Dressage-News

Mar 13, 2024

The United States is the official partner country of the CHIO Aachen, the annual German event that is the world’s top horse show scheduled July 1-7.

“The perfect match” is how the organizers describe the joint history of more than 340 years connecting the United States with North Rhine-Westphalia, the region in which Aachen is located.

“So, the fact that the USA is the partner country of the CHIO Aachen this year harmonizes very well,” said Nathanael Liminski, Minister of the Federal, European and International Affairs and Media as well as Head of the State Chancellery of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. “The CHIO Aachen is one of the figureheads of international top sport. Staged in North Rhine-Westphalia, such an event offers the perfect platform to present the intimate friendship between the USA and NRW.”

Pauline Kao, the US General Consul for North Rhine-Westphalia, who attended the announcement Wednesday, said of Germany’s biggest sporting event: “This partnership is a dream come true for us. It really is a ‘perfect match’.“

The USA will be the centerpiece of the traditional CHIO opening ceremony July 2, a 90-minute entertainment extravaganza in the floodlit Main Stadium.

The event will be televised live throughout Germany.

In addition to a Super Bowl atmosphere, Quarter horses and a US American-style presentation by the NRW State Stud from Warendorf, homage will be paid to “Barbie.”

The United States is one of eight countries invited to the dressage Nations Cup; the others: Austria, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Germany, Netherlands and Sweden.