Alan Wade has LA28. What that appointment actually says
On 10 October 2025 the FEI Board appointed Alan Wade (IRL) as jumping course designer for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. The vote was unanimous. FEI published the note the same week.
Wade is an FEI Level 4 course designer and technical delegate. He designed the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final in Omaha in 2017 and the jumping at the FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon in 2018. He was assistant designer to Bob Ellis at London 2012. He grew up in Tipperary, started putting tracks up at local gymkhanas at 12, and first designed the main arena at the Dublin Horse Show in 2009.
LA28 equestrian is scheduled for 14 to 30 July 2028 at Santa Anita Equestrian Park in Arcadia. Jumping, dressage and eventing share the venue. FEI says 200 athletes and horses across those three.
That is the official record. FEI press release.
What Ingmar De Vos actually praised
The FEI President did not talk about spectacle. He talked about subtle tracks that stay a fair test and reward horsemanship. Wade's own line was shorter: courses that produce good competition and present the sport well on that stage.
If you build 80 cm in a 20 × 40, that still translates. A skinny that only works because the sun is in the horse's eyes is not subtle. A related distance that sits on a half-stride because you would not move a wing is not fair. Olympic language is easy to paste onto a club flyer. The job is the same at both ends: the horse should be able to jump the question you wrote.
Aachen is already the first ticket punch
While this sits in the queue, Aachen is deciding the first seven team places for LA28 (host nation United States excluded). Watch how those championship tracks ride, then come back to this appointment. The man who gets 2028 has to design for a Californian summer, a TV window, and a field that qualified through weeks like this one.
Club takeaway: write the standard on the plan before you place fence 1. FEI, British Showjumping or unaffiliated. The designer will not guess it for you.
Related: Aachen championship week · FEI vs British Showjumping · FEI Jumping Rules 2026
