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clearing fences<br />
S<br />
how jumping might have been<br />
inspired by the fox hunt—horses<br />
needed to jump hedges and fences<br />
in order to follow the hounds—but<br />
the sport has come a long way since those<br />
early days in the English countryside.<br />
Indeed, Olympic medals for show<br />
jumping have been given out continuously<br />
since 1912, making it one of the oldest<br />
events in the games, and in recent years<br />
the Global Champions League (GCL) has<br />
offered the sport’s elite an opportunity to<br />
showcase its dizzying mélange of tradition,<br />
athleticism, teamwork and training in some<br />
of the world’s most spectacular locales—all<br />
of which are a long way from the British<br />
countryside.<br />
Unlike many other Olympic sports, which<br />
maintain the country-centric classification<br />
in between the quadrennial events—show<br />
jumping at the highest level has become like<br />
international club football, where individual<br />
teams bring together athletes from different<br />
nations as a unit.<br />
The GCL piggybacks on the similarly<br />
named Longines Global Champions Tour<br />
(LGCT) schedule, which since 2006 has<br />
invited World and Olympic champions to<br />
compete for unprecedented prize money.<br />
A minimum of €300,000 is up for grabs at<br />
individual competitions, and the overall<br />
series classification allots €950,000 to the top<br />
18 athletes.<br />
LGCT founder and President Jan Tops,<br />
an Olympic show jumping gold medallist<br />
himself, set out to develop a series that<br />
would raise the standards of competitive<br />
show jumping across the globe. Established<br />
33 NetJets
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