UAE Dressage Team Secures Sixth Place in Aichi-Nagoya
UAE Dressage Team Finishes 6th at 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026
Al Jahouri posts personal best as UAE concludes team competition and attention turns to individual medals
The UAE dressage team finished in 6th place overall in the Team Final at the 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 on Friday, as 45 horse-and-rider combinations took to the arena at JRA Equestrian Park under hot and sunny Tokyo skies.
Nine nations contested the team competition, with defending Asian Games champions India joined by the UAE, host nation Japan, the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Chinese Taipei, Thailand and the Republic of Korea. Individual athletes representing several other nations, including the Gulf countries of Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, completed the 45-strong field.
Ali Khalfan Al Jahouri and Lotus-S © Kamal Abdullah and Afdal Sham
With the UAE drawn fifth in the team starting order, Natalie Lankester and Tesla DXB were the pathfinders for the Emirates and seventh combination into the arena. Lankester presented an expressive picture aboard the liver chestnut stallion by Vitalis, with some impressive work through the trot tour. The pair are the newest partnership in the UAE team, having only been together since April this year, and showed glimpses of their growing potential together. Costly mistakes in the canter work affected their final mark, with the judges awarding the combination 60.824%.
Next into the arena for the UAE were Mohamed Jassim Al Serkal and Zen Liquidity, who produced a fluid test characterised by harmony and an easy picture between horse and rider. Mistakes in the tempi changes proved expensive in an otherwise consistent performance, with Al Serkal and Zen Liquidity completing their Prix St-Georges test on 63.765%.
Ali Khalfan Al Jahouri and Lotus-S followed with an impressive, mistake-free performance, with the expressive gelding showing quality throughout to earn 67.030%, a new international personal best for Al Jahouri at Prix St-Georges level. The multi-discipline equestrian athlete finished 16th in the rankings, making him the highest placed rider from the GCC in the first day of competition.
“This is a great day for me, achieving my personal best in the Prix St-Georges at international level, and at the Asian Games no less,” said Al Jahouri. “Thank you to His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan for his continued support of equestrian sport, and to everyone who came to support me and the team in Tokyo today.”
Bianca Schütz and Le Grand Ayden HB were the final UAE combination into the arena, producing a solid test with the flashy stallion showing his quality throughout. An unfortunate error in the four-time changes proved costly, with the pair finishing on 66.647% and securing the UAE’s 6th place overall in the team competition.
With the best three scores from each nation counting towards the final classification, the UAE completed the Team Final on a combined score of 197.442, placing sixth of the nine contesting nations.
The UAE’s performance in Tokyo marks another important step in the continued development of dressage in the country. The Emirates fielded its first Asian Games dressage team just three years ago in Hangzhou, finishing sixth, while the 2025/2026 season saw the UAE host international CDI dressage competition for the first time. The expansion of international competition on home soil, alongside increased UAE representation overseas, reflects the continued growth of the discipline within the Emirates.
Attention now turns to the individual competition, with the UAE riders returning to the arena on Saturday for the Intermediate I, the second Individual Qualifier. The UAE combinations will start at the following times (Japan Standard Time):
- 09:38 Natalie Lankester and Tesla DXB
- 10:34 Mohamed Jassim Al Serkal and Zen Liquidity
- 12:48 Bianca Schütz and Le Grand Ayden HB
- 13:04 Ali Khalfan Al Jahouri and Lotus-S
The Intermediate I will determine which combinations progress to Sunday’s Individual Final, where the top 15 will contest the Intermediate I Freestyle to Music.
