Canada’s Selection Criteria for 2022 World Championships Calls for Dressage Team of 3 or 4, Up to 2 Reserves
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Dec. 5, 2021
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
Canada’s selection process for the 2022 world championships begins Jan. 1 for a team of three or four rider and horse combinations to qualify by June 19 for the event in Herning, Denmark in August.
The criteria requires candidates for the team to complete a minimum of four Grand Prix (one can be a short Grand Prix used in World Cup qualifiers) and three Grand Prix Specials in CDIs ranked 3* to 5*, World Cup and Nations Cup competitions. One Grand Prix and one Special must be attained after April 1, according to the procedures that have been distributed to riders and others. Candidates for the team have to declare by Jan. 31.
Grand Prix results will count for 60% of the final qualifying, and the Specials make up 40%. One Grand Prix and one Special result can be discarded.
“For Canada to guarantee the selection of a full team for the 2022 World Championships the final ranking average for the team must be 70% or higher,” Equestrian Canada criteria states, with the goal of finishing in the top eight nations.
Each nation can field teams up to four combinations, one a drop score, unlike the Olympics that this year was limited to three pairs with no drop score.
The FEI–the International Equestrian Federation that makes the rules for the championships–set a minimum eligibility result of 66% for combinations to qualify for the championships Aug. 6-14.
The highest ranked combination automatically earns a start in Herning, while the final two or three pairs and up to two reserves will be selected after a review of performances by Canada’s dressage high performance advisory group.
The team, the federation said, will be selected no later than June 30. Selected team combinations and alternates will be required to attend a championship quarantine staging camp expected to be held between July 15 and Aug. 5.
Riders seeking selection could include Lindsay Kellock, Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu, Naïma Moreira Laliberté and Chris von Martels who went to Tokyo on Canada’s squad for the Olympics and are Canada’s top ranked on the world standings, as well as several others.
Most opportunities to earn qualifying scores are in the United States beginning Jan. 12 with the first of seven weeks of CDIs at the Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida and one in Thermal, California by the end of March. Three events in California, one in Tryon, North Carolina and three in Ontario wrap up the second period from April 1 to June 19. Other events at qualifying levels may be added to the calendar.
In the two most recent world championships, Canada placed ninth out of 24 nations in Normandy in 2014 and 11th out of 15 teams in Tryon in 2018.
