Day 1 results set up a potential showdown for gold between Germany and Great Britain
Story and Photographs by Diana De Rosa
The FEI Dressage World Championships Aachen 2026 home country is in the lead after the first of two consecutive days of Grand Prix competition.
Germany leads the team standings with two of its four horse/rider combinations having delivered solid Grand Prix tests today. Frederic Wandres’ test aboard the 16-year-old Oldenburg gelding Bluetooth OLD (Bordeaux x Riccione) also put him atop the individual leader board, with a score of 75.963%.
Forty-five of the 91 horse-and-rider combinations from 34 nations contested the Grand Prix today, August 11. Tomorrow, the final group of 44 riders will decide the team medals as well as the 30 individual qualifications for the Grand Prix Special.
Likewise, Team Great Britain sits in second place after day 1, with a British rider in second place individually: 2026 Zen Elite FEI Dressage World Cup Final champions Becky Moody on her 12-year-old homebred KWPN gelding Jagerbomb (Dante Weltino OLD x Jazz), on 73.820%.
Wandres’ teammate Raphael Netz on the 15-year-old KWPN gelding Great Escape Camelot (Johnson TN x Turbo Magic) currently is in third place individually, with a GP score of 73.338%.
As the reigning European team champion, Germany is the front-runner in Aachen, but Great Britain is chasing its first World Championship dressage team gold medal with a strong team ready to show their skills. Next in line after today’s results are Australia, Sweden, and Denmark, the defending World Champions.
Team USA is in eighth place after day 1. In their first major international championship appearance, Meagan Davis on the 13-year-old Oldenburg gelding Toronto Lightfoot (Totilas x Onassis) had a decent ride, but a bobble in the two-tempis and an unwillingness to enter the field of play were two slight flaws in an otherwise very respectable test that garnered a score of 67.624%.
The other US rider who competed today, World Equestrian Games and Olympic Games veteran Kasey Perry Glass, laid down a strong performance with the 14-year-old KWPN gelding Heartbeat W.P. (Charmeur x Olympic Ferro) that put them in eleventh place after day 1 with a score of 70.606%.
Team competition will heat up even more tomorrow, August 12, with riders vying not only for team medals but to qualify their nations for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics dressage competition. (As the host nation, Team USA is automatically qualified—which Davis said takes some of the pressure off, particularly for the newer riders like herself.) Going down center line for Team USA tomorrow will be Christian Simonson riding Fleau de Baian and Ashley Holzer aboard Hawtins San Floriana.
[…] Germany Leads After Dressage Grand Prix Day 1 at Aachen 2026; Team USA Sits in 8th Place […]