Just a few days ahead of the opening of the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping 2012/2013 Western European League series, horses are prepared, lorries are en route, and riders, owners, trainers and spectators are looking forward to another new beginning.

The Telenor Arena in Oslo, Norway hosts the first leg of the new season next Sunday, and the excitement is building by the day. This, after all, is the first step on the road to the 35th annual Final of a series that has quality written all over it. The taking of the prestigious Rolex FEI World Cup™ crown has been a defining moment in the careers of so many of the greatest horse-and-rider combinations in the history of the sport of international Jumping. It’s the one they all want to win.

And there is always something special about a season that concludes at Gothenburg in Sweden, because it is was here that the very first champion was crowned, when, back in 1979, the then-36-year-old Hugo Simon from Austria paved the way for many more to come as he galloped to victory with the big, bold Gladstone.

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