Equestrian at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games was a major topic on the agenda for the first day of the 2025 FEI Sports Forum, that took place in Lausanne on Monday 31st March and Tuesday 1st April.
While the events and quotas across all sports for the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games are not yet confirmed, with the final approval and advice being delivered after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board meeting on 9th April, planning is already underway for the equestrian disciplines expected to be included.
The venue for the equestrian disciplines, the recently approved Galway Downs Equestrian in Temecula, California, will also be confirmed when the Venue Master plan is finalised.
Qualification Systems for the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games
While many final details are still to be determined, there is an agreement to apply the quotas used for Paris 2024 to the proposed LA28 Qualification Systems.
FEI Deputy Legal Director Áine Power took the Sports Forum participants through the proposed qualification framework for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympics Games, covering quotas, qualification events, allocation of quotas, reallocation of quotas, Minimum Eligibility Requirements (MERs) FEI Olympic Groups and qualification timelines.
She clarified that the Olympic Regulations which deals with topics such as competition formats, horse ownership, substitutions will be discussed next year as part of the 2026 rule revision process.
Major points
• The Olympic and Paralympic qualification period (team and individual) will start at next year’s FEI World Championships in Aachen (GER) and will run through to 31 December 2027.
• Potential Olympic horse and athlete combinations have from 1 January 2027 to 11 June 2028 to earn their MERs. The period to earn MERs for the Paralympic Games runs from 1 January 2026 to 11 July 2028.
• A noteworthy new proposal concerns team qualification across the three disciplines in the event the National Olympic Committee (NOC) Certificate of Capability is not submitted or the Team Quota Allocation is withdrawn or not confirmed. The proposal is to no longer automatically allocate that NOC an Individual Quota Place, and the NOC must earn an Individual Quota Place via the Olympic Rankings/Qualification Event (if applicable) instead.
FEI Eventing Director Frédérique Reffet Plantier, Jumping Director Todd Hinde, and Dressage and Para Dressage Director Ronan Murphy each presented proposed changes to their respective disciplines. More to come on the Eventing Presentation soon.
Timeline for Qualification System Process
The FEI Sports Forum is the first phase of the consultation process on the Qualifications Systems – which cover quotas, qualification events, reallocation procedures, minimum eligibility requirements (MERs), FEI Olympic Groups, and the qualification timeline.
Following stakeholder input from the Sports Forum, drafts will be sent out to National Federations and Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) signatories in July in line with the FEI Rules Revision process.
The final Qualification Systems for LA28 will be voted on at the FEI General Assembly in Hong Kong in November this year, after which they will be submitted to the IOC for final approval.
The Olympic and Paralympic Regulations, covering competitions formats, horse ownership, pre-competition changes/substitutions, accreditations and Officials will be discussed at the FEI Sports Forum 2026, with a vote at the FEI General Assembly next year, prior to submission to the IOC and IPC for approval.
