Photo courtesy of CHIO Aachen.
It’s a big ‘welcome home’ for the next FEI World Championships, set to take place in 2026, as the governing body announced today that Germany’s Aachen Soers has been granted the task of hosting the multidisciplinary competition. Aachen last hosted the championships in 2006 — notably, for our sport, anyway, the first time that the modern iteration of the long format was used at a World Championship.
Five high-powered venues put forward bids to host one or several of the disciplines in 2026, which will be the second running of the FEI World Championships since the disbanding of the World Equestrian Games format that existed from 1990 to 2018. These were:
- Aachen (GER) – Jumping, Dressage, Para Dressage, Eventing, Driving Four-in-Hand, Vaulting;
- Boekelo (NED) – Eventing;
- Burghley (GBR) – Eventing;
- Al Ula (KSA) – Endurance;
- Samorin (SVK) – Endurance
Al Ula, in Saudi Arabia, has been confirmed as the host of the FEI Endurance World Championships, while Aachen will take on jumping, dressage, para-dressage, eventing, driving, and vaulting, heralding something very close to a return to the World Equestrian Games format at a venue that, for nearly a century, has hosted the very best of each discipline every summer at the enormously popular CHIO Aachen World Equestrian Festival.
“We thank the FEI for their trust,” CHIO Aachen General Manager Michael Mronz said after the announcement, which followed a meeting of the FEI Board in Mexico City today. “We feel honoured and pleased to host, together with the German Equestrian Federation, the FEI World Championships Aachen 2026 in six disciplines: Jumping, Dressage, Eventing, Driving, Vaulting and Para Dressage. Already today we would like to invite the entire world of equestrian sport to Aachen so that we can celebrate an unforgettable event together in 2026.”
Aachen: perhaps equestrian sport’s most impressive venue. Photo courtesy of CHIO Aachen/Andreas Steindl.
“The allocation by the FEI Board of the FEI World Championships 2026 to Aachen and Al Ula is a significant decision for the future of equestrian sport,” said FEI President Ingmar De Vos. “We examined every aspect of the bids we received and especially the sporting infrastructures, the conditions for the horses, accessibility and sustainability. The FEI is delighted to have secured such outstanding hosts for our most prestigious Championships three years in advance, which allows plenty of time for preparation and planning.
“I would like to congratulate the winners, who submitted outstanding bids. We are all well aware of Aachen’s unique track record of organising extremely successful large-scale events. We were impressed with Al Ula’s proposal, which not only contains all the components of a successful event but seeks to showcase the heritage and potential of an entire region.
“And last but not least, I would like to thank all the bidders, who took part in this process for their strong bids and commitment to the sport. It was not easy to choose between such strong bids. We hope that those who didn’t get it this time will consider bidding for future events.”
The FEI World Championships at Aachen will take place from August 11–23, 2026, and the eventing is set to begin on August 13 with the first day of dressage and continue until the 16th, when the showjumping finale will play out.
Tickets will go on sale next Monday, November 20, at 9.00 a.m. CET (8.00 a.m. British time/3.00 a.m. EST). You can get your hands on them here, plus check out the full timetable of events, a site plan, and plenty more. Note: Advance tickets for Eventing, Vaulting, and Driving are not on sale at the same time and will go on sale at a date to be named. We recommend signing up for updates on aachen2026.com or keeping an eye out here for updates on ticket availability. Go Eventing – and Go Aachen!
