Two cities have been announced as official candidates to host the 2022 FEI World Equestrian Games. Lexington, Ky., and Samorin, Slovakia, have both been selected as potential hosts for the Fédération Equestre Internationale flagship in six years’ time.

“We are very happy to have two such strong official candidates for the 2022 FEI World Equestrian Games,” said FEI President Ingmar De Vos. “Both the Kentucky and Samorin venues have the infrastructure in place already to host the Games, which is one of the biggest events on the global sporting calendar.

“There’s no doubt that these Games are a huge undertaking, but we believe both Samorin and Kentucky have the capability to host spectacular Games, and we look forward to working with them through the further stages of the bid process over the next year,” he continued.

The next phase in the decision-making process for the 2022 WEG will include site visits between January and May 2017, with a deadline of June 2017 for submission of the candidates’ complete bid and signed host agreement. The candidates will make formal presentations to the FEI Evaluation Commission in the third quarter of 2017, with the final FEI Bureau decision and allocation of the Games in November 2017.

Lexington hosted the WEG in 2010, and Samorin was a candidate city for the 2018 competition, which will take place at the Tryon International Equestrian Center in North Carolina.