Odense Horse Show - FEI World Cup Dressage WE League
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Organiser:JBK horse Shows
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Location:Odense, The Netherlands
Odense Horse Show is the first leg of the FEI World Cup™ Dressage Western European League 2016/2017.
FEI World Cup™ Dressage, the only worldwide series in this discipline, is now in its 31st season. The series, created in 1985, is made up of four leagues: Western European, Central European, North American (including Canada) and Pacific (Australia, New Zealand, Asia). Each FEI World Cup™ Dressage qualifier consists of a Grand Prix test, which in turn is a qualification for the Freestyle to Music competition, where league points are accumulated towards places in the Final. Judged on both technical and artistic merit, FEI World Cup™ Dressage combines art, sport and partnership between horse and rider at the highest level and consistently proves a winning formula with audiences all over the world.
Odense is an ideal starting point for the Western European League. The city that was birthplace to the much-loved author Hans Christian Andersen is located on Denmark’s second-largest island, Fyn, and is a hugely popular holiday destination with its gently rolling hills, orchards, hedgerows and thatched, half-timbered farmhouses.
Odense Horse Show celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, and several Olympic combinations will be setting out to pick up some early qualifying points on the #RidetoOmaha.
There will be nine qualifiers in the Western European League, with Lyon (FRA) taking place less than a week after the opener in Odense, and Stuttgart (GER) playing host in November.
Salzburg (AUT) will stage the next leg in early December and then the Christmas show at Olympia in London (GBR) is bound to be a sell-out because although Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro won’t be competing in the qualifier, Valegro will be honoured in an official retirement ceremony that is likely to be extremely emotional.
The New Year will get underway with the sixth leg in Amsterdam (NED) and then it’s on to Neumunster (GER) and Gothenburg in February before the last qualifying opportunity for the Omaha Final at ’s-Hertogenbosch (NED) in March.