WITH just 10 days to go to the start of the FEI World Championships, now is a good reference point to check the latest Hippomundo rankings. Belgium’s studbooks dominate show jumping breeding; United Touch S is the top earner so far in 2026 and the Irish Sport Horse studbook retains its customary number one place at the top of the eventing leaderboard.

There was further good news for Irish-breds, as James Kann Cruz is the leading Irish Sport Horse in the show jumping rankings; that €150,000 first prize for the partnership’s five-star Falsterbo Grand Prix win also sees Shane Sweetnam lead in the top-10 Irish show jumping riders’ list.

The rankings race could well change by Hippomundo’s end-of-year deadline. Every year now has a major championship, be it the Europeans, the Olympic Games or the World Championships.

The world championship prize money is not as significant as, say, the more lucrative five-star Grands Prix, Global Champions Tours, Spruce Meadows Masters or the Winter Equestrian Festival.

For example, King Edward’s individual win at the 2022 championships in Herning contributed €86,016 to his €4.2 million tally since the Hippomundo rankings began in 2015.

Nonetheless, the team horse connections are focused on Aachen, with the added consideration that this summer’s world championships are a major qualifier for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, another opportunity for honour and glory.

So, we can expect to see some post-Aachen movement in these prize money-based rankings; however, the real shake-ups will be seen later in the year.

Irish Sport Horse duo

For now, the star performer in the current rankings is that horse hotly tipped to succeed King Edward’s world title: United Touch S (€872,250), bred by Richard Sinnack. His and Richard Vogel’s home-ground win in the Rolex Grand Prix (€450,000) at Aachen banked the lion’s share of his 2026 earnings in a comparatively lightly-campaigned season.

Their Dutch Masters victory at ’s-Hertogenbosch (€300,000) and World Cup qualifier win at Basel (€99,000) also contributed to United Touch S overtaking the previous rankings leader: Kent Farrington’s Greya.

Those two Rolex back-to-back wins at the Dutch Masters and Aachen also mean that Richard Vogel could join Scott Brash, the only other rider to win the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping, should the German pair win at Spruce Meadows in September.

United Touch S isn’t the sole top performer in Vogel’s stable, as the prize money won by Gangster Montdesir (SF. Kannan) and Cloudio (HOLST. Casall ASK) have also contributed to the German rider earning over €2 million this year - €2,029,710 to be precise. Well in the lead in the show jumping rider rankings.

Shane Sweetnam and James Kann Cruz on their lap of honour after winning the five-star 1.60m Rolex Grand Prix at Falsterbo in Sweden \ Rolf Stenberg

The other top-10 show jumping riders are currently the 2026 World Cup champion Kent Farrington (€1,057,079), Ben Maher (€996,773), Scott Brash (€977,015), Abdullah Alsharbatly (€827,633), Pieter Devos (€807,155), Piergiorgio Bucci (€760,068), Shane Sweetnam (€753,592), Daniel Deusser (€732,592) and Abdel Said (€719,833).

Not only is Cork-born Sweetnam in stellar top-10 company, but just one place outside the top-10 show jumping horses is the Patrick Connolly-bred James Kann Cruz (€395,172) in 11th.

In addition to their Falsterbo win, their next-highest payday was their seventh-place finish in the Rolex Grand Prix (€60,000) at Aachen. They return to that famous arena shortly, as part of the Irish show jumping team at the World Championships.

ESI Rocky (Stakkato Gold. €335,242) is the second Irish Sport Horse in the top 20. Bred at Ennisnag Stud by the Hughes brothers, Andrew and Niall, his best win this year with Monaco’s Anastasia Nielsen was their Global Champions Tour Grand Prix win (€165,000) last month in St Tropez.

Who won the most?

Incidentally, the current top-three Irish riders - Sweetnam, Daniel Coyle (€555,316) and Conor Swail (€396,817) are all based across the Atlantic. Cian O’Connor (€370,274), Darragh Kenny (€359,599), Jordan Coyle (€345,567), Michael Pender (€307,466), Bertram Allen (€297,110), Denis Lynch (€280,053) and Tom Wachman (€225,714) complete the top-10 Irish riders.

Ireland presently ranks sixth by nation in the show jumping riders category (the top-five? USA, Germany, France, Belgium and Britain), which, per head of population, is an outstanding record.

The top-10 Irish show jumping breeders are headed by Ennisnag Stud (€438,827), followed by Patrick Connolly (€404,508), Mark Sherry (€243,709), Marion Hughes (€240,497), Breen Equestrian Ltd (€143,455), Gerrard Marron (€137,633), Brian Duff (€131,484), Joe Sloan (€120,019), Kieran Phelan (€107,407) and David Prentice (€84,706).

James Kann Cruz is Kannan’s second-highest earner (Gangster Montdesir is top of this class) and both contribute to the Voltaire stallion’s lead (€4,161,124) in the show jumping sires’ rankings.

Cornet Obolensky (€4,071,548) is the second stallion whose progeny have earned over four million euros so far this year and he is followed by Chacco Blue (€2,562,497), Diamant de Semilly (€2,446,484), Comme Il Faut (€2,405,110), Toulon (€1,774,596), Emerald (€1,569,644), Colestus (€1,455,942), VDL Cardento (€1,425,907) and Vigo d’Arsouilles (€1,287,177).

One six-figure win by an offspring could, of course, completely scramble several of these rankings results with each update.

Brother Andrew (right) and Niall Hughes of Ennisnag Stud at the 2025 Dublin Horse Show \ Susan Finnerty

Walter’s world

The fact that prize money in the two other Olympic sports (and indeed all sport horse competitions) lags significantly behind show jumping is evident when comparing with the dressage and eventing figures.

While the Irish Sport Horse (ISH) studbook retains ninth place in the show jumping studbook rankings, its longtime run continues at the top of Hippomundo’s eventing rankings.

The current top-10 studbooks are the ISH (€337,298), Holsteiner Verband (€288,160), Sport Horse Breeding (GB) (€214,808), Hannoverian Verband (€176,925), Selle Français (€122,636), KWPN (€118,587), Anglo European Studbook (€97,810), Australian Warmblood Horse Association (€52,963), TB (€45,052) and Australian Warmblood (€31,904).

Top event horse? Not a huge surprise to see the mighty Lordships Graffalo (Birkhof’s Grafenstolz), bred by Pennie Wallace at Lordships Stud, lead the way.

His sole run in 2026 saw him bank €143,678 from his and Ros Canter’s Badminton CCI5*-L win in the springtime. This was more than sufficient to keep ‘Walter’ at the top of a pack, littered with the spring and summertime five-star winners and prize winners.

There are just two Irish Sport Horses in the current top 10. Annaghmore Valoner (€60,057), bred by Sinead Healion, was third with Harry Meade (GB) at Badminton. Her lifetime earnings to date total €154,626.

The Coroner mare is currently ranked fourth in the Hippomundo top-10 event horses, one place ahead of HSH Blake (€53,913) bred by Justin Burke and by Tolan R.

HSH Blake, like Lordships Graffalo, had just the one competition outing this spring, although he and his Paris Olympics partner Caroline Pamukcu (USA) made it count, finishing second at Kentucky in April.

This result also boosted the pair’s consideration for Aachen and were duly named on the US squad for the World Championhips.

Show me the 5* money

The current top-10 Irish Sport Horses in Hippomundo’s eventing rankings are Annaghmore Valoner, HSH Blake, Shanroe Cooley (€25,427. Dallas VDL. Breeder: Anthony Smyth), Brookfield Quality (€24,372. OBOS Quality 004. Sean Kelly), Deerpairc Revelry (€10,583. Hermes de Reve. Dara O’Malley), Very Dignified (€10,453. Dignified van’t Zorgvliet. Deirdre Bowler), Tullabeg Platinum (€8,320. Dignified van’t Zorgvliet. Nicholas Cousins), Ratheoin Quality Imp (€7,728. OBOS Quality 004. Sean Barron), Its Cooley Time (€7,046. Quality Time TN. Ennisnag Stud) and Cooley Nutcracker (€5,217. Tolan R. Gary Doherty).

Top-10 Irish eventing breeders? Exactly in this same order, namely Sinead Healion, Justin Burke, Anthony Smyth, Sean Kelly, Dara O’Malley, Deirdre Bowler, Nicholas Cousins, Sean Barron, a second appearance for Ennisnag Stud and Gary Doherty.

The absence of five-star champions, like the now-retired old warhorse Ballaghmor Class, Cooley Rosalent and Vanir Kamira, is naturally going to be felt.

The reality is that the pay cheques from the half-dozen five-star results count most in these prize money-based rankings. (Maryland International at Fair Hill, the second of North America’s five-star events was cancelled for this year. This left the other North American fixture: Kentucky, along with Adelaide, Badminton, Burghley, Luhmühlen and Pau, as the 2026 five-star opportunities).

A realistic view of the studbook rankings, thanks to Hippomundo’s in-depth detail, shows that by nationality, their combined studbooks place Germany at the top.

Naturally, with 22 studbooks - compared to Ireland’s four: ISH, BE/SIES, WSI and IPSA - this was going to happen and it is really only the top two - the Holsteiner and Hannoverian Verbands, with their six-figure totals - that have real clout in the latest eventing rankings.

Devil in the detail

However, when we look at the top-10 eventing studbook statistics, another interesting angle emerges. For starters, the two Australian studbook outliers in the top 10 should be viewed in context.

For example, the Australian Warmblood Horse Association (AWHA) features primarily in the latest Hippomundo top-10 rankings, due to Sandhill Briar’s win from 13 starters (10 finishers) in the Adelaide CCI5*-L.

The Aussie studbook has just 11 horses listed, compared to a whopping 605 ISH runners, almost double that of the nearest rival numerically, the Selle Français (318 horses). Which all points to a lot of repeat business for the Irish Sport Horse.

When we look at the average prize money sum won per horse, the ISH ranks in eighth place (€558), compared to the Sandhills Briar-effect for the AWHA (€4,815) and Sport Horse Breeding (GB)’s €2,558, again helped by the mighty Lordships Graffalo.

Just an example of how rankings shouldn’t necessarily be taken at face value.

On to the top-10 eventing stallions, headed by Kentucky winner Diabalo’s sire Diarado (44 offspring on the Hippomundo database); Birkhof’s Grafenstolz (24), Cardenio (two), Tolan R (19), Coroner (two), Billy Mexico (five), Uccello 23 (two), Carambole (four), OBOS Quality 004 (58) and Jaguar Mail (32).

Dressage leaders

Again in dressage, we see Germany leading the studbooks by nationality race, when the likes of its top three - Oldenburg, Hannoverian and Westphalian - are grouped together.

By individual studbook, the KWPN’s grip on the dressage title race continues.

The Dutch longtime leader is followed by the Oldenburg, Hannoverian, Danish Warmblood, Westphalian, Swedish Warmblood, Portugal’s APSL, Rheinlander, Baden-Würrtemberg and the Portuguese Sport Horse Studbook.

The top-10 dressage sires at this stage are Dante Weltino OLD, Sezuan 2, Desperado, Bordeaux 28, Quaterback, Apache, Millennium, Ampère, Glock’s Zonic and the veteran Broere Jazz (1991-2020).

Isabell Werth (€216.945) is the top-earning dressage rider, followed by Justin Verboomen, Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour, Sandra Sysojeva, Becky Moody, Patrick Kittel, Ingrid Klimke, Matthias Alexander Rath, Raphael Netz and Marcus Orlob.

That’s an overview of Hippomundo’s rankings leaders at this stage. As always, it will be interesting to check back at the end of the year to see who the final big earners of 2026 were.

The world championships at Aachen, Grand Prix classes, and five-star events will all affect the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) rankings.

Hipposnippets

CURRENT HIPPOMUNDO RANKINGS