Dressage-News

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, Jan. 28–The World Dressage Masters of four €100,000 (US130,000) outdoor competitions plans to expand to four indoor shows beginning with the Frankfurt International Horse Show next December.

The disclosure of the expansion to the indoor circuit that could compete directly with the World Cup series–the only annual dressage championsip–was made by Anthony M. Kies, creator of the World Dressage Masters.

He was answering a question by dressage-news.com about reports that an agreement for a CDI5* had been signed with the organizers of the Festhallen Reitturnier Frankfurt and discussions were being held with the organizers of Mechelen, Milan and another venue.

Frankfurt and Mechelen had hosted Western European League events in the qualifying series for the World Cup Final. As part of an effort to reduce the number of WEL qualifying events to eight to create a greater impact of the series for the 2012/2013 season, those two cities were dropped from the calendar.

The current outdoor WDM circuit consists of Palm Beach in January, Munich in May, and Falsterbo, Sweden, and Hickstead, England in July. Hicktead will not be held this year because of a conflict with the Olympics to be held in London.

“Our goal is to have four outdoor and four indoor competitions,” Anthony said.

“We have four indoor shows in the wings.”

He would not name the shows other than Frankfurt because, he said, agreement have not been concluded and the competitions would not be for 2012.

Asked whether he thought the WDM indoor shows would compete directly with the World Cup series, he said that he thought the Global Champions Tour did not conflict with other major jumping series such as the Top League.

WDM competitions are typically rated CDI5*, but this year’s Palm Beach event was downgraded to a CDI4* because at least two declared starting combinations and a likely qualifier from the CDI3* did not have the required two scores of 64 per cent from separate CDI3* and above competitions.