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FEI World Cup

The FEI's indoor-season World Cup series in jumping, dressage, driving and vaulting, decided at annual Finals; the jumping Final dates from 1979.
✓ Last reviewed: September 2026
SportEquestrian — jumping, dressage, driving and vaulting
OrganizerFEI
First FinalJumping 1979 (Gothenburg) · dressage 1986, per the FEI
FormatRegional qualifying leagues and series → a Final per discipline
2026 FinalsJumping and dressage: Fort Worth, 7–12 April 2026 · driving: Bordeaux, 4–8 February 2026
2027 FinalsJumping, dressage and vaulting: Gothenburg · driving: Bordeaux (allocated)

What is the FEI World Cup?

The FEI World Cup is not a single show but a set of season-long series, one per discipline, run by the Fédération Équestre Internationale: qualifying competitions over the indoor season lead to a Final at which the World Cup title for that discipline is decided. The FEI runs World Cup Finals in four disciplines: jumping (the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup), dressage, driving and vaulting. At Leipzig in 2022 all four Finals were held at one show; the FEI lists the event with the disciplines driving, dressage, jumping and vaulting.[5] In other years the Finals are split: Fort Worth in 2026 staged jumping and dressage, while the 2026 driving Final formed part of the Bordeaux show in February.[1][12]

Who organizes the FEI World Cup?

The FEI, the international federation for equestrian sport, owns the series, writes its rules and allocates each Final by decision of the FEI Board. On 7 May 2025 the FEI announced that its Board had allocated the 2027 jumping, dressage and vaulting World Cup Finals to Gothenburg, Sweden, and the 2027 and 2028 driving World Cup Finals to Bordeaux, France.[11] Each Final is staged by a local organising committee at the host venue. The jumping series carries its sponsor's name, as the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup.[8]

When and where are the Finals held?

The combined jumping and dressage Finals close the indoor season each spring, usually in late March or April, and move between Europe, North America and, in 2024, the Middle East. The 2025 Finals were held at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, 1–6 April, with jumping, dressage and vaulting;[2] the 2024 Finals in Riyadh, 16–20 April;[3] and the 2023 Finals in Omaha, 3–8 April, with jumping, dressage and vaulting.[4] Two editions were cancelled. The FEI cancelled the 2020 jumping and dressage Finals at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, set for 15–19 April, on 13 March 2020, citing the spread of the coronavirus and US travel restrictions.[8] On 12 March 2021 the FEI cancelled the 2021 jumping and dressage Finals, due in Gothenburg from 31 March to 4 April, when it extended its lockdown of international events in mainland Europe during an outbreak of the neurological form of equine herpes virus (EHV-1).[10]

SeasonPool / FormatHost cities
2027Jumping · Dressage · VaultingGothenburg, Sweden — allocated by the FEI Board (7 May 2025); driving Final: Bordeaux, France — upcoming
2026Jumping · DressageFort Worth, Texas, United States, 7–12 April 2026; driving Final: Bordeaux, France, 4–8 February 2026
2025Jumping · Dressage · VaultingBasel, Switzerland (St. Jakobshalle), 1–6 April 2025
2024Jumping · DressageRiyadh, Saudi Arabia, 16–20 April 2024
2023Jumping · Dressage · VaultingOmaha, Nebraska, United States, 3–8 April 2023
2022Jumping · Dressage · Driving · VaultingLeipzig, Germany, 6–10 April 2022
2021Jumping · Dressage — cancelledGothenburg, Sweden, 31 March–4 April 2021 — cancelled during the FEI's EHV-1 shutdown of mainland Europe
2020Jumping · Dressage — cancelledLas Vegas, United States (Thomas & Mack Center), 15–19 April 2020 — cancelled by the FEI on 13 March 2020
2019Jumping · DressageGothenburg, Sweden (Gothenburg Horse Show), 3–7 April 2019
2018Jumping · DressageParis, France (AccorHotels Arena), 10–15 April 2018
2017Jumping · DressageOmaha, Nebraska, United States, 27 March–2 April 2017

Rows are the jumping and dressage World Cup Finals by year; Pool / Format lists the World Cup Finals held at that show, and the host column gives the city, venue where the FEI names it, and dates from the FEI event pages cited in this section and below. The 2026 driving Final, held at a separate show, is noted in its row.

Since when does it exist?

The FEI states that Gothenburg hosted the first-ever jumping World Cup Final in the spring of 1979, and that the first dressage World Cup Final was not staged until 1986, with Gothenburg first hosting it in 1989. Writing before the 2019 Final there, the FEI counted 14 jumping Final stagings in the Swedish city.[9] An FEI release of 7 May 2025 instead says that Gothenburg played host to the inaugural FEI Dressage World Cup Final in 1989.[11] The 2019 Final in Gothenburg ran from 3 to 7 April.[13] The first years of the driving and vaulting World Cup Finals could not be confirmed from an FEI source.

How do athletes qualify?

Places in each Final are earned through the discipline's qualifying series over the season, grouped by region. Previewing Leipzig 2022, the FEI described jumping riders arriving through the North American standings, the Western European League, the Central European League and the Eurasian League, alongside 18 dressage pairings, seven driving athletes and, in vaulting, eight individual male and eight individual female competitors plus four pas-de-deux couples.[6] The allocation of Final places per league is fixed in the FEI World Cup rules for each discipline; the current 2026–27 jumping rules could not be retrieved from the FEI's documents site.

Why does it matter?

The World Cup is one of the FEI's own championship titles, with its Finals allocated by the FEI Board in the same decisions as its world championships. Announcing the 2027 allocation, the FEI called the Finals “equestrian sport's biggest annual event”.[11] When the 2020 Finals were cancelled, the FEI President, Ingmar De Vos, said that since the series began in 1978 for jumping and in 1985 for dressage, “the Finals have never had to be cancelled before”.[8]

Who competes?

Riders, drivers and vaulters compete as individuals; in vaulting the FEI holds separate individual male, individual female and pas-de-deux Finals. At Leipzig in 2022 the FEI counted riders from about 20 nations in the jumping Final, 13 nations among the dressage pairings and eight nations in vaulting.[6] The Paris Final of 10–15 April 2018 and the Omaha Final of 27 March–2 April 2017 were jumping and dressage only.[7][14] The FEI's championship programme is covered on the FEI World Championships page.

References

  1. FEI — Event: FEI World Cup Finals 2026, Fort Worth. Accessed 2026-09-27.
  2. FEI — Event: FEI World Cup Finals 2025, Basel. Accessed 2026-09-27.
  3. FEI — Event: FEI World Cup Finals 2024, Riyadh. Accessed 2026-09-27.
  4. FEI — Event: FEI World Cup Finals 2023, Omaha. Accessed 2026-09-27.
  5. FEI — Event: FEI World Cup Finals 2022, Leipzig. Accessed 2026-09-27.
  6. FEI — Who's Heading to Leipzig? (FEI World Cup Finals 2022 preview). Accessed 2026-09-27.
  7. FEI — Event: FEI World Cup Finals, Paris 2018. Accessed 2026-09-27.
  8. FEI — FEI World Cup Finals in Las Vegas Cancelled (13 March 2020). Accessed 2026-09-27.
  9. FEI — Looking Back at Glorious Gothenburg (22 March 2019). Accessed 2026-09-27.
  10. FEI — 2021 FEI World Cup Finals Cancelled (12 March 2021). Accessed 2026-09-27.
  11. FEI — FEI Board Allocates Key Finals and Championships for 2027 and 2028 (7 May 2025). Accessed 2026-09-27.
  12. FEI — Event: Bordeaux FEI World Cup Final, 4–8 February 2026. Accessed 2026-09-27.
  13. FEI — Event: FEI World Cup Finals in Jumping & Dressage, Gothenburg 2019. Accessed 2026-09-27.
  14. FEI — Event: FEI World Cup Finals, Omaha 2017. Accessed 2026-09-27.