Which nations secured Olympic and Paralympic dressage qualification at the World Championships – and who missed out?
Fourteen nations sealed their tickets to LA28 in the dressage and para dressage team finals in Aachen, including one through a separate continental route
Fourteen nations secured Olympic or Paralympic dressage qualification for the 2028 Games in LA in the two team finals at the 2026 World Dressage Championships in Aachen.
In the Olympic dressage team final, the top six ranked teams – Germany, Britain, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden – all booked their tickets to Los Angeles, alongside the hosts, the US (eighth), who qualified automatically.
For the complete breakdown of scores across all 19 dressage teams, see our full grand prix results.
For Britain’s Carl Hester, qualification mattered more than the colour of the medal. “We’re trying to qualify for the Olympic Games and pave the way for the next few years for new combinations to come along,” he said. “That feeling of relief is huge.”
A seventh nation also secured a dressage berth through a separate route: as the highest-placed team from FEI Group G (covering southeast Asia and Oceania), Australia claimed the one quota reserved for that region, finishing 13th overall. Thailand, the only other Group G nation fielding a full team in Aachen, missed out.
Portugal were the nation left to rue what got away in the main quota pool, finishing seventh on 212.625 – short of Sweden’s sixth-placed 216.552. Along with the other European nations outside the qualifying places, they will get a second chance at the 2027 European Championships in Randbøl, Denmark, where the three highest-ranked teams not already qualified will pick up the remaining places.
Canada finished just 0.062 points behind the USA’s team total in ninth. They will get another shot at Olympic qualification at the 2027 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, where a top-two finish – with the qualified US excluded from contention – will guarantee a place.
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As qualification was not on the line, the US had the freedom to blood inexperienced combinations rather than chase a result. Late call-up Megan Davies (Toronto Lightfoot) had barely a day’s notice before replacing Geñay Vaughn (Gino).
“I got the call Saturday night at 5 o’clock saying we were going,” she said. “We were ready to hit the road at 7.30 in the morning the next day.”
Both she and her horse were newcomers to the big stage – “This is his first big event... everything is sort of a new experience with the two of us, and this is my first big one too” – part of a deliberate strategy from the team. “They put in a couple of green combinations and let us get our footing,” she explained.
Whether that gamble pays off is another matter. For all the high-fives and optimism radiating from the US camp, it would be a surprise to see any of these combinations line up in LA – and you suspect an eighth-place finish there wouldn’t be met with quite the same magnanimity. The hope will be that some of their big-money buys, like Indian Rock and Bohemian, both absent from Aachen, come good and stay sound.
Para dressage: who’s heading to LA28
While the able-bodied US team used the freedom to blood green combinations and settled for eighth, the para dressage team treated it as no excuse to ease off, winning team gold on a record-breaking score under chef d’équipe Michel Assouline. If anything, the pressure felt higher, not lower, he explained:
“It’s an important Games for Team USA because it's a home Games, but we also know that a home Games is even more pressure, because the team at home will expect even more,” he said.
“I’m still very confident we have a system in place that works. We’ve worked hard on putting a strategy together with strong foundations, so I have a solid roadmap.”
Seven tickets for LA28 were up for grabs behind them. Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Great Britain, Italy, France and Sweden all secured their places; Britain’s fifth-placed finish was enough to seal qualification although it missed out on the team podium.
British para performance manager Georgina Sharples was left with mixed emotions. “I’m thrilled that we have qualified – coming here to qualify for LA 2028 was the primary aim, and we’ve achieved that," she said. “But I’m disappointed with the final results... we very much came here with an expectation that we'd medal as a team too. We’ve got some cracking horses, and they delivered some super work, but we also had some incredibly expensive spooks. You can’t get away with that at this level.”
Looking ahead to LA, she was keen to stress the positives: "Our riders are all very much on an upward trajectory. We’re still assessing horsepower... You need competitions like this, where the pressure is high, to give those riders that exposure. I think we’ll take a huge amount of positives from here and build on it.”
Teams who secured dressage Olympic qualification in Aachen
- Germany
- Great Britain
- Denmark
- Belgium
- Netherlands
- Sweden
- Australia (Group G)
- USA – already qualified as hosts
Teams who secured para dressage Paralympic qualification in Aachen
- Germany
- Netherlands
- Denmark
- Great Britain
- Italy
- France
- Sweden
- USA – already qualified as hosts
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Oscar joined Horse & Hound in October 2023 and is the magazine’s dressage editor and sports manager, overseeing coverage of equestrian sport. After studying equine science at Myerscough College, he spent four years working for leading dressage rider Emile Faurie, competing at the 2015 National Dressage Championships and travelling with the yard to CDIs including Aachen and Saumur. He holds a master’s degree in Literature from York St John University (2021).