The first qualification spots for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in the sport of equestrian will be decided in Herning, Denmark, as the 2022 FEI World Equestrian Games come to town. In the Olympics’ only non-gendered sport, there are three events: Dressage, Eventing, and Jumping. Spots for the team event in Dressage and Jumping will be decided here: these also yield three spots in the corresponding individual event.
Six of the fifteen Dressage spots (and eighteen individual Dressage spots) will be up for grabs, with everyone eligible apart from hosts France, who have already qualified. The GB team is made up of Gareth Hughes, who won silver in this event in 2014, riding Classic Briolinca, described by equestrian website “Horse & Hound” as “one of Britain’s most exciting grand prix dressage horses”. Legend Charlotte Dujardin will need no introduction to anyone reading this blog: she has won 6 bronze medals and was also part of the 2014 silver medal winning team, and also won a bronze in 2018. The horse, Imhotep, might need some introducing though: “Equestrian Life” calls him “one to watch for the future”. Finally, Charlotte Fry who won a bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics in this event rides Glamourdale this time, a horse that has “come of age this year and is ready for the big time” according to Eurodressage. In reserve for GB is Richard Davison, a veteran of the sport, whose horse Bubblingh struck a Eurodressage correspondent for his “attractive, kind, and elegant head”. GB will be expected to qualify a full team in this event, although if they miss out in Herning there is another chance at next year’s European Championships in Riesenbeck, Germany.
The start list for the Jumping competition hasn’t been released yet. Unlike the Dressage event, just five team places (and thus fifteen individual ones) will be up for grabs in these championships, which takes place on 10 and 12 August. Again, anything less than qualifying a full team will be seen as failure, but there will be other chances to qualify a place.
GB Games 