CDIO Aachen, the longest existing international dressage competition, is breaking with tradition and will no longer be hosting an FEI Dressage Nations’ Cup in 2024.

Since 2013 the Aachen team competition is part of the official FEI Nations Cup series.

Photo – The Spanish Team in Aachen in 2005: Rambla, Mena, Cruces, Joaquicoa (© Astrid Appels for Eurodressage)

Control Over Invitations

The FEI issued brand new rules for the invitation of nations to its FEI Nations’ Cup series, which displeased the show management of Aachen, as it would no longer give them total control over their invitation system.

For 2024 the FEI wants to attract more countries to the Nations Cup and forces organizers to extend invitations to all nations. The new rule says: “Each CDIO-NC Organiser must invite all NFs and is not permitted to limit the number of NFs that can participate. The only possible limitation is the maximum number of combinations to start per day (forty (40) combinations).”

Aachen wants to be pickier and only invite countries that rank highly on the FEI World Ranking or riders/countries who are in good standing with the organizers.

The CHIO wrote out their own invitation system and National Federarations (NFs) can only suggest riders “after receiving an invitation from the Organising Committee.” So for their version of a team competition they have invited “the top 7 teams of the European Championships in Riesenbeck 2023 (GBR, GER, DEN, SWE, NED, FRA, AUT) plus USA (best non-European team of the World Championships Herning 2022).”

To read the full article, visit Eurodressage.com