Above: Billy Raymont and Black Jack IXE representing Australia at 2022 World Championships in Herning (DEN) in 2022.

If it only seems like a few weeks ago that Billy Raymont sealed victory in the 2024-25 FEI Jumping World Cup Australian League season, then you would be right! However, this coming weekend, just four weeks on, will see the first leg of the 2025-26 season take place.

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As it has for the last few years, the Northern Victorian Show Jumping Club (NVSJC) will host the first of 10 World Cup Qualifier competitions, which comprise the 2025-26 season, at their grounds at Shepparton in central Victoria on Saturday afternoon.

This season promises to be a particularly exciting one as riders will be striving to not only win the World Cup Australian League, but work towards achieving the Minimum Eligibility Requirements (MER) to qualify for possible selection at the World Championships in Aachen next year. The winner and runner up of the Australian World Cup League will also be invited to join top athletes from around the world to represent Australia at the World Cup Jumping Finals, to be held at Fort Worth Texas in April 2026, while MER holders will be eligible for selection for Aachen 2026.

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For World Championships, athletes and horses are not required to qualify as combinations and the World Cup Australian League provides the only avenue for Australian-based athletes and horses to gain their MERs as follows by having:

a) completed the first round of three (3) FEI Jumping World Cup competitions conducted at a height of 1.55 m with a score of four (4) penalties or less; or

b) completed the first round of three (3) FEI Jumping World Cup competitions conducted at height of 1.60 m with a score of eight (8) penalties or less.

Each competition provides the opportunity to accumulate 1/3 of an MER.

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After the season begins at Shepparton, the competition will move to Werribee Park National Equestrian Centre as part of Dressage & Jumping with the Stars (D&JWTS) the following weekend. Following this, there will be a break of just over three months until Queensland host their one and only leg of the series at Caboolture in late June.

July will be a rest month before the competition really starts to get busy. Legs 4 and 5 will take place over consecutive weekends in late August at Waratah Showjumping in Sydney then in Tamworth at AELEC. Willinga Park will host Leg 6, following on from their successful hosting of their first World Cup show last year. October will see two Qualifiers, both at venues holding the competition for the first time. Krissy Harris’s Stonewall Equestrian at Mangrove Mountain on the NSW Central Coast will be the venue for Leg 8, following on from Boneo Park on the Mornington Peninsula two weeks earlier.

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As usual, in December, the Sydney Summer Classic at SIEC will host a World Cup Qualifier before the last leg of the season which is scheduled for Sale, in Eastern Victoria in early February 2026.

The full program for the 2025-26 Australian World Cup Qualifying Series is as follows:

On Saturday, our finest riders will set sail on a year-long quest to add their name to the exalted list of World Cup victors, and in many cases no doubt, be hoping to turn into reality the immortal words of Dr.Seuss, “Oh the Places You’ll Go!”

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