First Olympic places on horseback up for grabs in Herning

Some of the world's top athletes in equestrian will be in the small Danish city of Herning over the next week for the 2022 FEI World Equestrian Games. In the only "open" (non-gendered) sport on the Olympic programme, events will take place in Dressage and Jumping, as well as the non-Olympic disciples of Vaulting and Para Dressage.

A large amount of Olympic qualification spots are up for grabs. Starting with Dressage, which has a team event and an individual event. There are fifteen teams, with Olympic hosts France getting the first spot in Paris, with the next six earned in Herning over the next few days. The other team spots will be earned regionally, but the spots for Group F (Africa/Middle East) and Group G (South East Asia and Oceania) will also be earned here, with the top ranked team in each group also snagging a quota. Out of the sixty individual spots, forty-five belong to team members, none of the standalone individual places will be earned here.

The system is not too different for Jumping. In this event, there are twenty teams, again hosts France make up one of them. These championships will earn five of the remaining team spots, as well as two for Group F and another two for Group G. There are seventy-five team spots (with sixty belonging to the team members), and again none of the standalone individual spots are earned in Herning.

Qualification won't be earned here for Eventing, which instead sees its world championships in Pratoni del Vivaro, Italy, as the first qualifying event.

The dressage event, which has a two-day Grand Prix on 6 and 7 August, has nineteen teams participating. In order, these are Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Portugal, Finland, Austria, Ireland, Poland, France, Spain, Belgium, Great Britain, Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and the United States. Four years ago, Germany won the gold in this event, qualifying alongside the US, Great Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Spain. Eagle-eyed readers will notice that there are no teams from Africa or the Middle East, meaning that the Group F spot will now go to a designated qualifying event. In 2020, that spot went to South Africa, although they later withdrew. Australia, Japan and New Zealand are the only Group G teams to enter, in 2020 it was Australia that got the place. The start lists aren't available yet for the Jumping competition.

Patrick Green

Writer, Totallympics News