Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

WELLINGTON, Florida, Jan, 11, 2020–Steffen Peters rode Suppenkasper to their second highest Grand Prix Special score Saturday to win the Adequan Global Dressage Festival CDI3* and put behind the American Olympic and world championship rider’s Grand Prix result two days earlier.

A crowd that included Suppenkasper’s owner, Akiko Yamazaki, greeted Steffen with loud cheers after the score of 76.149% was announced to wrap up three days of the first Big Tour competition in the world this Olympic year.

Steffen and the 12-year-old KWPN gelding that Akiko and her husband, Jerry Yang, bought as a prospect for Tokyo in July scored numerous marks of at least 8. The Special will decide the team competition in Tokyo.

“That was really fun,” said Steffen, 55 years old, of San Diego, California after the ride with scores ranging from a high of 78.404%, two 77+% and a low of 73.617%.

“He’s such a firecracker–like he was in the Grand Prix” when the duo won the class with an uncharacteristically low score of 70,826%.

“My dream is always to keep that feeling from the warm-up into the ring and that worked out perfectly today.

“Thank God the Grand Prix doesn’t count and the score from the Special carries forward, so this is a huge step toward Tokyo.”

Great Britain’s Susan Pape on Harmony’s Eclectisch placed second on 69.936% in the first Big Tour CDI for the 11-year-old KWPN stallion owned by Harmony Sporthorses of Kiowa, Colorado.

Susan, based in Germany, competes several of Harmony’s horses and performed on Eclectisch at Small and Medium Tour in 2018 and 2019 before moving up to Grand Prix this year.

Anna Marek of Williston, Florida on Dee Clair was third on 68.851%.

Steffen will compete in Wellington through the CDI5* in mid-February that will be a key U.S. Olympic team selection event. He is atop the World Cup North American League standing and needs one more result to qualify for the Final in Las Vegas in mid-April, the same venue where he won the annual championship on Ravel in 2009, only the second American to do so. Global will stage two World Cup qualifiers before the CDI5*.

After the Grand Prix Thursday, Steffen adopted the same competition procedure he followed with Legolas, his 2016 Olympic team bronze medal mount.

“I walked him this morning and then I worked him for half an hour at lunch time. Then I put him away and let him completely settle down. Then I did another 20 minutes before the test. That’s what I used to do with Legolas and this might be the new recipe for ‘Mopsie’,” as Suppenkasper is nicknamed

He described the horse as having “endless energy, he’s a dream.”

“If any rider would get on this horse they would say that this is the ultimate feeling,” he said. “It’s amazing the feeling that he can  give you. It is sometimes a bit tricky in the arena, and we still have a huge hurdle to go with the freestyle as it’s quite a different atmosphere and its still a bit about desensitizing, but hopefully with one more good freestyle score, we will head to Vegas.”

Results:

CDI3* Grand Prix Special