The Spanish show jumping team has completed its 2026 Nations Cup season as national coach François Mathy prepares for the 2027 European Championship in Waregem.
The continental championship, scheduled for August 11 to 15, 2027, in Belgium, will offer Spain a vital opportunity to secure a team qualification spot for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
Three Olympic team quotas will be awarded at the tournament in Waregem. Seven European rivals have already claimed their tickets after qualifying at the World Championship in Aachen, Germany, including Belgium, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, and the host nation Germany.
The Real Federación Hípica Española approved the appointment of Mathy on September 30, 2025. The Belgian expert officially took over as national selector and chef d'equipe on January 1, 2026, following a turbulent period for Spanish jumping in the wake of the Paris Olympic Games.
Rider Availability and Squad Changes
One of the earliest priorities for Mathy was establishing whether riders who had previously stepped away from the national squad would return. Following a meeting on January 20 with the High Competition group, the federation confirmed that all athletes except Sergio Álvarez Moya had made themselves available for selection.
Alberto Márquez Galobardes was among those who resumed competing for Spain. Partnering the horse Kelly, he helped the national team finish third in the semifinal of the Longines EEF Series in Peelbergen, Netherlands.
Eduardo Álvarez Aznar, Manuel Fernández Saro, and Ismael García Roque also withdrew their resignations from the national setup. However, none of the three featured for Spain during Nations Cup fixtures in Avenches, Barcelona, or Vejer.
Those three events spanned different competitive standards, ranging from the prestigious Longines League of Nations final at the Real Club de Polo de Barcelona down to the three-star meeting at Montenmedio in Vejer de la Frontera.
Individual Form and Stable Rebuilding
Athlete availability does not always guarantee horse availability. Several Spanish stables are in the middle of rebuilding processes, and selectors recognize that strong individual form at independent shows does not automatically lead to a team call-up.
Even so, the sidelined riders have produced notable individual performances across the season. Álvarez Aznar travelled to Vienna in September to compete for Madrid in Motion, his franchise in the Global Champions League team series.
Fernández Saro secured a third-place finish riding Baloys PS in the four-star Grand Prix at Montefalco, Italy, in May. Meanwhile, García Roque has continued to jump at top level with Tirano, the horse that produced Spain's strongest round during the team qualifying stage at the Paris Olympics.
During the summer, García Roque and Tirano placed 12th in the 1.60-metre Grand Prix at the four-star show in La Coruña. Those results have led to questions over the criteria Mathy applied when selecting his Nations Cup squad for Vejer, and which competitions might feature these combinations in 2027.
World Championship Near Miss at Aachen
Spain came agonizingly close to securing Olympic qualification earlier in the cycle at the World Championship in Aachen. The team finished with 14.02 penalty points, missing out by just 2.33 points to Ireland, who took 10th place and the final transfer spot into the team final.
Less than a single knockdown separated the Spanish squad from advancing to the medal decider where Olympic places were distributed. In show jumping, a single dropped rail adds four penalties to a team score, meaning one clean jump would have changed the nation's fortunes.
Individual Spanish riders also delivered standout rounds in Aachen. Armando Trapote earned a top-10 finish riding Tornado VS, while Imma Roquet placed 20th aboard Irívola del Maset to record the highest individual finish by a Spanish female rider in World Championship history.
More recently, Julio Arias produced a double-clear round riding Filou du Manoir during the Longines League of Nations final in Barcelona in October. Spain concluded that competition in ninth place overall against the world's leading show jumping nations.
Strategic Decisions for Waregem 2027
With the 2026 Nations Cup campaign concluded, Mathy faces critical roster dilemmas ahead of the Waregem championship. The Belgian team manager must decide whether to retain the core combination that contested the World Championship in Aachen or introduce new horse-and-rider pairings.
The upcoming spring Nations Cups will serve as the primary testing ground to evaluate prospective partnerships under international pressure. At the same time, the national federation will determine how much weight the Spanish National Championship carries when assessing contenders for continental selection.
With only three Olympic team tickets available in Waregem and major European powers already qualified, Spain's route to Los Angeles 2028 hinges entirely on how effectively Mathy balances proven championship experience against emerging form.
