Organisers the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) revealed the two bidders for its flagship event today.

Lexington, in Kentucky, has a proud equestrian and horse racing history and hosted the event in 2010.

The Kentucky Horse Park in the city hosts the annual Kentucky Three Day Event, a leg of the FEI Classics season.

Samorin hosted this year's FEI World Endurance Championships after stepping in to replace Dubai.

This came after the United Arab Emirates city was axed due to horse welfare concerns.

"We are very happy to have two such strong official candidates for the FEI World Equestrian Games in 2022," FEI President Ingmar De Vos said.

"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.

"The last edition in Normandy two years ago attracted more than half a million spectators and a worldwide television audience of 350 million, delivering a significant economic impact to the French economy.

"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."

The next phase in the decision-making process for the 2022 Games 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.

Both cities 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 coming in November 2017.

The 2018 World Equestrian Games will be held in the United States, at the Tryon International Equestrian Center in North Carolina between September 10 and 23.

The city replaced Bromont in Canada, which had been selected to host but was then hit by financial issues.