The FEI World Equestrian Games™ Tryon 2018 are underway, and jumping will round up the championships next week. 

There will be 125 riders from 49 countries battling it out, and 25 nations will contest the coveted team title that has been claimed four times by Germany - the Dutch the only ones to wrest it from their grasp in 2014. Global expansion in recent years sees a whole range of new countries competing this time around, with the flags of Bahrain, Bolivia, Ecuador, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Romania and Thailand joining the start-list for the very first time. And it will be a double-history-making moment for Bolivia, Lebanon, Macedonia and Romania as these four countries will make their debut in any sport at the WEG. 

The Netherlands’ Jeroen Dubbeldam will not be defending his individual title but it’s hard to look past his fellow-countryman and Dutch team-member Harrie Smolders as a major contender, because the world no. 1, who saddles up Don VHP Z with whom he claimed individual silver at the FEI European Championships last summer, is in formidable form. However world no. 2, America’s McLain Ward, is likely to try to get in his way.

The presentation of the individual jumping medals will bring the FEI World Equestrian Games™ Tryon 2018 to a close on Sunday  23 September, and the Americans will be determined to get their feet onto that podium on home soil.