Tokyo:The UAE dressage team is set to begin its team and individual competitions at the 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026, with all four horses successfully passing the veterinary inspection and completing their arena familiarization session.
According to Emirates News Agency, the UAE team consists of Ali Khalfan Al Jahouri with Lotus-S, Mohamed Jassim Al Serkal with Zen Liquidity, Bianca Schtz with Le Grand Ayden HB, and Natalie Lankester with Tesla DXB. The horses underwent a ten-day quarantine in Aachen, Germany, before traveling to Japan, where they have been acclimating to their new environment.
The UAE will compete against eight other nations in the team competition, with a total of 45 horse-and-rider combinations participating in both team and individual events. Following the official draw, the UAE is scheduled to be fifth in the team starting order.
Team classification will be based on the combined scores of each nation's three highest-scoring combinations, with medals awarded at the end of the competition. The individual events will continue on Saturday with the second Individual Qualifier, leading to the top 15 combinations advancing to Sunday's Individual Final.
The UAE is returning to the Asian Games dressage competition following their historic debut in Hangzhou in 2023, where they finished in sixth place.