Aachen, Germany— The first qualifier and speed class for the individual and team FEI World Championships in show jumping has ended, and the 16 efforts put in front of the 116 show jumpers going round were a bit more than a few could handle. And for Team U.S.A., there were few bumps along the road translating into less than a handful of downed rails in a windy Main Stadium. Overall on this first day of show jumping in Aachen, six horses were eliminated and one retired.

Show jumping will see a series of weeklong tests, with the first being today’s speed class, where the riders began point accumulation. After the morning and afternoon sessions, it was Team U.S.A.’s Beezie Madden from Cazenovia, New York, aboard Authentic in the lead with a modified score of 77.62 (or an adjusted score of 0.00), heading into Wednesday’s first of the two-part Nations Cup. Additionally, she was awarded the Prize of the Sparkasse, which is awarded to the top-placed rider on Day One. Canada’s Erik Lamaze sits in second with a score of 78.40 (or an adjusted score of 0.39) aboard Hickstead, and Gerco Schroder and Eurocommerce Berlin are in third place with 78.47 (or an adjusted score of 0.43).

How It Works

To win a Gold medal in show jumping at the WEG takes not only skill and precision, it takes a background in math. To figure out the scoring, you have to do your math. It’s a bit tricky, so a brief explanation is mandatory.

The scoring for the speed competition is entirely based on time. Rails down are charged as 4 seconds added to your final time in which you complete the course. So, if you finished the course in 80 seconds but had 2 rails down, your score would be 88 seconds (or penalty points). To confuse matters, to get the final score that overall number is divided by 2. If Rider A posted a ride score of 88 seconds/points, then Rider A has an ultimate score of 44 points. And if this rider were to be the lead rider of the day, that 44 becomes a zero score. If the next best rider had a score of 86 seconds, divide that number by two to get 43 points. The rider in second place receives one fault that is then carried into the next competition (44 – 43 = 1), and so forth.

Tuesday was the speed challenge where the horse-and-rider time is converted into a score. From there, a two-day Nations Cup is contested on Wednesday and Thursday, where teams of three to four riders will charge the course. All of the individual and team riders compete in the first round on Wednesday. Then only the best 10 teams from the first round and the individual riders are allowed to compete in Thursday’s round. The riders from the eliminated teams are allowed to take part on Thursday as individual riders if their results from the speed competition and first round of the Nations Cup justify continuation. Each of the riders’ points is added together after the second round of the Nations Cup.

Day Two (Thursday) will decide the team medal final and team medal presentation, where the top three scores on each team are tallied to determine the end results. Once the tally has been made, the top-placing 25 horse-and-rider pairs head into a series of two individual semi-final rounds (Saturday). From this group, once the scores have been calculated from the previous three rounds, only four emerge as the finalists who will go face-to-face in Sunday’s final challenge to take home the title of Rolex World Champion. The rider with the fewest number of fault points will be named the winner. It’s an exciting finale, where each rider takes on the course aboard their own mount, and then rides each of their three opponents’ horses in a show of ultimate horsemanship. It’s certain to be one of the highlights of the five days of show jumping.

Only once has the United States taken the Team World Championship in show jumping. In 1986, the memorable team of Katherine Burdsall, Conrad Homfeld, Katie Monahan and Michael Matz brought home the first and last team title. Hopes are high that this year’s selection of Margie Engle, Laura Kraut, Beezie Madden and McLain Ward will have the right stuff to see the job through.