Show Jumping equivalent to ‘Drive to Survive’ arrives

With great power comes great responsibility and when you take a camera crew behind the scenes of a professional sport there is a caretaking element. “It was something that we didn’t take lightly and treated with a tremendous amount of respect and responsibility,” said Ben Asselin, Executive Producer of Faultless a soon-to-be launched six-part documentary series on show jumping featuring the highest echelons of competition – the Rolex Grand Slam.

“We really wanted to broaden our audience base for the sport in general,” said Ben, who worked alongside his brother Kyle Koss and with the Spruce Meadows team to create the series. “Show jumping is sometimes seen as being a bit elitist and unapproachable to the outside audience. We wanted to find a way of sharing the behind-the-scenes – an all access look at the determination, the skill and the pressure and the setbacks that go into the sport.”

There are modern precedents for successfully showcasing professional sports on popular streaming platforms such as Netflix’s hit series Formula 1: Drive to Survive – credited with stimulating an increased interest in Grand Prix motor racing in Europe – and Full Swing, showing the tough reality for pro golfers on the PGA Tour.

“We wanted to make this series really about the sport itself and the passion that these athletes have, the challenges that they face, the deep understanding and horsemanship that they pursue,” Ben said. “There is a way to bring in a bigger audience and for an audience to feel like they’re connected. As soon as you start showing that human side of the story and the challenges that these athletes face – whether it’s within their home life or whether it’s on the road – somebody that has never been privy to the sport can find relatability to some of these stories.”

That authenticity was only possible because riders, grooms and support teams granted unprecedented access to their lives and careers. Fourteen Grand Prix riders participated including Europeans Richard Vogel, Steve Guerdat, Martin Fuchs and Sophie Hinners as well as Tiffany Foster and Lillie Keenan representing North America. “Asking for the trust from these riders to share their stories is something that we took very, very seriously,” Ben said. “We’re extremely humbled that they would trust us with this process. We are very grateful to the cast – all the riders, the grooms, the horses, their teams.”

Faultless was inspired by one of the most iconic venues in international show jumping, Spruce Meadows in Calgary, Canada. Ben’s family are synonymous with the venue which reached its 50th anniversary milestone last year and hosted what Ben referred to as the world’s largest Grand Prix competition, the CPKC Masters Grand Prix presented by Rolex.

“We wanted to capture the road that these athletes had in getting to that point and competing in that Rolex Grand Prix,” he said. “The Rolex Grand Slam and the custodianship that Rolex has displayed for the sport of show jumping over a long history deserved to be showcased to the rest of the world.”

Eighteen months of filming on an international level was required to follow the 2025 Rolex Grand Slam with Ben and Kyle’s production company Brighter Frame Productions partnering with Terminal B TV. “We travelled the globe with the production crew,” Ben said as they took in France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, England, Ireland, the United States and Canada. “The people behind the scenes that helped create this show are really tremendous.”

Distribution is already secured through Roku in the United States and Canada – the series launching on June 23 narrated by three-time Emmy nominated actor Walton Groggins. Greater international rollout plans are underway and further down the pipeline, potentially a second series. “Our whole goal was to get an international global audience,” Ben said. “We are working now on distribution for Europe and so we are still closing out work on the first series – but we would love to do a season two.”

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