Season 3 of the Longines League of Nations (LLN) gets underway February 13 in the United Arab Emirates where the world’s top 10 nations will compete for the crown. Just don’t expect to see the world’s top riders heading to Leg 1 in Abu Dhabi.

Here’s the gist.

Who made the cut?

The LLN is open to ten qualified teams. The winning team from the previous season’s Final gains automatic qualification. That’s Great Britain. The remaining nine places are allocated to the nine highest-ranked jumping nations in the world as of October 31, 2025, otherwise known as LLN Ranking List no. 26.

Calculated by points accumulated by the top six athletes from each nation, including one U25, those are: USA, Belgium, Ireland, Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland and Brazil.

The host nation, United Arab Emirates, gets an automatic entry for Leg 1. Just like Spain does at the Final in Barcelona each year. Would either of those countries qualified otherwise? No, no they would not. Spain ranked no. 15 on the LLN Ranking No. 26. UAE, a distant no. 21.

How it works

The LLN consists of four qualifying events, culminating with the Final in Barcelona (ESP) in October where the top eight teams vie for the title.

The 2026 season starts in Abu Dhabi this week, then heads across the Atlantic to Ocala (USA) in March. It’s back across the pond to Rotterdam (NED) in June and St.Tropez–Gassin (FRA) in September. It’s just enough time between legs to forget what happened at the last one. But not so much that you forget the LLN season is underway. Being a show jumping fan is not for the fickle of heart.

The Format

You know how mainstream sports like football and soccer play the same game, with the same rules, at every event? Horse sport likes to keep it interesting (read: confusing) by changing it up depending on the series.

That said, the best part of the LLN is the format. Like Nations Cups past, it’s a two-round class over an identical track. All teams field four athletes in round one with the best three scores counting for the team total. The top eight teams advance to round two. And there comes the twist. Only three riders return. No drop score. No second chances.

The team with the least faults wins. A tie for first place forces a jump-off with just one athlete from each of those teams coming forward for a head to head show down.

Who’s Heading to Abu Dhabi?

And now we get to the good part. Or not. Only six riders in the world top 50 are making the trek to the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club.

Germany and France are fielding the strongest teams. Germany sends two riders in the world top 30—Daniel Deusser (no. 30) and Sophie Hinners (no. 21)—alongside veteran Marco Kutscher (no. 188) and on form Jörne Sprehe (no. 93) while France has tapped four riders in the top 100: Simon Delestre (no. 13), Antoine Ermann (no. 49), Jeanne Sadran (no. 83), and Olivier Perreau (no. 96).

Last season’s podium finishers are coming back to Abu Dhabi with much of the same.

Defending champions, Ireland, return with two of the riders that put them atop the podium—Trevor Breen (no. 117) and Michael Pender (no. 165)—and a newly appointed chef d’equipe in Jessica Kürten. They’re joined by Shane Breen (no. 161) and—this is big—the first female rider to be named to an Irish five-star nations cup team in more than a decade: Niamh McEvoy (no. 266).

Host nation United Arab Emirates is sending their four highest ranked riders. It’s the same proven quartet that took them to a second place finish last year: Abdullah Mohd Al Marri (no. 265), Omar Abdul Aziz Al Marzooqi (no. 158), Abdullah Humaid Al Muhairi (no. 288) and Humaid Abdulla Khalifa Al Muhairi (no. 328).

USA has seven riders in the world top 50, including world no. 2 Kent Farrington, no. 10 McLain Ward and no. 12 Laura Kraut—none of which are headed to the Middle East. They are sending an all-female contingent of rising stars in Skylar Wireman, (no. 65), Natalie Dean (no. 87), Callie Schott (no. 135), and Sarah Segal (no. 362).

Great Britain has the youngest field with a largely U26 contingent in Joseph Stockdale (no. 136), Jack Whitaker (no.164) and Jodie Hall McAteer (no.186) plus veteran Tim Gredley (no. 435). While 2025 European Champions, Belgium, fields none of its Gold Medal winning team, tapping instead Rik Hemeryck (no. 246), Jos Verlooy (no. 66), Wilm Vermeir (no. 132) and Annelies Vorsselmans (no. 218).

Other notables include on-fire Kim Emmen (no 32) for the Netherlands, who will ride alongside Frank Schuttert (no. 251), Leopold van Asten (no. 252) and Jur Vrieling (no. 77), and team veteran Piergiorgio Bucci (no. 48) for Italy, who lines up alongside Giacomo Casadei (no. 149), Paolo Paini (no. 431) and Clara Pezzoli (no. 869).

How to Watch

The LLN will stream on FEI TV. Here’s the schedule:

  • 10am ET | Thursday: CSIO5* – Longines Grand Prix Qualifier 1.50m
  • 9:20am ET | Friday: CSIO5* Longines League of Nations™ Abu Dhabi, Round 1
    12:20pm ET | Friday: CSIO5* Longines League of Nations™ Abu Dhabi, Round 2
  • 7am ET | Sunday: CSIO5* – Emirates Jumping Cup presented by Longines 1.60m

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