The 2007 FEI World Cup™ Eventing season is upon us, with a first event already held in Bonn-Rodderberg from 15-17 September. This season will see 19 qualifying events, in 12 countries in the lead up to the FEI World Cup™ Final, to be held in the spring of 2008. Amongst these 12 countries, there are two new additions to the circuit, Canada with Mansfield (Ontario) and Belarus with Minsk - making the 2007 FEI World Cup™ Eventing season truly global.

The French will be fighting hard to conserve the title, which they won amid a whitewash of French domination. Indeed, the 2006 final saw Nicolas Touzaint (FRA) make a spectacular comeback with his wonderful grey horse, Galan de Sauvagere, to take the FEI World Cup™ Eventing to France for the first time, and in the event anyone may have thought this to be unexpected, France confirmed by taking 2nd and 4th place as well.

This new season comes in a new and improved version, with changes made to the existing format in order to sustain its tremendous momentum and attract more of the world’s best riders.

The changes and recommendations for the new 2007 season come in response to a dedicated working group and FEI Eventing Committee meetings, which took place in both Malmö and Paris this year. These meetings took into consideration all the feedback received from Organizers, media representatives, and NFs to a dedicated FEI World Cup™ Questionnaire. The FEI would like to take this opportunity to convey special thanks to all NFs, Organisers, Media Representatives and Riders who contributed to this questionnaire and to the Working Group.

Some of the changes made for the 2007 FEI Eventing World Cup™ format are:

- Only the riders who have obtained a qualifying result at a qualifier will be awarded points for the FEI World Cup™ Eventing Standings.
- Qualifiers: Cross Country distance will be 3600 to 4400 metres. Providng a more flexible bracket.
- Final: Cross Country distance will be 4000 to 4400 metres.
- Strongly recommended: For all qualifiers, the event to be run on 2 days and to hold the Jumping test last. As this was generally the norm, this recommendation serves as a confirmation of the preferred format.
- Prize money for the Final to be increased to € 100,000!

You may download the complete 2007 FEI World Cup™ Eventing Rules from the FEI World Cup™ Website at http://www.feiworldcup.org/PDFS/Annex1-2007UpdatedRules-Englishversion.pdf

The 2007 Calendar is available on the FEI World Cup™ Website at: http://www.feiworldcup.org/PDFS/2007WCECALENDARforwebsite.pdf