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June 27, 2010

Riders and Wheels
Rehearsals for the CHIO Aachen Opening Ceremony - Entrance tickets are still available

Colourful and spectacular - that is how the rehearsals for the Opening Ceremony of the CHIO Aachen 2010 can be described. A colourful scene was certainly rehearsed yesterday: Approx. 30 acrobatic wheels will be turning to the music on July 13th, accompanied by 80 American Quarter Horses trotting and cantering through the stadium, while two-in-hand teams encircle the gym wheels - an impressive show performance.

"The huge stadium is our biggest challenge," commented Frank Kemperman, Show Director of the World Equestrian Festival, CHIO Aachen. Since it is as large as two football pitches, a lot of people, horses and carriages are needed for the show programme to have the right effect. 20 horses and riders are a high number for such a show number - but in the CHIO Aachen stadium they almost look rather lost. So, the riders will also be carrying big CHIO Aachen flags and in addition the flags of the participating nations will be attached to the sides of the acrobatic wheels. The organisers also had to take a further factor into account, namely since horses aren't necessarily confronted with a gym wheel every day, before they entered the stadium, they were brought together on the warm-up arena, so they could get used to each other first.

Entrance tickets are still available for the Opening Ceremony from the hotline on +49-(0)241-917-1111 or online at www.chioaachen.de. The tickets are of course also valid for the jumping competitions (the NetAachen Prize which starts at 9.30 am and the STAWAG Prize at 1.30 pm). Further highlights of the Opening Ceremony include the performance of the North-Rhine Westphalian Warendorf State Stud with a driving and a riding quadrille, and 80 young riders from NRW, who will be demonstrating the disciplines of the German Youth Championships, which are being organised in Aachen in August. During the Ceremony, the Federal Chancellor, Angela Merkel, will officially open the equestrian show, WDR will be broadcasting the event live.

Ticket Hotline: +49-(0)241-917-1111 or order tickets online here