I'm always happy when I get to Europe or South America. I'm a diplomat brat and grew up all over. But mostly in Rio.

In Europe and South America, horse events are second only to soccer and are televised fromt the "junior" level. Mostly stadium jumping. They love it there; interviews with sports stars are frequently with the jumpers.

Here, although the final LV of World Cup will have limited covereage, we're lucky to get that. Even Rolex got bumped down.

I wonder why that is? (and I am not being snarky, lol). Just seriously curious as to why.

The outdoor networks show programing from the AQHA world shows, and sometimes you can get Merrideth Hodges, that mule rider on. Other than that, you're right. Makes me sad :(

Europe takes a lot of pride in their horses. And you also have to realize we are still trying to catch up to the Europeans in horsemanship and breeding. Kinda like how we show NASCAR, and baseball all the time on TV. Horses are just part of European culture too.
Plus horses are not originaly from the US. They came from Europe. So horses have been part of European history much longer than here in the states. We are getting close to them though in competitions. Just look at Beezie Madden and all of the other international competitors. Plus I know OLN hosts the whole Budweiser Grand Prix tour and they air it on TV every year. They show like Devon, Spruce Meadows, Harrisburg, ect.

I believe it has to do with what Americans like to watch on TV and ratings. Horse sports have never really gotten the high ratings, so the networks do the televise equestrian sports very much.