Maybe.
The FEI this week sent out a notice that bids “to host all seven of its disciplines in 2030 as FEI World Equestrian Games™ will be considered,” as the “expression of interest phase opens.”
If it happens in 2030, that would be the first WEG in 12 years. Although announcers (and others) kept calling August’s 2026 FEI World Championships at Aachen the WEG, it wasn’t. Couldn’t be, since endurance was scheduled fof this December in Saudi Arabia and the WEG must include the world championship in every FEI discipline.
The WEG began as a one-off in 1990 in Sweden, but its success led to it being held every four years thereafter. But the last WEG, which was in 2018 in Tryon, N.C., had its problems, starting with Bromont, Quebec, bowing out as the original venue late in the game.
Tryon International Equestrian Center picked up the ball, with less than two years to build and organize the additional facilities that were needed. That location still was under construction in some areas when the Games began.
Then there was the fumbled disaster of an endurance competition that got canceled shortly after it was under way. Lack of adequate housing for grooms, along with various types of organizational chaos, gave the Games a rocky start. The soundtrack of the early days was the noise of hammers and riveting.
Gold medal team member Chester Weber in te marathon at the 2018 WEG in North Carolina.
The lack of “any realistic bids” for the 2022 WEG led the FEI to open bidding for individual world championships. Thus in 2022, dressage, para-dressage, vaulting and show jumping were held in Denmark; driving and eventing went to Italy, while the United Arab Emirates hosted endurance.
A WEG four years from now is not a sure thing. The FEI advises, “While bids for multiple disciplines are preferable, bids for one single discipline will also be considered;”
There has been talk that if there is a WEG, it should be held in the U.S., since the last two sets of world championships were staged in Europe. Attention must be paid to timing in terms of weather. Although the date for Tryon was moved ahead to September that year in an effort to avoid the height of summer heat, the competition was plagued by heavy rain, leading to cancellation of the dressage freestyle.
We’ll keep you posted.
And while we have you, the U.S. just announced its team for this year’s FEI Endurance Championships. They are veteran Meg Sleeper of Frenchtown, N.J., with Belesema Sapphire; Nicole Wertz of Auburn, Calif. (Little Sammy); Heather Davis. The Plains, Va. (SM Mi Anay); Heather Reynolds, Dunnellon, Fla., (Supersonic Zell) and Kelsey Russell, Williston, Fla. (Juno Im Gold).