June 20, 2026 
It was a podium decided by bare fractions of fractions of a second!
The third leg of the Longines League of Nations, taking place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, delivered a three-way jump off for gold and a finish so tight it could be measured in millimeters.
I will admit, when the “League of Nations” was first proposed, I balked at the name, considering it (in historical terms) to be a failed effort to prevent World War II. But now that I’ve become more familiar with the format, particularly its exciting all-scores-count second round, I see that it was, in fact, a “historic milestone in multilateral diplomacy” and I should not be so judgey about the name being co-opted by a sporting event.
(This was also the week the American president signed a “memorandum of understanding” in regards to a current war in Versailles and so, yeah, historical memory is super triggered, but what of it? Pshaw!)
But back to the LLN. The first round eliminated Team France and Team Germany. France was out on a score of 20, which was understandable. The elimination of Team Germany was a tougher pill to swallow with Richard Vogel and the gorgeous stallion Cloudio’s brilliant clear in the fourth, anchor-rider position. They finished on 12 faults, the same as Brazil, but one second slower.
That brought us into round two with two teams on zero (Netherlands and Switzerland), three teams on four (Italy, Ireland, and Belgium), two teams on eight (Great Britain and USA), and the aforementioned Brazil on 12.
The second round in LLN competition brings back only three riders with all scores counting.
Brazil caught a case of four-fault-itis and then some. But it was not so bad as Team Belgium, who took a four-fault first round score and added 25 faults to it for an 8th-place finish.
In the mood to improve was Team Great Britain, who, in characteristic fashion, showed their come-from-behind spirit and threw down three clear rounds from Ben Maher and siblings Sienna and Harry Charles.
Team USA followed suit with three clear rounds from Karl Cook, Katie Dinan, and Marilyn Little.
(It is always worth noting who goes double clear in a tough competition such as this, and the four of them are: Karl Cook with Caracole de la Roque, Marilyn Little with La Contessa, Harry Charles with his new mount LT Holst Freda, and Martin Fuchs with Lorde.)
Switzerland went from zero to eight, while, much to the hometown crowd’s dismay, Team Netherlands went from zero to 12. Italy and Ireland also both added faults to put them out of podium running.
At the end we had three teams on eight: Great Britain, USA, and Switzerland.
That meant a jump off!
One rider is picked from each team, and Great Britain, with a bevy of great options, tapped Harry Charles. He put down an “absolutely, spot-on perfect” round with enviable tight and smooth rollbacks for a time of 31.18.
Marilyn Little with her freak mount La Contessa took to the ring for USA. Her rollback to the penultimate fence was so tight the horse stuttered a bit and she was forced to add a stride to the last, crossing the timers fractionally slower at 31.25.
In comes Jason Smith of Switzerland. His horse was a bit fresher, having skipped the first round after his three teammates all went clear. In the second round, he knocked a pole.
And there he goes, laying out another brilliant round, tight rollbacks, smooth, but somewhere a few fractions of a second are lost—was it the first few jumps? Who knows, with a time of 31.64, the round was hardly distinguishable from the others, but slotted Switzerland into third place.
And now it should be mentioned that along with our four double clears, we have two riders, Harry Charles and Marilyn Little, that offered up triple clears!
Leg three of the LLN is in the books, placing Great Britain on top of the podium and moving them into second in the overall league standings on 225 points, just behind Germany on 230. Ireland sits third (205 points).
Next up is the final qualifying leg in St. Tropez in September, followed by the LLN Final in Barcelona in October.
