DRESSAGE will be the opening event of the 2026 FEI World Championships at Aachen next week, where the Grand Prix to decide team medals will begin on Tuesday, August 11th, and will be contested by 19 teams. Some 17 individuals representing a further 15 nations will also take part, seeking to qualify for next Friday’s Grand Prix Special and challenge for the first set of individual medals.

The top 15 combinations in this class will progress to the final Freestyle, held in Aachen’s Main Stadium under floodlights on Saturday evening, in which another set of individual medals and the individual title of World Champion are up for grabs.

Teams

Reigning champions Denmark will be looking to defend the title they won on home soil in Herning in 2022, and their challenge will be spearheaded by the new world number one combination of Catherine Laudrup-Dufour and Mount St John Freestyle. Despite Laudrup-Dufour posting the top score in the Grand Prix at last year’s European Championships in Crozet, France, the Danish side could only claim the bronze medal there, and they look to have their work cut out for them this time round, as they challenge largely unchanged teams from Germany and Britain, gold and silver medallists respectively last time out.

Laudrup-Dufour will be joined by her Herning teammates Carina Cassoe Kruth riding Heiline’s Danciera and Daniel Bachmann Andersen with newer ride Flash Gordon, both not present at Crozet last year, as well as Nadja Aaboe Sloth riding Favour Gersdorf.

Germany will be represented by Katharina Hemmer with Denoix PCH, Frederic Wandres with Bluetooth OLD and Isabell Werth with Wendy, the trio earned gold at Crozet last year and all finished in the top 10 in the Grand Prix. Werth and Wandres are also veterans of the team, which won Olympic gold in Paris in 2024. Their team will be completed by newcomer Raphael Netz, a former U25 European Champion and student of reigning Olympic Champion Jessica von Bredow-Werndl, riding Great Escape Camelot.

The trio, which won silver medals at both Paris and Crozet for Britain, will once again come together in Aachen. Reigning individual World Champion Lottie Fry will aim to defend her title with the breeding stallion Glamourdale and, alongside Carl Hester with Fame and Becky Moody with Jagerbomb, as well as team newcomer Olympian Fiona Bigwood and Bella Donna, she will be aiming to better their team finish too.

The Belgian team could also be in the hunt for a medal, having finished a close fourth at the Europeans last year. Their highest scorers from Crozet, individual champions Justin Verboomen with Zonik Plus and Larissa Pauluis with Flambeau, will both return for duty in Aachen. They will be joined by the very experienced pair of Wim Verwimp and Jeroen Devroe, riding Jedai de Massa and Lestor respectively, and the race for a team medal looks like it will be a close one.

Individuals

At the European Championships last year, there was a duel for individual honours between the more established combination of Catherine Laudrup-Dufour and Mount St John Freestyle and the rising stars Justin Verboomen and Zonik Plus. While the Dane triumphed in the Grand Prix, for which no individual medals are awarded, it was the Belgian combination who topped the leaderboard in both individual tests where it counted. Interestingly, Laudrup-Dufour and Verboomen have managed to avoid a head-to-head rematch in the intervening year and one of the big questions of Aachen will be who comes out on top?

Lottie Fry and Glamourdale proved unbeatable at Herning in 2022 and, having since added an individual Olympic bronze to their haul in 2024, the combination ranked third in the world will be looking to dominate again. The most medalled equestrian Olympian in history, Isabell Werth, will have similar goals and should never be discounted from podium predictions. With Wendy, she has form, having added an individual bronze in Crozet to the silver she won at the Paris Olympics. Fry’s compatriot Becky Moody and her home-bred Jagerbomb could also be in with a shout, having won the World Cup Final earlier this season, and it is likely that the battle for individual honours will take place among this five.

Team Ireland

After Abi Lyle, Ireland’s representative at the Olympics in Paris, withdrew from the selection race following Hartpury CDI3* in early July, Horse Sport Ireland’s dressage High Performance manager Anne Marie Dunphy was left with four qualified combinations from which to form her team. Qualification had gone down to the wire, with reigning Dressage Ireland national champion Kevin Acres gaining his last MER score aboard Michelle Begley’s Ganesh at that same show, his final opportunity.

Acres will be joined by team Ireland debutante Jess Dunn, whose switch to Irish nationality was announced earlier this year, and who will ride Jennifer Whittaker’s experienced Dan Its Carston. Alex Baker will contest her second FEI Dressage World Championships, this time riding Elite Stallions’ Top Gear, with whom she has demonstrated consistent improvement culminating in personal best scores on their last international appearance. The final place will be taken by championship veteran James Connor, whose scores with Vanotti reflect a similar upward trend.

Teams which finish in the top six at Aachen will secure Olympic qualification for LA28 and, while that is likely to be a stretch for the Irish quartet, it is certainly not impossible.

Timetable

Grand Prix (to decide team medals): Tuesday, August 11th and Wednesday, August 12th

Grand Prix Special (first set of individual medals): Friday, August 14th

Grand Prix Freestyle (second set of individual medals): Saturday, August 15th

Did you know?

  • Dara Ninggar Prameswari is set to become the first-ever Indonesian rider to contest the FEI World Championships for Dressage with her Lusitano partner Miestral d’Ferraria.
  • Britain’s Fiona Bigwood is both the owner of Carl Hester’s ride Fame, as well as a team member herself with her own Bella Donna. What’s more remarkable is that she is also the breeder of Bella Donna, who is by Don Juan De Hus and out of Bigwood’s Rio Olympic ride Atterupgaards Orthilia.
  • Former World Champion Charlotte Dujardin is first reserve for the British team this year, but she also has the distinction of having produced three of the other horses in the field. The USA’s Ashley Holzer rides Hawtins San Floriana; Hungary’s Diana Porsche rides Imothep, with whom Dujardin won team silver at the last World Championships in 2022, and world number one Catherine Laudrup-Dufour rides Mount St John Freestyle, with whom Dujardin medalled at the World Equestrian Games in 2018.

    • Meet the squad - Dressage

    Kevin Acres (29)

    Horse: Ganesh, 15 (Jazz x Partout)

    Owner: Michelle Begley

    Form: Acres and Ganesh are the reigning Dressage Ireland national champions and the only members of the squad to be based on home soil. Their form has improved consistently this year and they obtained their last MER at Hartpury in July before placing fifth in the Grand Prix Special there on 68.128%. Aachen will be the combination’s championship debut.

    Kevin Acres at the Dressage Ireland national championships \ Osca Photography

    Alex Baker (30)

    Horse: Top Gear, 14 (Totilas x Don Frederico)

    Owner: Elite Stallions Ltd

    Form: Baker has previous World Championship experience, having been part of the team at Herning in 2022 and, although they are a relatively new partnership, she and Top Gear have gone from strength to strength in securing their Aachen qualification this year. On their last international run, they secured personal best scores of over 67% in both the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Special at Hartpury CDI3*.

    Alex Baker and Dutchman at the 2022 World Championships \ Tomas Holcbecher

    James Connor (67)

    Horse: Vanotti, 13 (Vitalis x Florestan)

    Owner: Chiara Olper

    Form: Connor brings a wealth of championship experience to the team and he competed as part of team Ireland at the World Equestrian Games in 2014. His scores with Vanotti have been consistently improving and, at Aachen in May, they narrowly missed out on a top-10 placing, when scoring 68.370% in the Grand Prix.

    James Connor gained his second MER for the FEI World Dressage Championships at Aachen riding Vanotti \ Digishots

    Jess Dunn (36)

    Horse: Dan Its Carsten, 13 (Durable x Clearway)

    Owner: Jennifer Whittaker

    Form: British-based Dunn will make her Irish team debut in Aachen having announced her change of nationality earlier this year, though she has represented Great Britain at youth championships and the Youth Olympics. Their form would suggest that they could be team Ireland’s highest-scoring pair and, at Aachen in May, they finished seventh in the Grand Prix on 69.50%.

    Jess Dunn scored 69.50% to finish seventh in the Grand Prix at Aachen riding Dan Its Carsten \ Digishots