MANY eyes are focused on the upcoming US presidential election, when 161 million registered voters go to the polls from the country’s population of 345 million.

345 million is a huge population by global standards, so in the horse world, where do United States riders fare in the rankings? And how do Irish riders, from a population of just seven million, compare with larger nations?

Money drives sports rankings as much as economies and a look at Hippomundo prize money-based rankings shows that Martin Fuchs is the top-earning rider by far across all three Olympic sports: dressage, eventing and show jumping.

Horses he competed with have already won over €1.7 million so far in earnings in 2024. He’s not the sole Swiss rider in the top-20, as Steve Guerdat is ranked fourth, behind two more European riders in Sweden’s Henrik von Eckermann (second) and Ireland’s Conor Swail (third).

Swail’s remarkable result, backed up by three more Irish riders in the top-20: Darragh Kenny (eighth), Shane Sweetnam (16th) and Denis Lynch (20th) is a real David vs Goliath achievement when comparing the various countries’ populations.

Only one other country has four riders in the Hippomundo top 20: Germany. Richard Vogel (seventh), Paris Olympic gold medal champion Christian Kukuk (ninth), Daniel Deusser (10th) and Andre Thieme (12th) are those top German riders. Germany’s population? 83 million.

France comes next with three top 20 riders: Kevin Staut (14th), Simon Delestre (15th) and Ines Jolly (19th), followed by the United States: McLain Ward (sixth) and Kent Farrington (11th), then several nations with one top-20 rider, such as Austria’s Max Kühner (fifth), Great Britain’s Ben Maher (13th), Belgium’s Gilles Thomas (17th) and Canada’s Erynn Ballard (18th).

Incidentally, the top-three Irish riders in Hippomundo’s show jumping rankings – Conor Swail, Darragh Kenny and Shane Sweetnam – are all US-based.

Conor Swail is the highest ranked Irish rider based on prize money in 2024 \ Spruce Meadows Media/Mike Sturk

Giant amongst sports

Show jumping is by far the most lucrative of the three Olympic sports, both in prize money and the number of competitions in what is now a practically year-round calendar.

Both show jumping and dressage have World Cup finals – an event that once again had a strong bearing on this year’s prize money earnings – compared to eventing.

The FEI World Cup eventing series was abandoned in 2012 and owners’ chances of winning significant prize money in eventing now depend on the seven five-star events held annually.

So who are the top eventing riders by prize money? Not surprisingly, Oliver Townend leads the way here, following his two five-star wins this year at MARS Kentucky and Maryland International at Fair Hill.

Not only a decent return for their owners, but the fact that both of Townend’s five-star wins were aboard the Irish Sport Horses Cooley Rosalent and Ballaghmor Class brings added kudos to Irish breeding.

The third Irish Sport Horse win – Greenacres Special Cavalier at Badminton – moves Caroline Powell up to fourth place in the eventing rider rankings, behind Ros Canter (second) and fellow Kiwi Tim Price (third).

Oliver Townend, pictured after winning the Mars Maryland 5-Star in Fair Hill on Ballaghmor Class recently, has earned €216,857 so far this year \ Shannon Brinkman Photography

There are four more British riders in the Hippomundo top-10, including Tom McEwen (fifth), Harry Meade (sixth), Alexander Bragg (ninth) and Yasmin Ingham (10th).

Belgium’s Lara de Liederkerke, the winning rider at Luhmühlen and Ireland’s Lucy Latta, courtesy of RCA Patron Saint’s runner-up place at Badminton, break the otherwise British and New Zealand monopoly of top-10 eventing riders.

Only Oliver Townend in eventing and Germany’s Isabell Werth have exceeded €200,000-plus this year with the various horses they’ve competed. In comparison, no less than 11 show jumping riders have won over the €1 million mark this year, from Martin Fuchs to Kent Farrington. French show rider Edward Levy’s 140th place (€202,034) in the Hippomundo show jumping rankings is the closest prize money match to Townend and Werth’s sum, which again illustrates the financial rewards disparity between the sports.

Punching above our weight

It is important to note that the prize money figures mentioned, while categorised by riders, goes to the owners. Bonuses, shares in prize money, sales commissions, horse sales, retainers, sponsorship and endorsements are just some of the other means for riders to earn a living

Which country has the most top-10 riders across the three leaderboards? Germany and Britain tie on eight apiece, although Germany has no top-10 eventing rider listed.

Julia Krajewski (14th, €57,887) is the highest-placed German rider and, while it’s surprising to see Michael Jung down in 42nd place (€17,200), he and fellow German teammates Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and Christian Kukuk completed a rare Paris individual gold medal sweep this summer.

When we look at the next set of tables for the leading riders by nationality, Ireland again punches well above its population weight.

Of the 395 Irish show jumping riders active on the Hippomundo database, they recorded the highest average prize money figure (€28,609) amongst the top-10 countries. Only Sweden (306) has a lower number of top-10 riders.

The United States came next (€23,767), followed by Sweden (€15,003).

New Zealand in the eventing results are the equivalent to Ireland’s show jumping strike rate, with just 69 Kiwi riders earning an average of €6,154. Switzerland had the lowest number of riders in the top-10 (58).

Britain has the highest number of Hippomundo-recorded riders (591) and tops this category. British riders also scored the most five-star wins this year: Kentucky and Maryland International (Oliver Townend), Burghley (Ros Canter) and just last weekend, Pau was won by Caroline Harris, perhaps a lucky omen for one of the US presidential candidates.

That America has been the land of opportunity for Irish show jumping riders is borne out by the fact that all three of the top-earners – Conor Swail, Darragh Kenny and Shane Sweetnam – are all based stateside. Amongst the other takeaway points from both sets of rankings is how, despite one of the smallest populations, one undisputed fact is that Ireland produces some of the most successful riders in the world.

See hippomundo.com and fei.org for the complete rankings.

Germany's Isabell Werth, pictured with Wendy at the Paris Olympic Games, is by a long way the highest earning dressage rider in 2024 \ Tomas Holcbecher

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