Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

TEMECULA, California, Jan. 5, 2018–Steffen Peters and Suppenkasper, being ridden in a night time competition for the first time, won the Adequan West Coast Dressage Festival CDI3* Grand Prix Special Friday night.

With the ride what Steffen described as “much better” than their debut Grand Prix a day earlier, the four-time Olympic rider and the 10-year-old KWPN gelding scored 72.511 per cent for the win.

“Overall a much nicer, relaxed feeling,” Steffen said after the ride that was watched by owner Akiko Yamazaki who flew in from her home in Northern California. “That’s exactly what we’re looking for; this is how he needs to do the next CDIs.”

Germany’s Sarah Runge on Dark Dynamic placed second on 68.021 per cent with Charlotte Jorst on Kastel’s Nintendo third on 67.042 per cent.

The 24-year-old Sarah is competing in her first American CDI and only the second senior Big Tour event having shown the 15-year-old Hanoverian gelding at international Grand Prix nine months ago. The horse was previously competed by German Olympian Nadine Capellmann.

Suppenkasper was bought from German Olympian Helen Langehanenberg and her husband last summer by Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang’s Four Winds Farm as a second prospect for the U.S. team for the Tryon World Equestrian Games in September and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Their Rosamunde that Steffen has shown on both sides of the Atlantic was withdrawn from this event after what was described as a minor ailment. Legolas, the Four Winds Farm’s Westfalen gelding that Steffen rode to Olympic team bronze and Pan American Games gold as the successor to their Ravel is being retired in April.

Steffen has high praise for development by Helen of Suppenkasper, with the barn name “Mopsie” describing the horse’s once overweight condition. The record indicates that none of the three shows in which the German duo performed were at night.

Suppenkasper, he said, “was certainly energetic in a good way, not against me. He did wonderful extensions. I did not have to push him for passage; beautiful half passes trot and canter. I think we got the walk even better and more relaxed than yesterday. A wonderful transition passage to piaffe. Overall, it felt like a wonderful test.

“After watching the video (from Thursday’s Grand Prix), I toned down the canter tempo. Yesterday was too forward, the changes and the pirouettes almost a bit hurried. We toned down a bit and I think the canter pirouettes had to be better today.

“I was hoping to see a better score than 72 per cent because I know that internationally that is not enough. That part was maybe a bit disappointing but does not take away from the wonderful feeling he gave me today.”

Steffen said that with Suppenkasper’s current mental capability and that Rosamunde is not yet back in competition he will not compete in the Florida CDI5* in February, an event he regards as “certainly something one should support.”

Instead, he will stay on the West Coast to compete in the new Dressage Festival lineup of three more CDIs to be staged at Del Mar over the next two months, near his base in San Diego.

During a break in the competition, he paid tribute to Sheryl Ross, a fellow competitor and friend, who died Jan. 2. He asked spectators and other competitors to remember Sheryl, her partner and her family.