Two Mexican dressage riders have qualified to compete at the 2026 World Championships in Aachen. If both start at WEG in August, it will herald Mexico's return to the World Championships after a twenty-year hiatus.
20-Year Hiatus
Mexico was last represented as a national in a World Championships in 2006. Spanish born Bernadette Pujals rode chestnut stallion Vincent (by Weltmeyer) to an unprecedented performance. Under the supervision of the late German trainer Jonny Hilberath she placed 10th at the 2006 World Equestrian Games, which were also held in Aachen.
After the 2016 Olympics, Mexico's Grand Prix programme seemingly collapsed. Mexican riders mainly competed at small tour level at the Pan American and Central American Games. Pujals was the one of two Mexican Grand Prix rider at the 2019 Pan Am Games alongside Martha Del Valle Quirarte.
After Pujals retired from competition sport and switched her nationality back to Spain, Del Valle Quirarte kept Mexic's dressage flame lightly burning but had to move to Europe to compete there to obtain her 2021 individual Olympic ticket on Beduino LAM. Tokyo was also her last CDI start on the horse at Grand Prix level. She returned with youngsters in 2025.
Two Heading to Aachen
A new flicker of hope might be shining at the horizon with two Mexican Grand Prix combinations having achieved their MER (Minimum Eligibility Requirement) and qualification score for the 2026 WEG in Aachen: Carolina Cordoba and Santiago Ortiz Diez.
The European based Carolina Cordoba Wolf has qualified her horse Isabella, a 17-year old Finnish warmblood mare by Gribaldi x Don Schufro, by scoring 66.239% at the 2026 CDI Herning and 67.696% at the 2025 CDI Macon Chaintré. She trains with Borja Carrascosa.
The Mexican based (Marcos) Santiago Ortiz Diez has qualified for Aachen aboard the 15-year old Westfalian Waitoni (by Wynton x Weltmeyer). The chestnut was purposely bought by a sponsor as an Aachen hopeful. He is based at the Piedra Grande equestrian centre near Mexico City and occasionally trains with French 5* judge Raphael Saleh.
Ortiz achieved his two MER scores in Mexico. First at his own home show, the CDI Piedra Grande on 10 - 11 January 2026, which has only two Grand Prix riders entered and for it a handful of international judges were flown in from across Europe. The show also hosted national classes though. At Piedra Grande Ortiz scored 68.304% with Waitoni. At the CDI Mexico City at the military college on 21 - 22 March 2026 he scored 66.544%.
Photo © Astrid Appels
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Scores: 2026 CDI Piedra Grande
Scores: 2026 CDI Mexico City