Aachen, Germany - June 24, 2003 - The World Equestrian Festival, CHIO Aachen 2003 has been appraised by the audience as a great success. From June 17th to June 22nd, the world's elite riders and drivers met in the Soers to compete at the traditional tournament. Altogether 145 riders and drivers from 21 nations had travelled to Aachen with 383 horses to identify the best competitors of each discipline. All in all 35 winners were celebrated, thereof 16 in jumping, twelve in dressage and seven in four-in-hand driving. The total amount of the prize money was 1.346.077 Euro.

Popular names had been on the starting line, and popular names were also standing on the CHIO Aachen's result lists. So Ludger Beerbaum for example could repeat his victory of 2002 and held his title in the Prize of Aachener und Münchener Versicherungen "The Grand Prix of Aachen" in a breathtaking jump-off.

Ulla Salzgeber and Rusty proved their brilliancy in the dressage arena, and became the dressage champions of the Soers in the Prize of Deutsche Bank AG "Grand Prix Dressage of Aachen". In the four-in-hand drivers' competition, Boyd Exell surprisingly won the Prize of Family Richard Talbot, and his toughest opponents Ijsbrand Chardon and Christoph Sandmann had to accept places two and three.

Also the nations' cups were thrilling up to the end. The Irish show jumpers triumphed in the Mercedes-Benz-Prize - "Nations' Cup" with the Belgians closely on their heels - the Belgians had to give away their victory because of a fault of their final rider at the very last obstacle. The German equipe, together with the team from the USA, reached rank three. In contrast to them, the German dressage riders could really celebrate their result in the Lambertz-Prize - "Nations' Cup", though in the end they only owed their victory to Ully Salzgeber and her splendid final ride. On rank two and three were the teams from the USA and Spain. In the drivers' SAINT-GOBAIN GLASS-Prize "Nations' Cup", the drivers from Belgium succeeded, closely followed by the Netherlands and Germany.

Aside to the sports highlights, which are the integral parts of the CHIO Aachen's programme, there were further attractions in 2003's tournament week which enthused the audience. The Soers was the venue for official selection trials for the Olympic Games 2004 in Athens, and on the weekend previous to the "big" tournament, teams from 15 nations competed for starting places for 2004.

Cultural pleasure and amusement was presented to the audience at the end of the Soers Sunday: YORN presented "Horse&Symphony" in the Deutsche Bank Dressage Stadium, and ca. 4.000 spectators perceived a colourful mixture of classical music, played by the Symphony Orchestra Aachen, together with attractive horse presentations.

The Aachen-Laurensberger Rennverein e.V. was pleased to register above-average attendance figures: Including the 36,500 guests on the Soers Sunday, the 44,000 driving fans on Saturday morning in the Forest of Aachen and the 45,000 visitors on the final Sunday, altogether 313,500 friends of equestrian sports attended this year's tournament in the Soers.

The World Equestrian Festival's organisers, Frank Kemperman and Michael Mronz, General Managers of the Aachen-Laurensberger Rennverein and the Aachener Reitturnier GmbH were more than satisfied about the success of this year's tournament: "Especially with regard to the World Championships, which we will host from August 22nd to September 3rd 2006, we are very happy that we have experienced such an exceptional enthusiasm and support from Aachen's audience. Aside to the active participants, the visitors of our tournament are the ones which make it unique world-wide."

Also those spectators, who were not able to be present at the tournament grounds, experienced the CHIO Aachen through the extensive media coverage. Alone the national broadcast adds up to more than 20 hours; altogether 480 national and international journalists reported from the World Equestrian Festival.

Participants and audience said goodbye to each other during the traditional Farewell of Nations, which celebrated its 50th birthday this year. Jointly everybody is now looking forward to a reunion in Aachen's Soers in the week from July 13th to 18th 2004.