2023: The Year in Dressage

We celebrate the highlights of the last 12 months...

The year before an Olympic Games is always an exciting one, with everyone vying to qualify, and 2023 was no exception.

Let’s share some memories of the major Dressage competitions that gave many an opportunity to punch a ticket to Paris in 2024. The intense competition certainly made for some incredible performances!

FEI Dressage World Cup™

The pre-Olympic year kicked off with the FEI Dressage World Cup™ Final at Omaha. Athletes had to earn points, starting in the autumn of 2022, to advance to the two-day Final.

Day 1 saw defending Olympic and World Cup champion Jessica Von Bredow-Werndl of Germany and TSF Dalera BB at the top of the leaderboard following the Grand Prix test. Another German — Isabell Werth, the most decorated Dressage athlete of all time — was right on her heels with DSP Quantaz. Nanna Skodborg Merrald of Denmark was in third place with her partner Blue Hors Zepter.

Once all the Grand Prix Freestyle scores were tallied on the second day, it was Von Bredow-Werndl at the top of the podium again, with marks over 90 percent. Skodborg Merrald took the silver medal, and Werth went home with the bronze.

Here’s Von Bredow-Werndl and Dalera’s winning performance…

FEI Dressage Nations Cup™

It was a close race at Falsterbo, Sweden for the last leg of the FEI Dressage Nations Cup™ series in July, but it was neighbours from Denmark who won the cup for 2023.

Denmark had enjoyed a particularly strong season, winning at Compiègne in May and taking second at Aachen.

Danish athletes performed best across the Grand Prix, the Special and the Freestyle. Their team of Daniel Bachmann Andersen (Zippo M.I.), Anna Zibrandtsen (Quel Filou), Nadja Aaboe Sloth (Favour Gersdorf), and Anne Marie Hosbond (Scarlett 712) represented the nation at the prize giving ceremony.

Sweden, previous winners of the Nations Cup, finished in second place overall. The team from the Netherlands were awarded third place.

Santiago 2023 Pan American Games

Santiago, Chile was the site of the 2023 Pan American Games, which offered Dressage athletes and their fans three days of excitement. First up was the Intermediate I test for Small Tour combos, whilst the Big Tour athletes performed the Grand Prix Special.

The USA were victorious in the end, after two days of intense competition. Sara Tubman (First Apple), Christian Simonson (Son of a Lady), Anna Marek (Fire Fly), and Codi Harrison (Katholt’s Bossco) attended the medal ceremony to hear "The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Brazil claimed the silver medal, whilst Canada — winners in 2019 at Lima — accepted the bronze. Both of those teams also snatched two berths to Paris next year.

The Pan Am Games wrapped up with the Freestyle for Individual medals, and what a glorious event it was at the Escuela de Equitación Regimiento Granaderos outside Valparaíso, Santiago’s sister city.

Ecuador won a single ticket to Paris as well, thanks to the gold medal won by Julio Mendoza Loor and Jewel’s Goldstrike, the first ever for the nation. Brazil’s João Victor Marcari and Feel Good VO took the silver medal, and the bronze went to American athlete Anna Marek and Fire Fly.

An athlete from Chile will also be competing at the Château de Versailles next summer, thanks to Svenja Grimm, who finished in eighth place aboard Doctor Rossi.

FEI Dressage European Championship for Seniors

The Riesenbeck International Equestrian Center in Germany was the host of the FEI Dressage European Championship for Seniors in September. Dozens of horse and human combos lined up over four days to thrill fans and compete for the top prizes of Team and Individual titles.

On Day 1, Carl Hester, Fame, and Hester’s team from Great Britain topped the leaderboard in the Grand Prix test. Germany were in second place, whilst Denmark held the third-place Team spot.

The second day of competition — another day of Grand Prix for the other half of the roster — saw Great Britain hang onto their lead, taking the Team gold medal under the direction of Chef d’Equipe Caroline Griffith.

What Hester and teammate Gareth Hughes (Classic Briolinca) began on Day 1, 2022 World champion Charlotte Fry (Glamourdale) and former Olympic champion Charlotte Dujardin (Imhotep) sealed with stellar performances that won over the judges.

Germany had the home crowd on their feet with the silver medal. The Herning 2022 Team World champions from Denmark brought home the bronze. There was also success for Austria, Belgium and Spain, who each secured qualification for Paris 2024 as the top three teams not already confirmed. Separately, Poland secured their Paris place at a qualifier held in Budapest in June.

The next day’s competition in Riesenbeck awarded Individual medals for the Grand Prix Special. It was another triumph for Jessica Von Bredow-Werndl and Dalera. The German champion scored a personal best of 85.593 percent and defended her title from Hagen in 2021.

Nanna Skodborg Merrald and Blue Hors Zepter took the silver in the Special, pipping third-place Dujardin, with just one day left in the event.

The championship finale featured the Grand Prix Freestyle to music. Jessica made it a double, taking the gold on a score of 92.818 percent — a personal best and European Championship record.

Fry and Glamourdale were awarded the silver with 92.379 percent, also a personal best, in the first show where she and Von Bredow-Werndl ever went head-to-head. Joining them on the podium was Charlotte Dujardin to accept the bronze medal, thanks to a score of 91.396 percent, which broke her own PB by a whopping 3 points!

19th Asian Games Hangzhou

The Chinese city of Hangzhou played host to the 19th Asian Games, moved to 2023 due to pandemic restrictions.

It was an ecstatic group from India that captured the Team gold, with medals going to Anush Agarwalla (Etro), Divyakirti Singh (Adrenalin Firfod), Hriday Chheda (Chemxpro Emerald), and Sudipti Hajela (Chinski). China took the silver medal, and Hong Kong won the Team bronze.

Qabil Ambak of Malaysia won the Individual gold medal in his sixth Asian Games, this time aboard Rosenstolz. It was Ambak’s eighth medal at an Asian Games, but 2023 was one for the history books as the first time Malaysia had ever won a gold in equestrian competition.

Jacquelin Siu of Hong Kong was presented with the Individual silver medal along with Jockey Club Huittharien. The bronze went home to India, a second medal for Anush Agarwalla.

Congratulations to all these fine winners and the teams that support them! It’s hard to believe we’re well into the next FEI Dressage World Cup™ season, which will end with the Final at Riyadh next April. Catch every event live on FEI TV!