One Big Thing: 2026 FEI Eventing World Championships Cross Country Breakdown
Horse & Hound caught up with the FEI Eventing World Championships course designer Giuseppe della Chiesa for a bit of a sneak peek (sneak chat?) of this year’s track at Aachen, and after a busy day of longlist announcements from various contending countries (see our round-up below), we’re perfectly primed to start our anticipatory engines and go all-out Aachen.
As the returning course designer after a stellar Pratoni World Championships debut, Giuseppe has already noted that the flatness of Aachen will prove a major change from Italy’s 2022 Championships course. He will be assisted by Pratoni Technical Delegate Marcin Konarski, as well as previous Aachen course designer Rüdiger Schwarz, who he notes has had quite the creative challenge in creating 4*-S tracks at the site since its inception for the 2006 World Equestrian Games. With their help, as well as course builder James Willis, Giuseppe’s hope is “to leave a site where it will be easier to produce different types of track in the future.”
“If you go all the direct routes, you will have jumped a ‘four-star plus’, but you can also find a ‘three-and-a-half-star’ to get around,” says Giuseppe.
THE ESSENTIAL (ESTIMATED) INFO
Optimum time: Approximately 10 minutes
Total # of fences on course: 74 (lots of alternative routes!)
Jumping Efforts: 42
For an example of Giuseppe della Chiesa’s previous work at Aachen, check out our CHIO Aachen course preview from 2025, in which the course was frequently referenced in relation to how it may translate to our Championships this year.
2026 FEI Eventing World Championships Longlisted Team Round-Ups:
[Germany] [Ireland] [New Zealand] [Great Britain] [France] [USA & Canada (U25 only)]
US Events This Weekend
Bouckaert Equestrian HT (GA): [Website] [Entries/Ride Times] [Scoring] [Volunteer] [CrossCountry App XC Map]
Summer Coconino HT I (AZ): [Website] [Entries/Ride Times] [Scoring] [Volunteer]
Flora Lea HT (NJ): [Website] [Entries/Ride Times] [Scoring] [CrossCountry App XC Map]
Winona HT (OH): [Website] [Entries/Ride Times] [Scoring] [Volunteer] [CrossCountry App XC Map]
Mile High HT (CO): [Website] [Entries/Ride Times] [Scoring] [Volunteer]
Caber Farm One Day Unrecognized, 7/4 (WA): [Website] [Entries/Ride Times] [Scoring] [Volunteer]
Caber Farm One Day Unrecognized, 7/5 (WA): [Website] [Entries/Ride Times] [Scoring] [Volunteer]
Other Links and Reading
- The Performance Mentoring Programme Fundraising Auction is now live — [Click here to browse auction items]
- Luhmuhlen recap with Katharina Meyer: “Everything just came together perfectly that weekend”
- The science behind the horse-human bond — and why it doesn’t break
Training Tip of the Day
Intermediate Test A has several instances of “shoulder-in into the half-circle” — listen in for FEI judge and 5* rider Valerie Pride’s tips for this movement:
Go Eventing
Ros Canter adds her names to the annals of Burghley history with another history-maker herself, five-time Burghley champion Ginny Elliot:
