Olympic champion Julia Krajewski and Amande de B’Neville head the 90 horse-and-rider combinations from 27 countries in Pratoni del Vivaro in Italy with seven team spots at the next Olympic Games up for grabs.
All three medallists from last year’s Tokyo 2020 individual eventing competition will seek further glory at the FEI Equestrian World Championships in Pratoni del Vivaro, just south east of Rome, Italy from 14-18 September.
Olympic champion Julia Krajewski is back with Amande de B’Neville, as is silver medallist Tom McEwen and Toledo de Kerser, who helped Great Britain to their first team gold since Munich 1972.
McEwen was also a member of Britain’s champion team at the Tryon 2018 World Equestrian Games with compatriot Ros Canter defending her individual title.
Andrew Hoy partners Vassily de Lassos again after they won team silver and individual bronze in Tokyo to take the Australian veteran’s Olympic tally to six medals.
As well as World Championship medals, there are Olympic places at Paris 2024 up for grabs in the team competition.
The top seven - not including France who are guaranteed a spot as hosts - will qualify for the Games in the French capital.
A total of 90 combinations from 27 countries will take part in Pratoni del Vivaro with 16 nations entered for the team competition.
Squads can feature five riders but only four are allowed in the team competition with the other one solely in the individual. The four can be decided up until the horse inspection on 14 September which serves as the official start of the competition.
In the past, individual and team competitions were separate events with riders permitted to compete in both - on different horses - but that is no longer the case.
The old three-day-event is also history with two days of dressage at the start, but the cross country and jumping disciplines still take place on consecutive days.
The lowest score wins in eventing with the dressage mark obtained by subtracting the percentage score, as per standalone dressage, from 100. Faults are then added in cross country and jumping.
While the worst score is dropped for each round in team dressage and jumping competitions, that only happens right at the end in team eventing with the worst combination total.
There are two rounds of jumping on the final day with only the top 25 combinations progressing to the final round.
Four years ago in Tryon, Ros Canter took gold with a total score of 24.6. All of those came from the dressage with Canter achieving clears in cross country and the two jumping rounds.
She also led Britain to team gold with Piggy March (31.8) and Tom McEwen (32.4) the other contributors as Gemma Stevens’(nee Tattersall) score of 44.4 was dropped. Three-time Olympic medallist Tina Cook, who finished one place above March in the individual competition, had been left out of the team event.
READ MORE: Paris 2024 equestrian eventing qualification process explained
Canter won individual and team world gold with Allstar B in 2018 before taking time out to have a baby the following year having topped the world rankings.
She and Alby, as he was affectionately known, were non-competing reserves for last year's Tokyo 2020 Games before helping Britain to team gold at the European Championships the following month.
They were on the long list for Pratoni del Vivaro, but the gelding had to be euthanised in July after suffering an injury in the cross country at CHIO Aachen.
Canter told FEI, "There are no words for the love and respect that I have for Alby. Time after time he has shown his generosity, kindness and love of our sport. He has been such a huge part in building my career and will be missed by many."
In Pratoni, she will team up with young Lordships Graffalo after the pair took a surprise second place in May's Badminton Horse Trials.
This will the 10-year-old's first major competition and Canter admitted to Horse and Hound, "I've got to be as competitive and brave as I can, but be mindful of the fact I've got to look after him and every test we go into is still a school day for him."
Canter was behind Olympic team gold medallist Laura Collett and her Tokyo partner London 52 at Badminton.
Collett was the subject of significant abuse on social media in 2015 when the legendary jumps racehorse Kauto Star, who had been transferred to her care to learn dressage, had to be put down after a freak accident at her stables.
Six years later, she was making headlines for all the right reasons in Tokyo as she and London 52 helped Britain secure Olympic team gold.
Tom McEwen was the star of the Tokyo team, winning individual silver with Toledo de Kerser. The pair were put through their paces along with most of the British team for Pratoni at the start of the month in a public dressage practice at Burghley.
Afterwards, McEwen told Horse and Hound, "We were a little fresh - he loves it and the big atmosphere. To run a test with a little bit of pressure, but at the same time no pressure, is an amazing training aid.
"He's quite a character and stunning to the eye. We need to tick all the boxes and we'll be right there."
World number one Oliver Townend, who silpped from individual silver to fifth in the final round of jumping in Tokyo after clinching team gold, returns on Ballaghmor Class with major competition debutant Yasmin Ingham completing the five-strong squad.
The three partnerships which represented Germany at Tokyo 2020 will be in Pratoni for these World Championships.
They are headed by Julia Krajewski and Amande de B’Neville who took individual gold in Tokyo. London 2012 individual gold medallist Michael Jung and FischerChipmunk FRH, and Sandra Auffarth and Viamant Du Matz are the other two pairings from Tokyo.
Jung and Auffarth won world individual titles in 2010 and 2014 respectively.
Auffarth's disappointing cross country all but ended Germany's team medal hopes in Tokyo - they finished fourth in the end - but the World Championship format where the worst score is dropped, unlike the Olympic Games where all three riders scores count, should ensure little chance of a repeat.
Christoph Wahler completes the quartet for the team event with Alina Dibowski already named as Germany's extra individual competitor.
Germany's strength in depth means they could afford to leave out two-time Olympic team gold medallist and Tryon 2018 individual bronze medallist Ingrid Klimke.
The 54-year-old made her global competition debut in dressage at last month's World Championships in Herning, Denmark but is only a reserve on this occasion.
Andrew Hoy may be approaching retirement age but he insists he is far from finished.
The 63-year-old English-based horseman competed at his first World Championships back in 1978 and is bidding to make a ninth Olympic Games appearance at Paris 2024.
Hoy, who competed against his then-wife - Germany’s Bettina Hoy - at Athens 2004, became Australia’s oldest Olympic medallist in Tokyo with individual bronze and team silver.
And he’s not ruled out a swansong on home soil at Brisbane 2032 when he would be 73, telling ABC News after his Tokyo achievements, “I’ve got my eyes set on 2023 - Brisbane. Big incentive to get there."
Another equestrian, Canadian show jumper Ian Millar, holds the record for all-time Games appearances with 10.
The World Championships have not proved as successful as the Olympic Games for Hoy who has two team bronze medals - in 1986 and 2006 - and finished fourth in the individual in Tryon four years ago.
Like Germany, Australia are represented by all three of the partnerships from Tokyo with Kevin McNab and Don Quidam, and Shane Rose and Virgil hoping to get in the medals again.
Shenae Lowings and Hazel Shannon will both make their senior championship debuts as Australia seek to end their 16-year-drought at the Eventing World Championships.
New Zealand have a rich pedigree in eventing thanks to Olympic gold medallists Mark Todd and Blyth Tait, and they bring a strong team to Italy.
Married couple Tim and Jonelle Price, who won team bronze at London 2012 under her maiden name Richards, lead the Kiwis having represented their country at Tokyo 2020.
Tim is the world number two with last year’s Pau winner Falco while Jonelle, ranked five in the world, partners McClaren who was ridden by Todd at the 2018 World Equestrian Games.
Clarke Johnstone, who finished sixth at Rio 2016 but missed Tokyo, rides Menlo Park with rookies Monica Spencer and Amanda Pottinger - the daughter of Seoul 1988 team bronze medallist Judith ‘Tinks’ Pottinger - completing the line-up.
While the medals are certainly in their thoughts, New Zealand’s first priority will be finishing in the top seven to clinch a team berth for Paris 2024.
Elsewhere, Ireland will be looking to book their place in Paris and perhaps make the podium again after their silver in Tryon four years ago.
Rio 2016 Olympian Padraig McCarthy won individual silver in 2018, and he rides Fallulah in Pratoni. There are two survivors from Tokyo 2020: Austin O'Connor is reunited with Colorado Blue while Sam Watson has a new equine partner in SAP Talisman.
Susie Berry and London 2012 Olympian Joseph Murphy complete the five-strong Irish squad.
And while their spot in Paris is already assured, the French are hoping to get on the podium having finished fourth in the team event in Tryon and won Olympic bronze at Tokyo last year.
They are led by two-time individual European champion Nicolas Touzaint who gets the leg up again on Absolut Gold.
Touzaint was part of France's gold medal-winning team from Athens 2004 and would dearly love to repeat the feat on home soil in two years' time.
(all times in Central European Summer Time/CEST, which is UTC+2):
Horse Inspection
Dressage Day 1
Dressage Day 2
Cross Country
Jumping
Visit here for more information on the FEI World Championship 2022 in Pratoni del Vivaro.