FEI Eventing Nations Cup: Great Britain Wins the Boekelo Final

Great Britain won the FEI Eventing Nations Cup Final at Boekelo

Update (2026-10-04): Great Britain won the FEI Eventing Nations Cup Final at Boekelo on 84.4 penalties, 2.6 ahead of Germany on 87.0, after Sunday's show jumping. Julia Krajewski and Ero de Cantraie (GER) won the individual CCIO4*-NC-L on 24.3, and she became the first rider to win Boekelo three times (2018, 2024 and 2026). The FEI Eventing Nations Cup is eventing's international team series: countries send squads to a run of four-star events, and the qualified nations meet in a winner-takes-all final.

Germany had led after cross-country on 79.5, 0.9 ahead of Britain. Final team standings, from the official scoring on October 4:

Belgium (158.9) was fifth, the Netherlands (164.3) sixth, Switzerland (189.8) seventh, France (311.4) eighth and Sweden (345.5) ninth. France, which won the last qualifier at Lignières, counted a 200.0 from show jumping and fell from 167.7 after cross-country to 311.4.

The winning Great Britain team was Katie Magee (Cushlas Indigo), Gemma Stevens (Cooley Park Muze), Yasmin Ingham (Kinda Corvette) and Kirsty Chabert (Classic VI). The three counting scores were 26.4, 28.0 and 30.0.

Individually, Krajewski kept her 23.9 dressage plus 0.4 time penalties for 24.3, with a clear show-jumping round. Magee and Cushlas Indigo (GBR) were second on 26.4 and Lara de Liedekerke-Meier (BEL) third on 27.6 with Quintus. Arne Bergendahl (GER) was fourth on 27.7 and Stevens fifth on 28.0.

New to the sport? Our guide to eventing explains dressage, cross-country and jumping. This article covers the team side.

How one fault or one stop changes a team total

Eventing is scored in penalties, so lower is better. Each rider's dressage score carries into cross-country, where faults and time are added, and then into show jumping. The key numbers:

• Cross-country time: 0.4 penalties for every second over the optimum time.
• Cross-country stop: 20 penalties for a first refusal, run-out or circle at a fence, and 40 for a second at the same fence.
• Show jumping: 4 penalties for each rail knocked down.

Now look at Boekelo. Britain's team total rose from 80.4 to 84.4 on Sunday, an addition of exactly 4.0, the cost of one rail. Germany's rose from 79.5 to 87.0, an addition of 7.5.

That swing turned a 0.9 deficit into a 2.6 win. The final margin is still less than one rail, which shows how little separates teams at this level.

A stop is a different scale: 20 penalties is the same as 50 seconds over the time. That is why a team with a near-clean cross-country, like Germany's counting three, can still be caught by a few jumping faults.

How the drop score works

Teams have three or four riders, and only the three best scores count. The fourth is the drop score, your insurance. Boekelo shows it clearly:

• Great Britain: Chabert's 200.0 was the team's fourth score and was dropped. The three others added up to 84.4 and won the title.
• Germany: Krajewski (24.3), Bergendahl (27.7) and Knorr (35.0) counted. Christoph Wahler's 35.5 was the dropped score, just 0.5 behind the third counting rider.
• Ireland: a 105.4 from the fourth rider was dropped, and the other three totalled 97.5 for the bronze.
• USA: Lauren Nicholson, Jack Curtis and Alexandra Knowles counted for 105.4. A fourth score of 58.3 was dropped, which was not enough to catch Ireland.

If only two riders finish, the team still gets a score, but a large penalty block counts among the best three. Sweden's 345.5 shows how far that can push a team down.

The drop score also changes tactics. A chef d'équipe may tell the first rider on cross-country to take safer, slower routes so the team has a score on the board, and later riders then decide how hard to push.

Boekelo 2026: how the final was run

The final was a four-star long format (CCIO4*-L) at Military Boekelo near Enschede in the Netherlands. NOS, the Dutch broadcaster, reported in its live blog that this year's cross-country had 26 obstacles over 5,700 meters and ran in the opposite direction. Course designer Adrian Ditcham said it was the first time he had reversed it since he began designing the course in 2019.

Show jumping on Sunday, October 4, settled the team and individual placings. Krajewski won the individual title on her dressage score, with no faults added across cross-country and jumping beyond the 0.4 time penalty.

What to take from it:

1. Germany vs. Great Britain. A 0.9 lead after cross-country did not survive the jumping. Counting rails for the three counting riders on each team told the story.
2. Ireland over the USA. The USA was third after cross-country but ended fourth, 7.9 behind Ireland.
3. Drop scores matter. Britain's 200.0 and Ireland's 105.4 cost nothing because a fourth rider is allowed to be dropped.
4. A historic individual win. Krajewski is the first rider to win Boekelo three times, after wins in 2018 and 2024.

How the 2026 Nations Cup format works

Until 2025, the series title was decided by points added up across the season. For 2026 the FEI changed the structure: the qualifiers only decide who gets into the final, and at Boekelo every team started on zero. The FEI said the aim was to bring back jeopardy and make the result less predictable.

The basics:

• Teams of 3 or 4, best three scores count.
• Five qualifiers at four-star short format (CCI4*-S), then a final at four-star long format, with a longer cross-country test.
• Pick your legs. Nations can enter as many qualifiers as they like, and their best three results count toward qualifying.

Nine nations started the final: Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA. That matches the list the FEI posted on September 28, after an earlier headline had said ten.

The 2026 calendar:

The road to Boekelo: France's win at Lignières

On September 27, host nation France won the last qualifier at Lignières on 106.70 penalties, leading after all three phases. The team was Benjamin Massie (Figaro Fonroy), Karim Florent Laghouag (Dream de Vieve), Stéphane Landois (Hermès du Gévaudan) and Thomas Carlile (Golden de Béliard AA).

Great Britain was second on 170.40 with a team of Nations Cup debutants, and Italy third on 194.40. It was Britain's 59th Nations Cup podium, second only to Germany's 61, according to Horse&Rider UK.

Under the new format, that win earned France a place in the final, not a head start. France sent a different line-up to Boekelo and finished eighth.

How Boekelo differs from Burghley or Badminton

All three are famous, but they're different kinds of competition.

"Military" is an old European name for eventing. Boekelo is a regular stepping stone for horses moving up to five-star, which is why so many top riders bring their best young horses.

Want more team competition? See our explainers on the Longines Global Champions Tour and the Asian Games equestrian events, or brush up on terms in the glossary and disciplines pages.