LONDON, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Defending series champion Isabell Werth of Germany will lead a star-studded field at the opening leg of the FEI World Cup Dressage 2017/2018 Western European League at Herning, Denmark, from Oct. 18-22.
This world-class annual indoor series brings Dressage, nick-named "the sport of the dancing horses", up close and personal to audiences at venues across three continents, with a total of 37 qualifiers taking place in Western and Central Europe, North America and the Pacific region.
The world's best athletes and horses compete to qualify for the grand final in Paris next April and the chance to win the most coveted individual title in the sport, FEI World Cup Dressage champion.
The nine-leg Western European qualifying League is particularly competitive and 48-year-old Werth, also the Olympic team champion in Rio, will be aiming to clinch the World Cup title for the fourth time at the end of this 33rd season.
Werth, 48, the most decorated equestrian athlete of all time, won her first in Gothenburg in 1992 and claimed the top step of the podium again in Las Vegas in 2007 before coming back to do it one more time in Omaha, the United States, earlier this year.
Werth's 2016 Olympic and 2017 European successes were all recorded with the lovely mare Weihegold, but it is the 16-year-old gelding Don Johnson that she brings to Herning, where she will be joined by fellow-German Jessica Von Bredow-Werndl (Zaire-E).
The Netherlands will be represented by double World Cup champion Adelinde Cornelissen (Aqiedo), Patrick van der Meer (Zippo) and Katja Gevers (Thriller), while the Swedish contingent includes Tinne Vilhelmson Silfven (Paridon Magi), Rose Mathisen (Zuidenwind) and that ultimate showman, Patrik Kittel, with Delaunay. However it is the Danes they may well all have to watch out for.
The other World Cup Western European League tournaments will then be held in Lyon (France), Stuttgart (Germany), Salzburg (Austria), London (Britain), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Neumunster (Germany), Gothenburg (Sweden) and 's-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands) before the Final returns to Paris (France) for only the second time in its history.
