Former Olympic champion Charlotte Dujardin has withdrawn from competing at the 2026 World Cup Finals in Fort Worth, Texas (USA).
Extra Starting Place
Dujardin obtained an "extra starting place" - and not via a "wild card" as often wrongly credited in multiple equestrian media sources.
There is one extra starting place available and it was allocated based on FEI Rule 16.8.D: "the combination with the highest ranking on the February list of the current year FEI Dressage World Ranking List (DWRL), and who have participated in at least two (2) CDI-W qualifiers."
A second extra starting place opened up when title defender Charlotte Fry withdrew. This one was given to Yessin Rahmouni (MAR).
Alive and Kicking
Charlotte competed her own 12-year old Westfalian mare Alive and Kicking (by All at Once x Furst Piccolo) on the World Cup circuit. They showed at the CDI-W London, where they finished fifth in the freestyle with 79.230%. At the CDI-W Amsterdam they were 6th with 79.955%.
In 2024 Dujardin sold a half ownership share in the horse to Austrian Ulrike Bachinger. At the start of March 2026 she is back to being list as the 100% owner of the mare in the FEI database.
Withdrawal
Dujardin will not be flying Alive and Kicking to Fort Worth for the 2026 World Cup Finals.
Eurodressage inquired with the British Equestrian Federation about the reasons of her withdrawal and its head of communications replied, "we fully support and respect the privacy of Charlotte’s decision."
When asked if her withdrawal was related to the impactful article in The Times (published on 1 March 2026, titled "Charlotte Dujardin’s treatment of horses under spotlight again), British Equestrian replied negatively.
Based on a warm-up video taken in Amsterdam animal welfarists allege that Alive and Kicking showed "clear signs of tension and conflict behaviour;" coming only half a year after Dujardin returned from suspension for animal abuse. The Times, Daily Mail and more prominent mainstream media jumped on the topic, which seemingly required some damage control from the the British High performance community.
British Equestrian told Eurodressage that Dujardin's withdrawal from the World Cup Finals "is unrelated to the Amsterdam video and there is no investigation taking place."
Photo © Dirk Caremans
Related Links
Line-Up of Riders for 2026 World Cup Finals in Fort Worth Known
Eurodressage Coverage of the 2025-2026 World Cup show circuit