Your #Paris2024 Dressage Cheat Sheet

Maybe galloping at high speeds toward large, fixed obstacles or watching horses leap sharply over very tall sticks just isn’t your thing. Luckily, there’s always horse dancing.

Grand Prix dressage riders and their lovely dancing horses have arrived in Paris for the 2024 Olympic Games and will be dazzling audiences from the truly breathtaking arenas at the Château de Versailles this week.

The start list is officially out, and after some major drama involving a four-year-old video of Great Britain’s darling Olympian Charlotte Dujardin, there’s certainly been a shakeup of who could end up at the top of the leaderboard in both the Freestyle and Grand Prix Special competitions.

A total of 60 horses will make their way down centerline, the first half competing on Tuesday, July 30 and the latter half on Wednesday. There are 15 teams competing for a medal in dressage and an additional 15 competitors vying for individual medals.

Similar to three-day eventing and show jumping, riders can compete individually and on nation teams.

Riders must qualify to compete in the final competition, which includes the top 10 ranked teams for the Grand Prix Special on Saturday, Aug. 3. The highest ranked 18 individual competitors will move on to the Grand Prix Freestyle on Sunday, Aug. 4.

The riders you won’t want to miss:

Riding for Lithuania, Justina Vanagaite‘s love for her special horse Nabab is something truly heartwarming to witness. Maybe you’ve seen her tackless, spurless, merely in a halter, riding videos she’s become known for on Instagram.

Vanagaite was the first rider to ever represent Lithuania in an FEI Dressage European Championship, and she did it on the first horse to take her into the international Grand Prix arena. The internet has taken notice of her soft way of going and training, competing at the FEI level without spurs and often with a slacking curb rein.

She’s simply the hero we need at this Olympic Games.

Steffen Peters and Suppenkasper. ©FEI/Christophe Taniere

You can’t mention dressage and the Olympics where Snoop Dog is the officially unofficial emcee without bringing up the Rave Horse. American rider Steffen Peters is back with the one and only Suppenkasper (aka ‘Mopsie’) who much to our delight, entranced Snoop Dog with his nostalgic nightclub hits Freestyle music at the Tokyo Games. I can’t wait to see how they plan to top that this year in Paris.

Jessica Von Bredow-Werndl and TSF Dalera BB. ©FEI/Benjamin Clark

There are plenty of heavy hitters with the medals to back it up on the entry list. Like the FEI World No. 1 rider, Germany’s Jessica Von Bredow-Werndl, of course. She is riding the exquisite TSF Dalera BB, which together they’ve made a clean sweep of well… pretty much everything, including at the Tokyo Games where she scored a whopping 91.732% (say what) in the Grand Prix Special.

Germany’s Isabell Werth will ride Wendy. ©FEI / Liz Gregg

Right behind her in the world rankings is German teammate and no newcomer to the Games, Isabell Werth. This year she is riding Wendy, a Danish Warmblood of whom she took over the ride from Andreas Helgstrand after his expulsion from the Danish team this year.

While the partnership is still new, they’ve made the rounds across Europe, from Le Mans, CDI Aachen Festival 4 and the CDI Mannheim.

Great Britain’s Charlotte Fry and Glamourdale.

And third in the rankings is poised to rock of socks off: Great Britain’s Charlotte Fry and the exceptional Glamourdale. If anyone can catch Bredow-Werndl and TSF Dalera BB, it’s these two World Champions.