March 9, 2010

No riders from the North American league of dressage's World Cup series will take part in the final in The Netherlands later this month.

This leaves the way open for reserve riders to take part in the event, in 's-Hertogenbosch from March 25-27.

The USA and Canadian Federations have confirmed that health issues for either horses or riders are behind the decision, so the two available slots will be taken by reserve riders Tinne Vilhelmson Silfven from Sweden and Poland's Katarzyna Milczarek who previously applied for any available extra starting places.

Both of these riders became eligible through meeting the criteria laid down for participation at the final which includes the necessity to have competed in at least three qualifiers and the achievement of a score of at least 68.0% on each occasion.

As the reigning Olympic and nine-time World Cup title-holder Anky van Grunsven from The Netherlands has not qualified this year and the 2008/2009 FEI World Cup Dressage series winner Steffen Peters of the USA has decided not to defend his title, a new champion will be crowned in the Brabanthallen at 's-Hertogenbosch in two weeks time.

The field for the final will be:

• The Netherlands
  Edward Gal, Adelinde Cornelissen and Imke Schellekens-Bartels

• Germany
  Isabell Werth, Matthias Alexander Rath and Carola Koppelmann

• Sweden
  Patrick Kittel and Tinne Vilhelmson Silfven

• Poland
  Michal Rapcewicz and Katarzyna Milczarek

• Australia
  Brett Parbery

• Belgium
  Jeroen Devroe

• Hungary
  Acs Robert

• Denmark
  Nathalie Zu Sayn Wittgenstein

• Brazil
  Luiza Tavares de Almeida

The reigning champion does not earn points in any starts but is automatically qualified to the next final when they have completed two qualifiers. Riders not belonging to the Western European League (WEL) or Central European League (CEL) cannot earn points in the WEL unless they have declared to compete in the WEL 2009/2010. These riders may, however, transfer the results from a maximum of three WEL qualifiers to their own League. Points earned by CEL riders will be transferred to the CEL standings.