​Never heard of the 12-week series of Traverse City Horse Shows? Always wanted to see Olympians in person? Now’s your chance, through Sept. 20. Here’s what you need to know about the show, showjumping, and being around horses. When and where is the show happening?The show has a schedule on its website with information about each day’s activities. Generally, the show runs Wednesday through Saturday or Sunday. It ends Sept. 20.The show takes place at Flintfields Horse Park at 6535 Bates Road, Williamsburg. It’s about 20 minutes from Traverse City.More: Traverse City Horse Shows bring Olympians to Michigan, dollars to areaWhat does it cost?The show is free to attend any day that does not have a Grand Prix. The Grand Prix days have an entrance fee of $15, all of which is given to a local charity. (The charities change each week.) Parking is available and free on the horse show grounds. Golf cart rides are available for those needing assistance. What’s the final show of the year, and why is it such a big deal?On Sept. 20, the show hosts its biggest class of the year, the $340,000 Longines FEI Jumping World Cup. The show is rated a 5* class, which is the highest level of Grand Prix showjumping, and brings top talent from across the world to compete for the American Gold Cup. That class is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. Who’s coming for the last weekend?Allegedly, at least nine of the top 30 riders in the world are planning to enter at least one horse into the class. Names on the list include 2024 U.S. Olympic silver medalists Karl Cook, McClain Ward and Kent Farrington, currently the No. 2-ranked jumper in the world. Other U.S. riders expected to compete include Lillie Keenan, Charlotte Jacobs, Natalie Dean and U.S. Showjumping Hall of Fame inductee Margie Goldstein Engle.International riders expected to compete include Ireland’s Shane Sweetnam, Canada’s Erynn Ballard and France’s Nina Mallevaey.What is showjumping? What is hunter-jumpers?Hunter Jumpers is a discipline of the equestrian world broken up into, generally, two categories — the hunters and the jumpers.In hunters, the way and the look of how the horse and rider jump makes a difference. In addition to not knocking over any jumps or the horse stopping before the jump, they have to show an even, flawless ride that looks effortless. Jumpers is the kind of showjumping that is part of the Olympics. In jumpers, it doesn’t matter how pretty it looks, only that horse and rider each make it over the jumps in the correct order, don’t knock anything over, don’t stop, and do it in a certain amount of time, known as jumping a “clear” round.Knocking over a jump is worth 4 “faults,” or penalties. Faults can also be added for time if the rider goes over the allotted time.In a Grand Prix class in jumpers, there are generally two rounds. In the first round, riders only have to worry about jumping “clear” within the set amount of time. Everyone who jumps clear advances to the jump-off, a second round where rider