Reigning European Champion Isabell Werth back in Rotterdam
Germany will come to Rotterdam with a very strong team. For reigning European Champion and nr. 1 at the FEI Dressage World Ranking, Isabell Werth, Dorothee Schneider and Matthias Alexander Rath it will be a come back to the Rotterdam Arena. All three riders have been at our venue for the European Championships in 2011 (Matthias Alexander Rath en Isabell Werth) and 2019 (Dorothee Schneider en Isabell Werth). Matthias Bouten will complete the German team.
Besides this strong German squad other countries will bring their top riders to Rotterdam. Chef d'equipe Alex van Silfhout will bring top 4 of the Dutch National Championships to the Kralingse Bos. Edward Gal (GLOCK's Total US), Hans Peter Minderhout (GLOCK's Dream Boy), Dinja van Liere (Hermes) and Marlies van Baalen (Go Legend) will represent the Netherlands at the FEI Nations Cup.
For the Belgian riders there will be tickets for the FEI European Championships in Hagen at stake. Only one Belgian dressage rider, Laurence Roos, is qualified for the Olympics. We will see Alexa Fairchild (Dabanos D'04), Domien Michiels (Intermezzo van het Meerdalhof), Laurence Vanommelslaghe (Edison) and Thibault Vandenberghe (Santiago Song) in Rotterdam.
The United States will bring a strong team to the FEI Nations Cup with Benjamin Ebeling (Illuster v.d. Kampert), Sabine Schut-Kerry (Sanceo) and Nick Wagman (Don John)
The Canadian Jill Irving (Arthur), the Dutch bases Marokkan Yessin Rahmouni (All at Once), Portugese rider Joao Miguel Torrao (Equador) and Minna Telde (Praestemarkens Quatero) from Sweden compete individually in the 5* dressage classes.
Due to the recent cancellation by Great Britain, Ireland and Sweden is the number of riders per team, which originally was reduced to three per team, back to four riders per country.
The British team regrets that the COVID-19 regulations will not allow them to travel the usual route via France. That's why they had to cancel at this last moment. The Swedish team the required quarantaine in Aken, just after CHIO, comes to early to compete in Rotterdam.
"Very sorry to hear that some teams due to COVID-19 and quarantaine rules are nog able to be at the CHIO Rotterdam", says Patrick van der Meer, sports director dressage at CHIO Rotterdam. The dressage horse will go into quarantaine for Tokyo just two days after Rotterdam. That, in combination with the COVID-19 restrictions will make it just impossible for some countries."
The FEI Nations Cup dressage starts on Thursday July 1st with the Grand Prix with all riders. The competion will be concluded by the scores of the Grand Prix Special and the Grand Prix Freestyle on Saturday. All classes can be watched online.