ABU Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates will host the first leg of the Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup 2022 series tomorrow (Sunday).

There will be 10 qualifiers taking place across the globe on the road to the 2022 World Final in Barcelona, Spain at the end of September, and Sunday’s sole leg for the Middle East region has attracted a strong field from eight countries.

Michael Blake sends an Irish squad of Jack Ryan, Shane Breen, Trevor Breen and David Simpson. Great Britain sends just three athletes in William Funnell, Georgia Tame and yet another member of the extensive Whitaker family who have been pivotal to their country’s success for multiple decades - 29-year-old Donald Whitaker.

The other nations lining out are Eqypt, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the hosts.

However regardless of the result, only Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates are eligible for the two qualifying spots on offer.

Qualifying

All 10 legs will be staged at CSIO5* level, and rounds two, three and four take place in the North/Central America and Caribbean region with two qualifying spots up for grabs here. The first will be held at Coapexpan in Mexico in March followed by San Juan Capistrano in California, USA, in May and Vancouver in Canada in early June.

Then it will be time for Europe Division 1 to get underway at St Gallen in Switzerland before moving on to Sopot in Poland and Rotterdam in The Netherlands later in June.

Falsterbo in Sweden and Hickstead in Great Britain will play host in July, and all these events will provide the perfect viewing and selection platform for the ECCO FEI World Championships 2022 which begin in Herning, Denmark a week later.

The last Division 1 qualifier will be held at the Dublin Horse Show on Friday August 19th.

Division 1

A total of 10 countries will compete in Division 1 including Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and Sweden.

The Irish team will battle for points at Sopot (POL), Rotterdam (NED), Hickstead (GBR) and Dublin.