Aachen World Equestrian Festival Dressage Starts Wednesday

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Sönke Rothenberger preparing Cosmo for the Aachen CDI4* that will be only the second competition for the pair since their German team World Equestrian gold medal performance in Tryon last September. © 2019 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

AACHEN, Germany, July 16, 2019–The World Equestrian Festival dressage starts Wednesday with the CDI4* while the CDIO5* Nations Cup that is the major global team event of 2019 with eight countries participating begins a day later.

Sönke Rothenberger and Cosmo, the German team gold medal pair from the 2016 Olympics and the 2018 World Equestrian Games, are among the top contenders in the CDI4*. Others include the USA’s Adrienne Lyle on Harmony’s Duval and Isabell Werth on her world No. 6 mount Emilio.

The Nations Cup starting Thursday has eight teams, substantially smaller than the European Championships next month but this show includes an American team.

Katherine Bateson-Chandler on Alcazar coming toward camera with Adrienne Lyle on Salvino (left) and Steffen Peters on Suppenkasper familiarizing their horses in the Deutsche Bank Stadium that is hosts dressage at the Aachen World Equestrian Festival. © 2019 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

Germany is the hot favorite, not surprising considering the country has won every Nations Cup but three since the first one at Aachen in 1977–the Netherlands has won three and it was not held here in 2015 when the European Championships were staged.

The other six teams are Denmark, Spain, Great Britain, Netherlands and Sweden as well as Ireland that is participating in the Nations Cup for the first time ever.