Organisers have said that the Open is one of the major competitions to be held in the build up to the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games, taking place from September 23 to October 8, in Zhejiang's capital.

The venue for the open, the Tonglu Equestrian Center, is also the site for equestrian events at the Games which were postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is approximately 54,000 square metres and construction began on it in June 2020 with a training facility and Athletes' Village also boasted.

The May competition is set to allow Asian Games organisers to better inspect and test the venue's facilities.

The Tonglu site will be classified as an equine disease-free zone to ensure the horses' safety.

The zone will remain a protected zone throughout the Games, with all pig, cattle and goat farms having been relocated away from the five-kilometre core area.

All horses are set to arrive in Hangzhou by air and will then be transported to Tonglu through a "biodiversity route" starting at Xiaoshan International Airport.

Tonglu's Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Shanghai-based China COSCO Shipping Corporation last September which will see the company responsible for shipping horses around the world for the Open.

China COSCO is due to charter a cargo plane to transport nearly 50 horses from Europe to Hangzhou before the event.

Hangzhou's equine disease-free zone will be the second in China after a similar one was created in Guangzhou in 2018.