July 25, 2026 
“Why are you doing this?” someone asks.
“Because this is what I do!” I shout back and then look around me. I am in an office at my stable in Wellington, Florida. “And where are the cameras? Why aren’t they rolling on this sh-t?”
These were the moments following the Premier Jumping League’s announcement of their new and innovative competition format and I, laden with my ambition to become one of 16 league team managers, was assembling my fantasy team in boisterous debate with my colleagues.
Immediately upon the publication of the announcement post on Insta, I started my analysis.
Now naturally, the first consideration for our team must be Darragh Kenny, after his masterful turn in Faultless. As much as I loved every episode of Faultless, I have not been able to hook any of my non-equestrian friends on any but episode 5, in which Kenny, using highly colorful language, objects to being left off the Nations Cup team in Dublin.
And besides being fire on film, the dude can ride a horse (duh).
So that one is a no brainer, but other than Darragh, we must look to the competition format to decide what sort of rider will suit.
Let’s start at the beginning and consider what this competition format will bring us.
First, the league has 16 teams of five riders, three of whom will compete at any individual event.
Second, each event will be held over three days.
So let us look at Day 1—an optional warmup class at 1.45m with a $55k prize pot. Next, also on Day 1, the competition begins with the “seeding” class, held at 1.50m with prize money of $95k.
What makes the PJL different (well, one of many things) is that everything counts towards the team score—there is not a separate “team event.” Personally, I think this is very smart, as, having been involved in a league before, it was annoying to have really only one class where being a team or a team owner had any meaning at all.
This format makes the entire show about team competition, as everything, other than the optional warmup class, counts.
We have 48 riders competing in the 1.50m seeding class. The placings of the three riders on each team will be aggregated to determine the rankings for Day 2 of competition.
Now things get more complicated and necessitate several slides and charts and tables. Day 2 is a 1.55m competition and it begins with Round 1, in which all team riders (48 riders) compete. They call this a “head-to-head.”
So imagine three riders go from the 1st-ranked team and three riders go from the 16th-ranked team—as determined on Day 1—and all their scores are added up and compared. The team with the lower score is wiped from the competition. (Formula TBA.)
The PJL considers eight of these matchups. The 1st-ranked team against the 16th. The 2nd-ranked team against the 15th, etc, so in the first round eight teams are eliminated.
The second round is basically the “jump off” round. One rider each from the remaining eight teams returns and is paired up again in four head-to-heads over the short course until four more teams are elimated.
Now we are left with four teams. In Round 3, each of these teams puts forward their second rider over the short course in two head-to-heads. This eliminates two teams and leaves us with the final match race.
The two remaining teams put forward their third rider and duke it out in a blitz for the win!
Whew! Do you understand it? The PJL has tried to create a competition where every moment is one fraught with consequence and high with stakes!
Will it work?
Before we contemplate that question, let’s move to the final day of competition, Day 3. This they are calling the “Grand Final” and $700k is up for grabs.
(Many people have wondered why the PJL brags about 300 million in prize money over three years while offering only a mil at each individual competition. This has to do with the FEI rules and is not a false advertisement. The full pot of prize money will be awarded as bonuses at the end of the season.)
On this day, we again have all 48 riders jumping. The class is broken up into three parts with groups of 16 riders, one from each team. The order-of-go is determined in the first 16 by Day 2, and then shifts according to placing as the class proceeds, so the second group of 16 will shuffle their order by where their team is sitting at that precise moment.
Yes, it DOES seem like a lot of math!
But I don’t think we need to do it. I imagine there will be a big screen like a ticker tape scrolling and rolling and telling us all where we are at. The point is to give us the most exciting conclusion to the class with the outcome shifting and staying up for grabs until the last second.
Now, let’s take a moment. This last class is what I call a “1.60m speed”: a 1.60m class without a jump off. So this will necessitate what I call a “1.60m speed horse.”
Does anyone else use this terminology? That I do not know and despite being a reporter with a rolodex full of contacts, I’m not overly curious at this moment to find out. Because why cede competitive advantage in case I AM chosen as a team manager?
But, Erica, you are writing a whole article about this! You are ceding competitive advantage! No, I’m not—for that to happen they would have to actually READ this article and to the end, and what are the chances? If someone involved in this league is THAT clever, they would already have joined my team! I’d already be a manager!
The most obvious and representative of all 1.60m speed horses is Caracole, owned and ridden by Karl Cook.
And this brings us back to the beginning of this article, back to the office, where we are all yelling at each other as we put together our fantasy team and I’m not drunk and I’m not stoned but I’m deep in a fantasy that has me texting various riders to join up before they’re forced on a less competitive and way less fun team.
Cook does what he wants when he wants with whom he wants and I have never been part of that group, despite being an admirer and fan (and fellow whiskey drinker). Or maybe because of being an admirer and fan (and fellow whiskey drinker). But I CAN go after Victor Bettendorf, who seems to love to produce 1.60m speed horses—of which Cook likes to buy.
But Dani Waldman is effing this up for me by declaring Bettendorf one of three “criminally underrated” riders in a recent filing with this network.
She also mentions Marky Bluman, that speedster and fearless competitor whose star is rising. So does everyone in the office.
“Text him! Text him!” they’re shouting at me while I look for the cameras. I refuse, considering the last three texts I sent him remain unanswered (although he DOES accept Insta collabs).
“Who else has 1.60m speed horses?” I put to the group and the obvious answer is Kent and Richie Vogel, but Kent manages himself and has an enormous commitment to Major League Show Jumping, while I have heard rumors (only rumors) that Vogel is already taken by a future league team owner who wants a team composed of all the best German riders.
I put out a text to Ashlee Bond because that chick is not allergic to speed and we all agree on Erynn Ballard.
That’s when that annoying team member interrupts us all and asks the question, that terrible, no-good question, that question that On the Fringe starring Gaby Reutter asked without giving any sort of answer other than inexplicable obsession, “Why are you doing this?”
(“What about Fuchs?” I’m asking myself in my head, “We just gotta have Fuchs!”)
And I shout, as you saw above, “Because this is what I do! And I have my mascot!”
Ah, a mascot! Everyone knows this fetish of mine. But rumor has it (and again, only rumor) that not only will there be a PJL mascot, a delicious furry, but EACH TEAM will have a mascot, only this mascot will be a flesh-and-blood human, a celebrity of some sort, to engage viewership.
And I have mine picked out, but I cannot tell you here and I cannot tell you now. But I CAN tell you that he and I hardly get along at all, so we are destined to be the episode 5 of the PJL docuseries and with the addition of Kenny, it will be a triumvirate of camera-ready drama!
“You will just get cut,” the Debbie Downer says, meaning any footage of me will be left unaired.
“They can’t cut the winner!” I shout happily in her face. “And I intend to WIN.”
So stay tuned, loyal readers and show jumping fans, because even if I’m NOT picked as a team manager, I’m gonna be reporting on all the league news and gossip, like an embedded war correspondent. Woot!
