For the past year members of a dedicated working group and the FEI Eventing Committee have put their heads together to come up with changes to improve the FEI Eventing World Cup Final and make it more attractive to the world’s best riders.

As a result of these discussions, the World Cup Final was pushed back to the spring of 2008 instead of holding it in September of 2007.  Riders will qualify throughout the year for 2008.  The first event in the new season took place in Bonn-Rodderberg, Germany, Sept. 15-17.

Riders may only gain points toward the World Cup Final by obtaining a qualifying result at a CIC-W.  There are four World Cup qualifiers in the United States:  Red Hills (Fla.); Galway Downs (Calif.); The Fork (N.C.) and The Event At Rebecca Farm (Mont.).  North America gained another qualifier with the addition of a Canadian CIC-W in Mansfield, Ont., Sept. 28-30.

One of the biggest draws to encourage more riders to attend the 2008 Eventing World Cup Final is the increased prize money.  There will be $100,000 up for grabs, one of the most significant purses available in eventing.

Another change is that course designers will have a bit more flexibility when building a qualifying course because the distance can be from 3,600 to 4,400 meters.  The distance at the Final will be 4,000 to 4,400 meters.

The committee also strongly recommended that qualifiers be run over two days with the show jumping test held last.  This is how the Final was held, and the recommendation serves to confirm the preferred format.