October 30, 2023 
Plenty of riders get lucky once or twice in a top-level show jumping career. But maintaining five-star success for years at a time? That’s something different altogether.
For Dutch Olympian Harrie Smolders, who took home the coveted 2023 Longines Global Champions Tour (LGCT) Championship title for the second time this October, the accolade, while rewarding, speaks more to the longterm viability of his program than any one victory or horse.
“The level of this series is definitely the highest in our sport. To then be crowned as the overall, means you have good management, good horsemanship, great horses, but also the total package,” Smolders explained.
“The family behind you, the support, sponsors, for me especially Team Evergate, Copernicus Stables, and Family Spronken that believe in you. All this commitment together, with all the dedication from all my team, my people, and my grooms—this is a big milestone for all of us.”
Not only did Smolders take the 2023 LGCT crown this year—and a hefty €294,500 in prize money—he did so in style. The 43-year-old is the only rider in the 16-year history of the Longines Global Champions Tour to finish the season with four consecutive LGCT Grands Prix podium finishes: in Monte Carlo, Monaco (2nd); A Coruña, Spain, (3rd); Riesenbeck, Germany (1st); and London, U.K. (3rd).
And, according to Jumpr App, that’s just a small fraction of Smolders’ 274 career podium finishes to date.
Smolders last won the Global Champions Tour title back in 2017; the same year, he also topped the Global Champions League standings as part of the Hamburg Diamonds team.
At that time, his string was helmed by such mainstays as Don VHP Z, Capital Colnardo, and the legendary stallion, Emerald. The following year, Smolders not only became the no. 1 rider in the world, according to the Longines rankings, he maintained the crown for a full eight months.
In terms of prize money, Smolders, was raking in well over €1.1 million a year from 2017–2018. But a horse’s competitive prime only lasts so long, even under the Dutch rider, who has a reputation for keeping his horses in top competition form well into their teens. As is want to happen with star horses, “Cody” was taken over by Smolders’ student, Jennifer Gates Nassar, in 2018; Emerald went to the breeding shed full-time in 2019; and “Don” retired in 2020.
Fortunately, by that period, Smolders was already campaigning Monaco N.o.p. consistently at the 1.40m level and higher, with an eye toward the bigger sport.
As a former rider for Axel Verlooy and Johan Heins, producing horses up the ranks (including, for a time, Beezie Madden’s Authentic) was something Smolders learned to enjoy, focusing on the process as much as the accolades. It’s a notion that, by all accounts, still remains with him today—and it shows.
After a couple of building years, by the early 2020s, Monaco and Bingo Du Parc were reaching their primes, and Smolders was back on top in terms of prize money. He earned more than €1.4 million a year from 2021–2022, his most lucrative period so far. And this year, the Dutch rider is once again on track for a windfall season, bringing his career earnings to date to an impressive €8,759,745.
Not bad for the former child-rider who famously asked his trainer to bury the rails in the footing so he wouldn’t need to jump any higher than necessary.
Decades on, in fact, there are few show jumpers in the world as capable of clearing a 1.60m course as the current no. 6-ranked Smolders, who jumps 5¼ feet without a single rail down an astounding 51% of the time. For comparison, at press time, that’s significantly higher than World no. 3 Ben Maher of Great Britain (42%), World no. 2 Julien Epaillard of France (32%), and even World no. 1, Henrik von Eckermann of Sweden (44%).
But even when the numbers feel insurmountable, trust Harrie Smolders to beat… Harrie Smolders.
Aboard his top horse Monaco N.o.p, the 14-year-old Holsteiner with whom he earned three out of four of this year’s LGCT Grand Prix podium finishes, Smolders jumps 1.60m clear at a 53% clip, finishing in the top-10 61% of the time. Mic. Drop.
Safe to say, it’s nice to have you back, Harrie!
