Team Members:
Georgina Bloomberg, Scott Brash, Denis Lynch, Spencer Smith, Frank Schuttert, and Jodie Hall McAteer

The Global Champions League began in 2016 with an innovative model for team competition. Jan Tops and Frank McCourt created the series, which puts five team members from different countries together on 17 teams to compete during each of the 16 Global Champions Tour events in some of the most unique venues around the world. At each GCL event, three riders from each team compete over two rounds of 1.50- to 1.60-meter courses run as Table A classes. The team with the least amount of faults wins the event; the team accumulating the most points at the end of the season tops the series.

Jumping for the New York Empire are U.S. rider Georgina Bloomberg, a New York City native, Scott Brash of Great Britain, Denis Lynch of Ireland, Spencer Smith of the U.S., Frank Schuttert of the Netherlands and top Under 25 rider for Great Britain Jodie Hall McAteer.

Bloomberg is a consistent contender in top grand prix classes. A double-clear performance in the 2014 Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup in Gijon, Spain anchored the U.S. team’s win there and in 2015 she helped the U.S. team claim bronze in the Pan American Games in Toronto.

Brash is a team gold medalist from the 2012 London Olympic Games and won the Longines Global Champions Tour series in 2013.

Lynch, an Irish rider based in Germany, is a veteran of Olympic and World Equestrian Games and FEI World Cup Finals. He rode with Bloomberg and Brash on the 2017 Miami Glory GCL team and helped the 2018 Miami Celtics team to third place in the series standings.

Spencer Smith has had a decorated career including winning the 2014 USEF Medal Finals as a junior and has become a consistent competitor at the CSI5* level. Some of his greatest accomplishments on the international stage include winning the CSI5* Longines GCT Grand Prix of Samorin with Theodore Manciais in 2021, and the CSI2* Longines GCT Grand Prix of London aboard Happiness in 2018.

Schuttert, a member of the 2021 Scandinavian Vikings GCL team, has been a top competitor in the sport since he was a young rider. In 2013, he won the gold medal in the FEI European Young Riders Individual Jumping Championship at Vejer de la Frontera, Spain. In 2018, Schuttert won the LGCT Valkenswaard Grand Prix, which earned him a spot in the LGCT Super Grand Prix during the Global Champions Playoffs in Prague, Czech Republic, where he claimed a third-place finish. The 29-year-old show jumping athlete represented the Netherlands at the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon, North Carolina, as well as at the 2019 European Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and again in 2021 in Riesenbeck, Germany. After working for Belgian Olympic athlete Jos Lansink for nine years, Schuttert began developing horses on his own in late 2021.

After a noteworthy junior career, McAteer has continued to successfully compete at the top level of the sport. McAteer won the Voltaire Design Under 25 British Championship in 2021 at the London International Horse Show. In June 2021, McAteer earned her first five-star win in the 1.45m Speed Challenge at LGCT Valkenswaard in Valkenswaard, The Netherlands. Following that victory, McAteer helped Great Britain earn bronze at the 2021 European Young Rider Championships in Vilamoura, Portugal.