America loses out to Germany for WEG 2006

Disappointment for USA in the final week of competition in Jerez, as Germany wins the FEI vote as the country to host the fifth World Equestrian GamesThe USA is bitterly disappointedat being denied the chance to run its first World Equestrian Games.

Instead, after strong presentations from both countries, the FEI vote went to Germany, who put in a bid to run the 2006 WEG at Aachen, home of what is acknowledged as the most prestigious international show in Europe.

However, this means that the World Equestrian Games, a concept invented in 1990, has still not gone out of Europe.

At a press conference in Jerez, the FEI president HRH The Infanta Dona Pilar de Borbon, said: “Following months of presentations and discussions with both Aachen and Kentucky, the executive board of the FEI has awarded the hosting of the World Equestrian Games 2006 to the German Equestrian Federation and Aachen.

“It was an extremely difficult decision as both venues presented outstanding bids and have such a rich equestrian heritage. We now look forward to building on the undoubted success of Jerez by hosting the world equestrian family in Aachen in 2006. “

Germany was considered to have made a diplomatic faux pas at Jerez when, despite entering riders in all seven disciplines, they only paraded about six of them at the opening ceremony, in contrast to all the other nations making the effort to field large contingents of competitors.

The USA’s site at Lexington is site of the highly successful four-star three-day event and has a massive infrastructure capable of running a World Games butone factor which may have gone against it is the continued political wrangling between US Equestrian (formerly American Horse Shows Association, which is based there), and the US Equestrian Team.

Great Britain is gearing up to investigate the feasibility of staging the 2010 WEG.

For more information Click here to visit HHO’s World Equestrian Games website and keep up-to-date with all the action from WEG.

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