With Olympic and European gold already in the bag, the British will be bidding for a clean sweep of team Championship titles when Jumping gets underway at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ in Normandy, France in 10 days’ time. But while their side boasts both the Longines world number one rider, Scott Brash, and number three Ben Maher, they face a super-tough battle to achieve their objective and book their place in Rio 2016 for the defence of their Olympic title.

The history books show that the previous British success was all the way back at the inaugural World Championships in Aachen, Germany in 1978, as both France and Germany have been crowned champions on three occasions in the intervening period, while the USA and The Netherlands came out on top in 1986 and 2006 respectively. A total of 17 individual World Championships have been staged since 1953, but the team Championships were only introduced in 1978 so the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ 2014 edition presents just the ninth team title decider.

Since the seven FEI disciplines were merged into the FEI World Equestrian Games™ in 1990, the Germans have been the dominant force in Jumping, with wins at The Hague (NED) in 1994, Rome (ITA) in 1998 and Kentucky (USA) in 2010, while the French reigned supreme at Stockholm (SWE) in 1990 and again at Jerez (ESP) in 2002.

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