2016, a year to celebrate Longines' long-lasting involvement in show jumping
While the top riders and their mounts of the Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping Western European, China and North American Leagues were gathering the last possible points to qualify for the final, Longines, the FEI and the local organizer were preparing the Longines FEI World CupTM Jumping Final in Gothenburg.
The watch brand took the opportunity to launch entertaining activities for the spectators offering them a souvenir photograph of their visit to the show on the Longines Carousel and next to Longines' big blue horse “Equito”. The brand also organized a meet and greet of three top riders on its stand. Ludger Beerbaum, Simon Delestre and Henrik von Eckerman answered to FEI journalist Louise Parkes' questions, signed autograph cards and posed with enthusiastic fans who appreciated hearing them talking about their favorite sports.
The opening of the Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping Western European League 2016/2017 season was marked by the announcement of the addition of a new leg: CSI 5* - W La Coruña. The international show jumping competition of the Casas Novas Equestrian Centre in North Spain became the 7th leg of the calendar.
Longines honored once again a former FEI President's remarkable devotion to equestrian sports at the Longines Ladies Award ceremony by granting the prestigious award to Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal.
In 2016, Longines was newly associated with two world championships in dressage and endurance: The Longines FEI World Breeding Dressage Championships for Young Horses 2016 and Longines FEI World Endurance Championships 2016.
During the FEI Nations Cup™ 2016 season, Longines CSIO Schweiz St.Gallen and Longines celebrated their 15-year partnership. The outdoor series ended up in Barcelona again, but with a new reconfigured Polo Real Club, where the Longines Carousel was installed with the same free photo redemption as in Gothenburg, which was as always very appreciated by the visitors, young and old.
Another anniversary marked 2016 for Longines as the watchmaker celebrated its 105th year of commitment to the discipline of show jumping. It was indeed in 1912 in Portugal that the company got involved for the very first time in an international competition. To mark this anniversary, Longines presented the FEI with a timepiece of a very limited series of its equestrian collection, The Longines Equestrian Pocket Watch Horses Trio 1911, which was produced in 1911, one year before the beginning of the brand's long history with its favorite sport. The piece was offered at the FEI Awards ceremony in Tokyo, where the watchmaker granted the Longines Rising Star to young German dressage rider Sönke Rothenberger. Thus, the year ended on a perfect note echoing Longines' long-lasting passion for equestrian sports.
