THE SPRUCE MEADOWS MASTERS

The Spruce Meadows Masters is five days of show jumping in early September, from a Wednesday to a Sunday, on the grass rings of Spruce Meadows, some five hundred acres in the foothills south of Calgary with the Rockies beyond: qualifying classes through the week, the Nations’ Cup on the Saturday, and on the Sunday the CPKC ‘International’, presented by Rolex, for five million dollars. It is one of the four Majors of the Rolex Grand Slam, with Aachen, Geneva and ’s-Hertogenbosch, and one of the two on grass. In 2026 riders came from twenty-two nations, and their horses were flown in on two chartered 747s.

Ron Southern put the ring at the bottom of a hill, so that its banks would seat the crowd. His daughter said: “He knew all along.”

The Feedlot

In 1971 the Southern family bought an old farm of eighty acres south of Calgary, a former cattle feedlot, “nestled into the contours of the Rocky Mountain foothills”, with a natural rise in the middle of it. Marg and Ron Southern opened Spruce Meadows on 13 April 1975.

The course designer Pamela Carruthers, born in Edinburgh, came to them through Douglas Bunn of Hickstead. She laid out the International, All Canada and North American rings into the natural ground. On 3 June 1976 the first two tournaments were held, the National and the Masters, one of a hundred events sanctioned by the FEI that year. In 1977 the FEI gave Spruce Meadows North America’s only outdoor CSIO, and the Masters held its first Nations’ Cup, won by West Germany.

In 1979 Eddie Macken of Ireland and Carroll’s Boomerang won all four events in four days. The first Evening of the Horse was held in 1985, and Cary Grant came to it. Rolex became the presenting sponsor in 1989. In 2000 the Masters gave the first grand prix in the world worth a million dollars, won by Rodrigo Pessoa on Gandini Lianos. Canada first won the Nations’ Cup at home in 2006, with Ian Millar anchoring on In Style.

The Masters was named a Major of the Rolex Grand Slam in 2013, and in 2015 Scott Brash completed the Grand Slam there, the first and still the only rider to win it. Ron Southern died in 2016. Linda Southern-Heathcott, who rode for Canada at the Atlanta Olympics of 1996, is president. The fiftieth year came in 2025, with the Duchess of Edinburgh as Royal Patron, at the Masters in person. Some half a million people come through the grounds each year, and they are open every day.

The International

On the Wednesday the horses go through the Clock Tower and onto the International Ring for the first time, and the top three in the TELUS Cup and the Cardel Homes Cup qualify for the Sunday. Thursday is Seniors’ Day, with the ATCO Cup at 1.50 metres and the CANA Cup at 1.60.

Friday is the TELUS Evening of the Horse: glow wands in the stands, the ATCO Electric Six Bar, the Celle Stallions, and fireworks with His Majesty’s Band of the Welsh Guards. In 2025 two combinations cleared the Six Bar at 2.13 metres, a mark that had stood for twenty-one years. The Blacksmith World Championships are held through the week.

On the Saturday the BMO Nations’ Cup is jumped in two rounds at 1.60 metres, the top six teams returning, and the ring is divided into nine sections, one for each nation, with a contest for the best-dressed in team colours. On the Sunday comes the Suncor Winning Round, and then the ‘International’. Its purse, introduced for the fiftieth anniversary, “remains the largest prize purse ever offered for a single show jumping competition”. A rider who wins three Majors in a row takes a bonus of a million euros, and four, two million. The crowd is asked to wear green.

In 2026, from 9 to 13 September, Sanne Thijssen and King Blue were the only clear in the Six Bar at 2.05 metres, and Germany won the Nations’ Cup on four faults from Ireland and Belgium. Richard Vogel came to the Sunday one win from the Grand Slam, having taken the Dutch Masters and Aachen, had a rail in the jump-off and finished fifth. Ben Maher won on Enjeu de Grisien, clear in 41.40 seconds: “the Rolex Majors are the pinnacle of the sport and we keep coming back and we keep trying.”

What to Know

It runs from a Wednesday to a Sunday in early September. The 2027 dates have not been announced.

Tickets are sold through Showpass, the official partner, and the tournament asks that resellers be avoided. Tickets start at five dollars, and seniors come free on the Thursday; reserved seats and VIP are sold apart. The hospitality is in Club International at Memory Lane, the skyboxes at British House and on the West Grandstand, and the Gardencourt Restaurant.

A lounge suit, and a coat. Nothing is published, and the press advises clothes for the weather and comfortable shoes; the Court dresses for the Sunday of a Major.

Spruce Meadows is about thirty minutes from downtown Calgary and forty-five from the airport, and parking is free. There is no longer a shuttle; take a taxi from the Somerset and Bridlewood CTrain station. Maritime Travel, the official agent, holds rates at the Residence Inn and Courtyard by Marriott Calgary South, twelve kilometres away in Seton; otherwise stay downtown.

The mistake is to book late. Rooms are at a premium in Calgary in September during the Masters.

The Court

The Spruce Meadows Masters is not the Court’s own. A skybox or a table in Club International for the Saturday and the Sunday is sought on a member’s behalf, and the Court arranges the whole of it: getting there, where to stay in Calgary, and the table afterward. The Court is at Burghley the week before.

How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.