Dressage-News

DEL MAR, California, Jan. 18, 2018–Steffen Peters and Suppenkasper turned in a “much better” performance to ride to victory in the Adequan West Coast Dressage Festival CDI3* Grand Prix Thursday night, only the second Big Tour event for the American pair.

Steffen and a more relaxed 10-year-old KWPN gelding scored 74.587 per cent–more than 3.4 percentage points higher than their first ride two weeks ago at the inaugural event of this new California winter circuit.

Shannon Peters, his wife and long-time eyes on the ground, “kept telling me that less is more, since the last show. It worked perfectly,” Steffen told dressage-news.com.

Helen Langehanenberg, the German Olympian who had trained and competed Suppenkasper for her husband, also provided “lots of good advice.”

Suppenkasper was bought last summer by Four Winds Farm as a prospect for Steffen of nearby San Diego along with their Rosamunde for the American team for this year’s World Equestrian Games in Tryon, North Carolina and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

“I’m very happy with Mopsi’s progress,” he said, referring the horse’s barn name in German that was applied by Helen when the horse put on too much weight.

“It was one of those tests when you can really feel how much a horse enjoys every minute in the show arena.”

Kathleen Raine of Murietta, California and the 18-year-old Breanna, a Hanoverian mare, that have competed together at Big Tour for almost eight years, placed second on 67.130 per cent.

Charlotte Jorst of Reno, Nevada, and Kastel’s Nintendo were third on 67.043 per cent.

As with the first West Coast event, there were significant differences in scoring by the five judges of some rides,

Germany’s Under-25 rider Sarah Runge, competing Dark Dynamic in California this winter, was awarded a total of 64.674 per cent for fourth place, with four scores between 64 and 66 per cent and 61.413 per cent from the USA’s Sara Geikie.

Results:

CDI3* Grand Prix