and Verona swapped dates again after a year, so that the usual order was restored. Göteborg, last season's final tournament, was again part of the Western European League as a normal valuation tournament. This pushed the end of the Western European League season back slightly, starting in mid-October 2019 and ending on February 23, 2020.

Since the 2020 World Cup finals will take place in North America, the number of stages in the Western European League in 2019/2020 increased to 14. The title sponsor of the tournament series was still the Swiss watch manufacturer Longines . All tournaments in the league were advertised as CSI 5 *, the highest category in show jumping. They were marked with the suffix -W (i.e. CSI 5 * -W) to identify them as World Cup tournaments. The best 18 riders in the Western European League and additional participants (“extra competitors”) would have qualified for the 2020 World Cup finals.

The evaluation test of a World Cup tournament in the Western European League was usually held on Sunday afternoon. Three tournaments differed from this: In Bordeaux and London, the World Cup competitions were already held on Saturday, in Mechelen this takes place every year on the afternoon of December 30th, regardless of the weekday.

The World Cup competitions were announced as jumping competitions with a single jump-off . The height of the obstacles was up to 1.60 meters or up to 1.65 meters. Prize money of at least € 100,000 per special stage was to be distributed.

The exams

Oslo

The first stage of the Western European League was already on one of the first weekends of the indoor season in Europe. This took place as part of the Oslo Horse Show. The horse show was held from October 16-20, 2019 in the Telenor Arena in Oslo .

The course designer Elio Travagliati had measured the allowed time of the normal round to be very tight at 78 seconds. As a result, five pairs only missed the jump-off due to a time error. 12 other riders had made no mistakes with their horses and gave the first stage an extensive jump-off.

The second starter, Emma Augier de Moussac, with her mare Chacco Dia achieved the first zero-error ride in the jump- off . But with a not too fast pace she only managed a time of 43.58 seconds, which should only be enough for fifth place at the end of the stage. The next participant chose a much more brisk pace: In his second ever World Cup competition, the 22-year-old Swiss Bryan Balsiger stayed clear in a time of exactly 40 seconds on the jump-off course.

The hunt for Balsiger's time was started by Norway's most successful show jumper, Geir Gulliksen, but remained almost a second behind Balsiger's time. Olivier Philippaerts even crossed the finish line in under 39 seconds with his gray mare Legend of Love , but with two jumping errors. Luciana Diniz finished second with no mistakes in a time of 40.40 seconds. Diesel , Marlon Módolo Zanotelli's stallion, slipped away in one turn and lost valuable seconds. An obstacle error on top of that prevented them from displacing Luciana Diniz from second place. Peder Fredricson managed the fastest lap ever in this jump-off, but he and All In also made a mistake.

The last two starters couldn't prevent Balsiger's victory either: Christian Kukuk's gray stallion Colestus refused to face an oxer ridden at high speed. World number one Steve Guerdat also came to an unfavorable obstacle, his black Alamo did not jump off properly and jumped through the upper part of the steep jump.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Switzerland Bryan Balsiger	Clouzot de Lassus	0	-	0	40.00	20th
2	Portugal Luciana Diniz	Vertigo you Desert	0	-	0	40.40	17th
3	Norway Geir Gulliksen	Quatro	0	-	0	40.99	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 39 participants)

Helsinki

The second stage of the Western European League also took place in Scandinavia: The Helsinki International Horse Show was held from October 23 to 27, 2019. The venue was the Helsingin Jäähalli in Helsinki.

Nine pairs of participants qualified from the first round for the jump-off of the Helsinki World Cup. With tenth place and the fastest ride with just one obstacle error, Michael Jung just missed the jump-off.

The 24-year-old Irishman Eoin McMahon, a rider in Ludger Beerbaum's stable, started the jump-off. A pole fell during his go-off with Chacon and he finished sixth in the end. With the second starter, Sergio Álvarez Moya, the first aspirant came onto the course. He was again clear and with a time of less than 40 seconds he was also fast. A little more slowly, Celine Schoonbroodt-de Azevedo and her mare Cheppetta lined up directly behind Moya.

Peder Fredricson and his 12-year-old gelding Christian K also conquered the course extremely quickly (37.96 seconds). But the high speed took a toll: Fredricson turned his horse so close to the wave-shaped wall obstacle that it could not find the jumping-off point for this difficult to assess obstacle and jumped through the wall. Another mistake in the jump-off course made him finish the test in seventh place. Things went much better for Robert Whitaker. After winning the Grand Prix the evening before, he also took the lead in the World Cup.

The third and the second last ride of the jump-off went unexpectedly: Denis Lynch's gelding Chopin's Bushi climbed in front of the second obstacle and refused to continue the ride. Kevin Staut and Peder Fredricson came to the wall inappropriately, his gelding For Joy stopped and Staut fell from the saddle. Final rider Christian Kukuk, as well as Eoin McMahon working for Ludger Beerbaum, chose a deliberately slow pace for his Holsteiner Quintino and crossed the finish line without a mistake, which earned him fourth place.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	United Kingdom Robert Whitaker	Catwalk IV	0	-	0	38.13	20th
2	Spain Sergio Álvarez Moya	Jet Run	0	-	0	39.81	17th
3	Belgium Celine Schoonbroodt-de Azevedo	Cheppetta	0	-	0	40.09	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 37 participants)

Lyon

France's first of two legs in the Western European League season took place from October 30 to November 3, 2019. The venue for this was Lyon's Eurexpo exhibition center . The World Cup competition as part of the Equitá Lyon tournament was on the program on November 3rd from 2:00 p.m.

The allowed time in the normal round of the World Cup jumping was 84 seconds. After a good half of the starters, almost every second ride ended by exceeding this time and thus with a time penalty. By the end of the normal circuit, 13 of the 40 starter pairs had managed a ride without penalty points.

The jump-off of these 13 riders with their horses was opened by Rene Lopez Lizarazo with Twig du Veillon with an obstacle error in 44.76 seconds, this performance was only enough for 13th place. The jump-off gained tension with the third ride, Jessica Springsteen undercut the previously required riding times with 41.85 seconds clearly, and with her mare Zecilie she also managed the first zero-error ride in the jump-off.

But the lead seemed to be snatched from her by the next starter: Alexis Deroubaix and his successful horse Timon d'Aure crossed the finish line in 41.54 seconds. But at the last obstacle a pole fell. Bart Bles and Henrik von Eckermann finished the jumping course with slower clears. So it took until the ninth starter until the lead changed: Martin Fuchs brought his gray gelding Clooney to the start and needed over half a second less than Springsteen for the course. Fuchs' training partner Steve Guerdat also beat Jessica Springsteen's time as tenth rider in the jump-off, but an obstacle error with his 10-year-old gelding Venard de Cerisy prevented him from placing in the front.

In the last three rides, too, a change in leadership seemed to be imminent: Emanuele Gaudiano crossed the finish line with Chalou in just over 42 seconds, Pieter Devos and his mare Claire Z in 41.95 seconds. With Julien Epaillard's ride a French victory seemed possible, but he crossed the finish line with his dark brown mare Queeletta after 42.92 seconds (fifth place). This marked the second Swiss victory in the still young season of the Western European League. For Martin Fuchs and Clooney this was the second victory in a row in the Lyon World Cup after 2018.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Switzerland Martin Fuchs	Clooney	0	-	0	41.27	20th
2	United States Jessica Springsteen	Zecilie	0	-	0	41.85	17th
3	Belgium Pieter Devos	Claire Z	0	-	0	41.95	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 40 participants)

Verona

After two years in which the Fieracavalli equestrian fair was held in October, it returned to its November date and was held from November 7th to 10th, 2019. As part of the event, the Jumping Verona World Cup took place at the Veronafiere exhibition center in Verona .

The normal course of the World Cup jumping in Verona turned out to be a bit too easy for the starting field: 26 of the 38 riders got results of a maximum of four penalty points, and only one participant received a time penalty point. 16 times there was a faultless ride in the normal circuit, which resulted in the biggest jump-off of the Western European league season so far.

The 25-year-old Filippo Marco Bologni started the jump-off. With his only 9-year-old gelding Quilazio , he crossed the finish line after 45.86 seconds without any mistakes. But his compatriot Emilio Bicocchi, who started immediately after him, showed that you had to contest the course at a significantly different pace in order to have a chance of a top position. With his Zangersheid mare Evita , he finished eight seconds faster with no mistakes. The next two riders, Zoe Conter and Mark McAuley, attacked Bicocchi's time and were ahead of him in the meantime. But the technically demanding middle section of the jump-off course earned both of them eight penalty points.

Only Marc Houtzager was able to push Bicocchis out of the lead, with the 11-year-old mare Dante his time was 36.64 seconds. Niels Bruynseels and Gancia de Muze , who finished third here last year, followed directly after him . They seemed to undercut Houtzager's time, but a jumping fault prevented this. Not so with Darragh Kenny, who made it into the top 10 of the world rankings this fall. In the hometown of Romeo and Juliet he managed to take the lead with his stallion Romeo with a time of only 36.06 seconds.

Of the following seven participants, Steve Guerdat and Emanuele Gaudiano almost managed to get Kenny's time without a mistake. While Guerdat was unable to take full risk on the long gallop to the last obstacle, Gaudiano was almost able to catch up on the gap he had in the meantime. But only the last pair of starters in the jump-off brought the last and therefore decisive change in leadership. Scott Brash and his 13-year-old mare M'lady managed to cross the finish line half a second faster than Darragh Kenny without making any mistakes.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	United Kingdom Scott Brash	M'lady	0	-	0	35.55	20th
2	Ireland Darragh Kenny	Romeo	0	-	0	36.06	17th
3	Switzerland Steve Guerdat	Alamo	0	-	0	36.19	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 38 participants)

Stuttgart

Stages of all the World Cup series held by the FEI in the winter half of 2019/2020 were held as part of the Stuttgart German Masters . As part of this tournament, the Western European Show Jumping League made its fifth stop. It took place from November 13th to 17th, 2019 in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart .

Stuttgart's course designer Christa Jung came very close to the goal of achieving a jump-off amounting to 25 percent of the field of participants in the World Cup with her up to 1.65 meter high course. None of the 39 starters finished the course with more than two obstacle errors, 12 riders stayed clear. Of these 12, however, Christian Kukuk was eliminated due to a slight spore injury to his horse Quintino , so that the jump-off comprised eleven participants.

For Richard Howley, who is in 148th place in the world, it was already a great success to qualify for the jump-off. As the first starter, he wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, attacked and crossed the finish line in just 45.56 seconds. But a mistake by him and his gelding Chinook prevented a top placement. Not so with Steve Guerdat, who was the third rider in the jump-off. With the 10-year-old Venard de Cerisy he crossed the finish line without any mistakes and only three tenths of a second slower than Howley.

Scott Brash as the next starter lined up without errors and only a fraction of a second slower behind Guerdat in second place. But last year's winner couple Pieter Devos and his chestnut gelding Apart were able to take the lead . With a lap at high speed and some risk, Philipp Weishaupt and his mare Che Fantastica finished the course in just 43.63 seconds. But at the last obstacle a pole fell, which allowed Weishaupt to finish the test in fifth place. With Daniel Deußer, the last rider in the jump-off, a pole fell early, so that another victory for Pieter Devos was certain.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Belgium Pieter Devos	Apart	0	-	0	45.35	20th
2	Switzerland Steve Guerdat	Venard de Cerisy	0	-	0	45.87	17th
3	United Kingdom Scott Brash	senator	0	-	0	46.05	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 39 participants)

Madrid

After the focus in show jumping on the weekend after Stuttgart on the Prague Playoffs of the Global Champions Tour / Global Champions League , the season of the Western European League continued another weekend later.

From November 28 to December 1, 2019, the Madrid Horse Week took place in the Spanish capital. The venue for the tournament was the Feria de Madrid . The world cup competition was on the program on December 1st from 1:00 p.m.

As in Stuttgart, a local paro course designer was entrusted with the design of the World Cup jumping in Madrid. The course that Javier Trenor Paz set up for the riders in the normal circuit turned out to be ideal: With nine fault-free rides in 38 starter pairs, exactly the desired quarter of the participants qualified for the jump-off. Billy Twomey, Dominique Hendrickx and Victoria Gulliksen did not manage to stay within the allowed time of 66 seconds with their horses, they finished the course with only one time penalty.

While the third-placed pair from Helsinki, Celine Schoonbroodt-de Azevedo and Cheppetta , made a jumping fault , the second starter pair made no mistakes in the jump-off. Emilio Bicocchi and his mare Evita crossed the finish line in just under 45 seconds. Pieter Devos, who took the lead with Espoir, was even faster . The fourth pair in the jump-off delivered the third zero-error round: Marcus Ehning and his experienced chestnut gelding Pret A Tout made an excellent 270-degree turn before obstacle eight, he crossed the finish line in 43.30 seconds without mistakes.

While Mark McAuley collected eight penalty points, Christian Ahlmann was able to build on the performance of Marcus Ehning. With his only nine-year-old stallion Dominator , which he had used very carefully in 2019, he seemed to be able to achieve Ehning's time, drifted slightly to the side at high speed on the final line before the last obstacle, but still remained error-free. With a time of 43.53 seconds, Ahlmann took second place.

Max Kühner was on his way to the slowest clear round of the jump-off with his gray Chardonnay , but a jumping error on the last obstacle threw him back to sixth place. At the end of Maikel van der Vleuten went to the start, he rode Beauville Z . But even with him a pole fell from an obstacle, so that Ehning's victory was certain. For Marcus Ehning this was the second victory in the World Cup competition in Madrid, the last time he won here in November 2016.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Germany Marcus Ehning	Pret A Tout	0	-	0	43.30	20th
2	Germany Christian Ahlmann	Dominator 2000 Z	0	-	0	43.53	17th
3	Belgium Pieter Devos	Espoir	0	-	0	43.66	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 38 participants)

A Coruña

Two weeks after Madrid, the second Spanish stage of the Central and Western European World Cup was held. The venue was the city of Arteixo near the Galician city of A Coruña . At the headquarters of the textile company Inditex , the tournament was held in the large (80 × 40 meters), wood-stamped riding hall of the Centro Hípico Casas Novas.

Despite the temporal competition with the Geneva Grand Prix , which is endowed with over one million euros , the A Coruña World Cup, endowed with 300,000 euros, was also well attended. The jump-off was extensive with 13 riders. Of these 13 participants, nine remained without mistakes, so that a very fast time was decisive for the victory.

Michael G. Duffy opened the jump-off with the slowest zero-error lap (39.95 seconds). As the fourth starter, Zoe Conter, 21-year-old daughter of the head of the Stephex Group Stephan Conter, took the lead with Davidoff de Lassus . Her compatriot Pieter Clemens was a little faster again two rides later. The seventh jump-off that followed him brought the decision: Maikel van der Vleuten's time of less than 37 seconds proved to be beyond the reach of the following participants. Van der Vleuten won the World Cup competition with a horse from the ownership of the Inditex founding family Ortega, the Zangersheide gelding Beauville Z . As in the previous year, second place went to Emanuele Gaudiano and his chestnut gelding Chalou .

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Netherlands Maikel van der Vleuten	Beauville Z	0	-	0	36.94	20th
2	Italy Emanuele Gaudiano	Chalou	0	-	0	37.66	17th
3	Belgium Pieter Clemens	Quintini	0	-	0	37.72	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 40 participants)

London

On the weekend before Christmas, the World Cup was held in London . The Olympia London International Horse Show took place from December 16-22, 2019. The tournament in the Olympia Grand Hall ended sportily with the Grand Prix on Sunday evening. The World Cup competition in the Western European League was held on Saturday afternoon.

Last year's third in the World Cup, Laura Kraut, missed the jump-off in December 2019 due to a timeout of six hundredths of a second. This was manageable, six horse-rider pairs had qualified in the normal round.

While Holly Smith collected eight penalty points at the start of the jump-off, Martin Fuchs once again confirmed his outstanding form of 2019 as the second rider. With the 11-year-old gelding The Sinner , he reached the goal of the technically demanding jump-off with no mistakes in under 32 seconds. The youngest horse in the entire test was ridden by Max Kühner. With the eight-year-old Elektric Blue P he could not quite keep up with Fuchs, but his young gelding was still convincing and crossed the finish line in 33.83 seconds without penalty points.

Marcus Ehning tried to beat his experienced gray stallion Cornado NRW Fuchs, but a mistake in the middle of the jump-off course prevented this (fourth place with four penalty points in 32.17 seconds). At Scott Brash, too, a pole fell. At the end of the jump-off, Niels Bruynseels did not succeed in the ride through the jump-off course, with Delux he crossed the finish line with the slowest error-free time. Martin Fuchs thus won the second stage in Western Europe this season.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Switzerland Martin Fuchs	The Sinner	0	-	0	31.99	20th
2	Austria Max Kühner	Elektric Blue P	0	-	0	33.83	17th
3	Belgium Niels Bruynseels	Delux	0	-	0	34.64	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 37 participants)

Mechelen

On the last Monday of 2019, the ninth special stage of the Western European League was due: As every year, the indoor riding tournament Jumping Mechelen - Vlaanderens Kerstjumping was held in Mechelen from December 26th to 30th . The venue was the Nekkerhal in the east of the Belgian city.

12 pairs had qualified for the jump-off in this World Cup test. In the first half of the jump-off, two strategies could be identified to master the course: Most of the riders, including the first three starters, tried to achieve a fast time of 41 to 42 seconds with high speed and risk, which they all failed to achieve however, one obstacle error in each case. Instead, Wilm Vermeir and Christian Kukuk chose a significantly reduced pace, they crossed the finish line without mistakes in over 45 seconds and over 48 seconds respectively.

Pius Schwizer chose a middle course with his chestnut gelding Cortney Cox , crossed the finish line after a good 44 seconds, but made no mistakes and took the lead. Even after Schwizer's ride, the attempt to cross the finish line in 41 seconds remained the usual strategy, but it still ended with jumping errors. Jos Verlooy started the jump-off as the penultimate rider, with Igor he was the only jump-off participant with two jumping faults. As the last starter, Daniel Deußer had a good starting position. He too attacked with his mare Killer Queen and finished in 41.37 seconds. But Deußer remained without penalty points and thus secured victory.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Germany Daniel Deußer	Killer queen	0	-	0	41.37	20th
2	Switzerland Pius Schwizer	Cortney Cox	0	-	0	44.02	17th
3	Belgium Wilm Vermeir	IQ from het Steentje	0	-	0	45.16	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 36 participants)

Basel

For the second time, the Swiss stage of the Show Jumping World Cup was held in Basel . The CSI Basel took place on the second weekend in January, from January 9th to 12th, 2020.

After there had been a very small jump-off in the Basel World Cup a year earlier, the biggest jump-off of the Western European League season so far took place in 2020: 15 of the 40 participants managed a fault-free round in the normal circuit.

After three riders, the jump-off was the first clean ride again, Mark McAuley and Vivaldi du Theil needed 33.52 seconds. Immediately after him, Hans-Dieter Dreher started, with his dark chestnut gelding Prinz , he crossed the finish line more than two tenths of a second faster without making any mistakes. This lead lasted through the first half of the jump-off.

Steve Guerdat started right at the start of the second half of the jump-off. With his 11-year-old gelding Victorio des Frotards , with whom he had already won the Grand Prix two days earlier, he was able to clearly undercut Dreher's time and crossed the finish line in 31.44 seconds without penalty points. Denis Lynch, Marcus Ehning and Julien Epaillard as well as Pieter Devos also managed to undercut Hans-Dieter Dreher's time without any errors, but they could not come close to Guerdat's time.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Switzerland Steve Guerdat	Victorio des Frotards	0	-	0	31.44	20th
2	France Julien Epaillard	Queeletta	0	-	0	31.94	17th
3	Belgium Pieter Devos	Apart	0	-	0	32.41	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 40 participants)

Leipzig

On the third weekend of 2020, from January 16 to 19, the second German show jumping world cup was held. The partner horse was carried out in Leipzig on the Leipzig exhibition grounds .

After the jump-off of the previous World Cup stage had already been oversized, the Leipzig Grand Prix topped this again. The jump-off of this World Cup jumping comprised a total of 16 riders. The participants had to take correspondingly more risk in order to achieve a top position. This was already evident from the fact that it took until the fifth starter for a rider to make no mistakes in this jump-off: Michael Jung, who had already finished second in the Leipzig championship the day before, got into the championship in exactly 35 seconds with his Westphalian mare Chelsea Target.

Christian Ahlmann, winner of this test in the two previous years, took the lead two rides later with his black stallion Dominator . The decision was made again two rides later and thus about halfway through the jump-off: Denis Lynch and Chopin's Bushi had already been in the top ten at the World Cup competitions in Helsinki and Basel. In Leipzig he secured his first victory with the gelding, Lynch undercut Ahlmann's time by six tenths of a second without a mistake.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Ireland Denis Lynch	Chopin's Bushi	0	-	0	33.16	20th
2	Germany Christian Ahlmann	Dominator 2000 Z	0	-	0	33.77	17th
3	Germany Marcus Ehning	Comme il faut	0	-	0	34.25	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 40 participants)

Amsterdam

After it returned to the circle of the World Cup tournaments in the previous year, Jumping Amsterdam was again part of the Western European Show Jumping League in January 2020. The Amsterdam indoor riding tournament took place from January 23rd to 26th at the Amsterdam RAI Exhibition Center .

In the World Cup show jumping on the afternoon of January 26th, nine horse-rider pairs remained without faults in the normal round and were thus eligible to start in the jump-off. The world and European champion of 2014 and 2015, Jeroen Dubbeldam, started the jump-off. The Dutchman, who has now slipped to 441th place in the world rankings, competed here with Carlyle , a gelding he has been riding since October 2019. With a slow lap of over 40 seconds, Dubbeldam initially took the lead. The second participant, the 25-year-old Belgian Pieter Clemens, was also without mistakes and almost five seconds faster. And also on the third ride the lead changed, Harrie Smolders and his Holsteiner Monaco could just undercut Clemens Zeit.

Smolders time demanded the following riders: Marcus Ehning and Maikel van der Vleuten lined up behind Pieter Clemens without any mistakes, Robert Whitaker and Daniel Deußer made mistakes. But the penultimate couple succeeded in changing the lead: Marc Houtzager and his 12-year-old Dante managed the tight turns of the jump-off course particularly well, he crossed the finish line almost a second faster than Harrie Smolders without penalty points. For the final rider Niels Bruynseels it was enough to finish fourth, Houtzager won the World Cup test.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Netherlands Marc Houtzager	Dante	0	-	0	34.05	20th
2	Netherlands Harrie Smolders	Monaco	0	-	0	35.03	17th
3	Belgium Pieter Clemens	Quintini	0	-	0	35.18	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 40 participants)

Bordeaux

At the Jumping International de Bordeaux tournament in February 2020, the penultimate stage of the Western European Show Jumping League was held parallel to the four-in-hand World Cup final . The event took place from February 6th to 9th in the Parc de Expositions in Bordeaux .

In the normal round of the World Cup jumping, which was already carried out on Saturday evening, nine riders from eight nations made no mistakes. After Emilio Bicocchi and his mare Evita made a jumping mistake in the jump-off, the second starter showed the first round without penalty points: France's representative in the jump-off, Roger-Yves Bost, managed to master the course in under 33 seconds.

Probably the most challenging task in the course built by Jean-François Morand was the way from the second to the third obstacle of the jump-off. The ideal path for this 180-degree turn was blocked by another obstacle. It was possible, like Luciana Diniz (fourth starter with the stallion Chacco Blue II ), to ride around this obstacle, but this increased the time required for the course considerably. Participants who wanted to win the test had to turn close in front of the obstacle, but then came ridden at an extremely oblique angle to the third obstacle. The first time after Bost's ride, Pieter Devos succeeded in doing this without a mistake, who crossed the finish line after 32.23 seconds with his experienced chestnut gelding Apart . But his lead was lost again on the next ride, Steve Guerdat and his gelding Victorio des Frotards finished the course with an excellent time of 30.82 seconds without mistakes.

The two participants after Guerdat also managed to manage the narrow turn to the third obstacle without making any mistakes. But Daniel Deußer and Niels Bruynseels neither came close to Guerdat's time, they lined up in second and third place.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Switzerland Steve Guerdat	Victorio des Frotards	0	-	0	30.82	20th
2	Germany Daniel Deußer	Jasmien vd Bisschop	0	-	0	31.59	17th
3	Belgium Niels Bruynseels	Ilusionata van't Meulenhof	0	-	0	31.71	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 37 participants)

Gothenburg

The 2019/2020 Western European League season, which began in Scandinavia, also ended there: The Göteborg Horse Show , which last year was still the venue for the World Cup finals, offered riders the last chance to collect points in Europe before the World Cup finals. The tournament took place from February 19 to 23, 2020 at Scandinavium in Gothenburg .

The normal course of World Cup jumping, planned by Peter Lundström, turned out to be challenging. Up to the 23rd pair of participants, only two riders with their horses had remained free of penalty points. Of the last ten starters, three managed a zero-error ride, so that five pairs were qualified for the jump-off.

Rolf-Göran Bengtsson opened the jump-off. His already 14-year-old gelding Cassilano , who was still inexperienced in jumping courses over 1.60 m in height, was a bit overwhelmed by the increased piercing speed, the pair made two jumping errors. Geir Gulliksen, on the other hand, managed a swiftly ridden jump-off lap, without mistakes with a time of 45.75 seconds, he took the lead with his gelding Quatro . Olivier Philippaerts almost came close to Gulliksen's time with the gray mare Legend of Love , but a pole fell at an obstacle. Also with a jumping fault, but with a time more than a second faster, Kevin Staut took second place. From there, Bryan Balsiger was the last to displace him. After his victory in Oslo, the Swiss achieved the second major success of the World Cup season here, with the 22-year-old securing the World Cup final qualification. The winner, the 60-year-old Norwegian Gulliksen, also secured the necessary points for a starting place in Las Vegas.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		Sting		scoring points
	equestrian	horse	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	scoring points
1	Norway Geir Gulliksen	Quatro	0	-	0	45.75	20th
2	Switzerland Bryan Balsiger	Twentytwo des Biches	0	-	0	46.45	17th
3	France Kevin Staut	For Joy van't Zorgvliet	0	-	4th	44.51	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 32 participants)

Overall rating

18 riders from the states in the Western European League would have qualified for the World Cup finals. These would have been determined on the basis of the overall ranking after the completion of all special stages. In addition, other riders from other countries could have qualified for the World Cup finals via the Western European League, provided they lived in the Central / Western European League.

The Western European riders were also able to collect points in the North American World Cup (see “others” in the table below). Rating points from other World Cup leagues in the world, however, were not transferred to the Western European League. The rules can be found in the main article on the Show Jumping World Cup .

According to the World Cup regulations, only the points achieved in the best 50 percent of the stages were included in the evaluation for each rider. These were seven results in the 2019/2020 season of the Western European League.

	equestrian	Oslo	Helsinki	Lyon	Verona	Stutt- cooks	Madrid	A Coruña	London	Mechelen	Basel	Leipzig	Amster- dam	Bordeaux	Göte- borg	Further	scoring points
1	Switzerland Steve Guerdat	7th	(0)	8th	15th	17th	(0)	-	8th	-	20th	(5)	(0)	20th	-	-	95
2	Belgium Pieter Devos	-	-	15th	5	20th	15th	-	-	(0)	15th	(0)	0	13	-	-	83
3	Germany Daniel Deußer	-	-	(0)	(0)	9	1	-	-	20th	(0)	6th	9	17th	11	-	73
4th	Germany Marcus Ehning	-	-	(0)	(0)	0	20th	-	13	-	13	15th	12	0	-	-	73
5	France Kevin Staut	9	9	(1)	-	7th	-	-	9	(0)	10	(0)	(1)	7th	15th	-	66
6th	Ireland Denis Lynch	(0)	9	(0)	-	-	9	10	-	-	12	20th	(0)	4th	0	-	64
7th	Belgium Niels Bruynseels	-	-	(0)	8th	(0)	0	-	15th	0	7th	-	13	15th	-	-	58
8th	Italy Emanuele Gaudiano	-	-	13	13	-	(0)	17th	(0)	12	0	-	0	-	2	-	57
9	Netherlands Maikel van der Vleuten	0	-	-	-	-	12	20th	-	-	0	11	11	0	-	-	54
10	Norway Geir Gulliksen	15th	0	-	-	-	-	-	3	-	-	4th	-	8th	20th	-	50
11	United Kingdom Scott Brash	-	-	0	20th	15th	0	-	12	-	2	-	-	0	-	-	49
12	Netherlands Marc Houtzager	-	-	5	12	-	-	12	-	-	0	-	20th	-	-	-	49
13	Switzerland Pius Schwizer	(0)	12	-	-	13	-	-	(0)	17th	0	-	0	6th	0	-	48
14th	Italy Emilio Bicocchi	-	-	0	11	-	13	-	0	-	-	13	-	10	-	-	47
15th	Switzerland Bryan Balsiger	20th	-	0	-	-	-	-	-	3	(0)	1	5	0	17th	-	46
16	Ireland Darragh Kenny	-	-	-	17th	0	-	-	7th	-	-	-	-	-	-	21st	45
17th	Switzerland Martin Fuchs	-	4th	20th	(0)	0	0	-	20th	-	0	-	-	-	-	0	44
18th	France Julien Epaillard	-	-	12	-	-	4th	-	-	10	17th	-	0	0	-	-	43
19th	Austria Max Kühner	(0)	2	(0)	(0)	(0)	11	-	17th	-	6th	0	0	5	-	-	41
20th	Germany Christian Ahlmann	-	-	(0)	4th	0	17th	-	1	0	0	17th	-	-	-	-	39

World Cup Finals (canceled)

For the 2019/2020 season, Las Vegas successfully applied to host the World Cup finals. In mid-March 2020, the final was canceled as a precaution due to the COVID-19 pandemic .

For Las Vegas this would have been an anniversary, 20 years earlier it was the location of the final tournament for the first time. For the American city it would have been the seventh Show Jumping World Cup final.