UAE, Saudi Arabia Open Jumping And Dressage At Aachen 2026
UAE Field Five For Aachen 2026 Opener
Five UAE riders and four representing Saudi Arabia headline the GCC presence when show jumping opens at the FEI World Championships in Aachen on Wednesday 19 August 2026, with the opening round doubling as a team and individual qualifier and the first stage of qualification for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
Jumping runs across four days at the German venue. Two rounds of horse inspections come first, held at 7pm GST (5pm CEST) on Monday 17 August and 9:45am GST (7:45am CEST) on Tuesday 18 August, followed by Wednesday's qualifier, two team final rounds on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 August that decide the team medals, and an individual final on Sunday 23 August. There is no jumping on Saturday 22 August.
The First Competition, officially the team and individual qualifier, runs from around 11:30am GST (9:30am CEST) to roughly 7:20pm GST (5:20pm CEST) and is scored against the clock rather than on the usual four-fault system, with a rail down adding time penalties instead. The fastest clear or fastest overall round sets the mark every other combination is measured against. It is open to all declared team and individual starters, with up to four riders per federation and one horse per rider. The UAE line-up is Omar Al Marzooqi on Enjoy De La Mure, Abdullah Humaid Al Muhairi on Hudson De Vains, Humaid Abdulla Khalifa Al Muhairi on Foncetti VD Heffinck, Salim Ahmed Al Suwaidi on Flonflon and Sheikha Latifah Al Maktoum on Cornet XL, with William Funnell serving as chef d'equipe, the title given to the official who selects and manages a national team through a championship. Saudi Arabia's team, led by chef d'equipe David Will, is Ramzy Al Duhami on Untouchable 32, Khaled Almobty on Diana Du Plevau Z, Abdulrahman Alrajhi on Ventago and Abdullah Alsharbatly on Diriyah.
Sheikha Latifah Al Maktoum's presence on the UAE team is itself a late change. She was brought in on Cornet XL after Abdullah Al Marri's original nomination on BBS McGregor was withdrawn when the horse suffered a broken leg, a switch that leaves Funnell's squad settled only in the days before Wednesday's round.
Qatar Pull Out As Kuwait Go It Alone
Three GCC nations have confirmed jumping representation in Aachen: the UAE and Saudi Arabia with full four- and five-rider squads, and Kuwait with a single individual nomination. Not every Gulf nation confirmed at the entry stage has made it to the start line, though. Qatar's two nominated combinations, Faleh Al Ajami and Bassem Mohammed, have since withdrawn and will not be competing in Aachen, leaving the country without representation in a championship it was originally entered for. Kuwait, by contrast, arrives with a single individual nominee, Al Khorafi on Inshallah, competing outside the team format and therefore with no bearing on Friday's team medals but still eligible for the individual title on Sunday. Bahrain and Oman have no jumping entries at this championship.
The stakes in Aachen extend past the world titles on offer. Twenty-seven National Olympic Committees can secure team quota places for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games through this championship, with seven jumping team spots available, so Wednesday's speed round is also the opening leg of an Olympic qualification race rather than a standalone world title heat. Frank Rothenberger designed the course, with Santiago Varela acting as technical delegate, the FEI official responsible for overseeing that the competition is run to the championship's technical rules. None of the medals are settled on the opening day: the team medal is not decided until Friday 21 August, after two further rounds of team competition, and the individual title is not contested until Sunday 23 August, when the field is cut first to the top 25 combinations and then to the top 12 for a final round.
Saudi Arabia's Sharbatly Rides Solo
Para dressage runs on a separate but overlapping schedule at Aachen's Stadium 3, also from Wednesday 19 to Sunday 23 August, and carries a single GCC entry. Nations send either full teams of three or four riders, or one to two individuals where a full team cannot be fielded, with a maximum of two riders per grade allowed on any team. Competitors are split into five grades, I through V, according to degree of impairment, and each rider completes two individual tests: GP-A, which decides the individual medals and runs on Wednesday for Grades I-III and Thursday for Grades IV-V, and GP-B, the team test held over the following days that every individual rider must also complete even without a team around them. The average of a rider's two scores determines who advances to Sunday's Freestyle, capped at the top eight per grade and subject to a 60 percent qualifying threshold.
There are 94 definite entries across the discipline. Twenty nations have entered full teams, among them Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States, while a further ten, including Finland, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, South Africa and Switzerland, are sending individuals only. Saudi Arabia sits in that second group as the only Gulf nation represented, its sole entry Ahmed Sharbatly riding Hawkeye. There is no UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait or Oman presence in the para dressage field this cycle, so the GCC's story at Stadium 3 is a solo campaign rather than a squad effort. Grade V is the most contested of the five, with 23 entries, ahead of 20 in Grade I, 19 in Grade III, 18 in Grade IV and 14 in Grade II.
Early analysis from Eurodressage and Global Dressage Analytics rates the United States the team to beat across the discipline as a whole, with Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark positioned as the closest challengers for gold or the minor medals. That form picture sits above Sharbatly's own campaign rather than around it, since his is an individual entry rather than a team push, and his results in GP-A and GP-B will be judged against his own grade rather than against the strength of any single rival nation.
Between the two disciplines, the UAE and Saudi Arabia jumping squads, Kuwait's individual entry and Sharbatly's solo dressage campaign give the GCC four separate threads to follow as Aachen 2026 gets under way. Jumping's medals wait until Friday and Sunday, dressage's individual medals are decided by Thursday with the Freestyle to come on Sunday, and Wednesday's opening action offers the first indication of how each of the Gulf's representatives is settling into a championship that runs for a full week before any of it is finally decided.
Jumping runners:
UAE: Omar Al Marzooqi (Enjoy De La Mure), Abdullah Humaid Al Muhairi (Hudson De Vains), Humaid Abdulla Khalifa Al Muhairi (Foncetti VD Heffinck), Salim Ahmed Al Suwaidi (Flonflon), Sheikha Latifah Al Maktoum (Cornet XL).
Saudi Arabia: Ramzy Al Duhami (Untouchable 32), Khaled Almobty (Diana Du Plevau Z), Abdulrahman Alrajhi (Ventago), Abdullah Alsharbatly (Diriyah).
Kuwait: Al Khorafi (Inshallah).
Qatar (withdrawn): Faleh Al Ajami (Wathnan Quatro), Bassem Mohammed (Wathnan Rocket Man).
Para dressage runner:
Saudi Arabia: Ahmed Sharbatly (Hawkeye).
Bahrain and Oman have no jumping or para dressage entries at this championship.