All Systems Go for the 2026 World Cup Finals

All systems are go for the 2026 World Cup Finals in Fort Worth, Texas, to begin on Thursday 9 April 2026. All sixteen horses have passed the horse inspection held indoors in the Dickies Arena with only a small group of photographers in attendance compared to other major FEI Championship events. 

This is the seventh time that the World Cup Finals have been hosted in the U.S.A: the first time in L.A. in 1995, followed by Las Vegas (2005, 2007, 2009, 2015) and Omaha (2017, 2023).

From 18 to 16

Not 18 but only 16 combinations made it to Fort Worth in the end, after a big group of the world's best riders declined to make the journey to the U.S.A. and instead decided to focus on the World Championships in Aachen later this summer.

The initial group of 18 qualificants has kept changing until the final minute, with horses being swapped (Dieudonne instead of Great Escape Camelot), paperwork issues keeping a horse grounded (Heiline's Danciera), a horse getting cast in his stall (Jaccardo), and Dujardin's mysterious undisclosed reason for first accepting the invite and then withdrawing.

To patch up the big hole of the starters field, the U.S. based Ben Ebeling was called up last minute to fill at least one of the gaps created. 

Hearty Welcome

European horses were flown in from Liege last weekend and arrived on site on Sunday. American contestant Christian Simonson shipped Indian Rock over land by trailer from Wellington, Florida, with a stop-over in Louisiana. 

The first days at the show grounds were all about familiarizing the horses with the venue, doing some light training in the warm-up ring. In the afternoon and evenings the attendants explored Fort Worth with buildings celebrating the city cattle driving history.

Riders were treated to a goodie bag in their hotel which included a Fort Worth scarf, baseball cap, Texas Whiskey, and several clothing and tack gadgets.

Horse Inspection

All horses passed the inspection after which there was a photo shoot of each horse with his groom, followed by the first main ring familiarization.

Normally a horse inspection takes place within 24 hours of the start of the class, but not at the World Cup Finals where the combinations get a full day in between.

Draw to Come

The draw is still to take place and will still be held in the "old way" with better starting places given to riders higher ranked on the FEI Dressage World Cup™ Standing list (DWCS) - FEI Rule 17.2.  The unfairness of a ranking based draw has been scientifically proven time and again as judges lose a bit of their objectivity and become more biased towards the end of the class, with scores going up as with more comparison between riders available. While the FEI has been considering to (re-)instate an "ordinary draw" (at snail speed),  at this point in time the higher ranked riders will get the more favourable spots once more.

A draw party will be held on 8 April 2026.

New Trophy

Ronan Murphy, FEI Dressage Director, took to Facebook: "amazing first day at the FEI Dressage World Cup Final here in Fort Worth, Texas.  Venue looks amazing and really looking forward to an incredible weeks competition."

For the 2026 World Cup Finals a brand new trophy has been designed with a new plate to engrave the names of the winners on as the old trophy must be full.

Eurodressage is not on the scene, having made the conscious choice not to spend approx. 4000 euro to work this show, covering "only" 16 riders with no possibility to earn back the costs. We will be burning the midnight oil though and bring you "Quick Notes" from the show as we'll watch the classes on live stream well past midnight to comment on the rides. 

Related Link
Eurodressage Coverage of the 2025-2026 World Cup show circuit and finals