The World Class Programme focuses on three key areas; identifying talent, developing talent and producing performance on the World stage, for both rider and horse.

The World Class Programme therefore fits into three conjoined areas: the Equine Pathway, the Development Programme and the Performance Programme.

     > Performance

The Performance Programme supports rider-horse combinations that are challenging for team positions. It is essentially the Programme that supports the British Equestrian Team – Equestrian Team GBR – within the three Olympic and one Paralympic disciplines. The Programme seeks to enhance their performance through coaching, sports science and medicine, and management programmes and is also responsible for all expenses at Senior Championships.

     > Development

This seeks to identify and develop riders who have shown the potential to reach the World stage. It is primarily, at the early stage (Start), focused on the rider, but as the rider moves up the Pathway it then becomes more combination, horse-rider, focused (Potential).

     > Equine Pathway

The Equine Pathway (Olympic disciplines only) seeks to identify horses that, regardless of whether they are being ridden by riders on the World Class Programme, show the potential to reach Olympic level. The World Class Programme seeks to work with the riders and owners of these horses in order to assist them to ensure that the horse reaches its maximum potential. This is perhaps the most difficult of the Programmes to find the right structure for, as identifying future Olympic horses is no easy task!

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The UK Sport funded Equestrian World Class Programme has been in existence since just before the Sydney Olympic and Paralympic Games and has extended to support, within equestrianism, Dressage, Eventing, Showjumping and Para-Equestrian Dressage. The aim is to have in place a sustainable system that can deliver more medals on the international stage now and in the future.

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The programme's mission is to:

• Identify talent
• Maximise potential
• Deliver Success

The Programme has been funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, through Exchequer and National Lottery funds, via UK Sport since 1998.

Access the World Class Equestrian Database here