Steffen Peters & Suppenkasper Win Wellington World Cup Freestyle With Personal Best Score
5 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Steffen Peters & Suppenkasper Win Wellington World Cup Freestyle With Personal Best Score
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
WELLINGTON, Florida, Feb. 7, 2020–Steffen Peters and Suppenkasper posted a personal best score to win the Adequan Global Dressage Festival World Cup Freestyle Friday night to earn an invitation to the Final in Las Vegas in mid-April.
Steffen and the 12-year-old KWPN gelding scored 83.495% to smash the pair’s previous best of 80.990% set in California almost two years ago.
Steffen wiped away tears as he left the arena on Suppenkasper, saying repeatedly to his mount: “Mopsie, looks like we’re going to Vegas.”
“The bottom line is that it’s a huge accomplishment and something we dreamed of every single day, not just here or there. It’s hard to describe what that feels like when you go through a difficult time and your horse is so therapeutic and it gets better and better and puts you into such a wonderful place.”
The victory for the four-time Olympian for the United States and the 2009 World Cup champion was the sixth in six starts so far this year at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center where he planned to compete until the CDI5* later this month but has decided to extend his schedule through the Nations Cup in March.
Olivia LaGoy-Weltz on Lonoir placed second on 79.365% for the second of three scores required in North America to get one of two invitations for the region to go to the Final.
Agnete Kirk Thinggaard, the Danish Olympic rider competing in Wellington for the first time and the first World Cup for the pair, placed third on Blue Hors Zatchmo on 77.635%.
The performance on Suppenkasper, Steffen said, was “was one of those freestyles that I’ve visualized for many days, many mornings, many nights, throughout dark times, and it worked out beautifully.”
Some of the music was borrowed from that of Ravel on which he became World Cup champion in Las Vegas in 2009.
“There are still a few improvements we can make for Vegas,” said Steffen of San Diego, California. “We have a few surprises in the music–and the most exciting part is that this was his third score, and we got a ticket to Vegas. That almost made me cry.
“It was a gigantic success. That gets really tricky with an extended canter to a piaffe to a super relaxed, extended walk afterwards. That made me cry a little. There were difficult movements, but the relaxation of this horse tonight was tremendous.”
Although Suppenkasper is the fourth horse he has competed in Wellington beginning with Ravel in 2010, then with Legolas and Rosamunde this was the first time Steffen has won a Freestyle here.
Olivia said she, too, is aiming for Las Vegas and will be able to earn her third required score the last week of Global at the end of March that will be the last World Cup qualifier.
Results:
CDI-W World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle
| Clive Halsall | Cesar Torrente | Lee Tubman | Christof Umbach | Thomas Kessler | |||||||||||
| Place | Score % | Nation | Athlete | Horse | E | H | C | M | B | Spectators | |||||
| 1. | 83.495 | USA | Steffen Peters | Suppenkasper | 84.875 | 82.125 | 83.700 | 82.625 | 84.150 | 81.840 (1) | |||||
| 2. | , Agnete Kitk Thinggaardm, | USA | Olivia LaGoy-Weltz | Lonoir | 81.025 | 80.275 | 80.475 | 79.000 | 76.050 | 76.830 (2) | |||||
| 3. | 77.635 | DEN | Agnete Kirk Thinggaard | Blue Hors Zatchmo | 78.400 | 78.525 | 74.575 | 79.525 | 77.150 | 75.259 (4) | |||||
| 4. | 76.215 | DOM | Yvonne Losos De Muñiz | Aquamarijn | 75.125 | 75.700 | 78.500 | 75.500 | 76.250 | 75.363 (3) | |||||
| 5. | 73.595 | USA | Heather Blitz | Semper Fidelis | 73.725 | 72.550 | 74.800 | 73.450 | 73.450 | 74.379 (5) | |||||
| 6. | 73.385 | USA | Anna Marek | Dee Clair | 74.850 | 74.275 | 74.700 | 71.675 | 71.425 | 73.011 (6) | |||||
| 7. | 72.380 | MEX | Martha Fernanda Del Valle Quirarte | Beduino Lam | 70.425 | 74.125 | 72.650 | 73.600 | 71.100 | 71.477 (12) | |||||
| 8. | 72.250 | CAN | Naima Moreira Laliberte | I Do Kiss | 73.625 | 71.925 | 68.600 | 75.100 | 72.000 | 71.770 (9) | |||||
| 9. | 72.160 | USA | James Koford | Adiah HP | 71.175 | 73.850 | 71.650 | 71.750 | 72.375 | 71.061 (13) | |||||
| 10. | 71.685 | USA | Rebecca Waite | Doktor | 72.200 | 70.450 | 74.325 | 68.950 | 72.500 | 71.489 (11) | |||||
| 11. | 71.555 | JPN | Kazuki Sado | Barolo | 73.650 | 67.975 | 72.300 | 69.625 | 74.225 | 72.472 (7) | |||||
| 12. | 71.080 | CAN | Megan Lane | Zodiac MW | 70.925 | 71.150 | 71.075 | 71.475 | 70.775 | 70.034 (15) | |||||
| 13. | 70.940 | CAN | Jaimey Irwin | Donegal V | 72.175 | 70.000 | 71.175 | 70.850 | 70.500 | 72.413 (8) | |||||
| 14. | 69.810 | CAN | Jill Irving | Arthur | 70.225 | 69.325 | 71.500 | 69.525 | 68.475 | 70.915 (14) | |||||
| 15. | 67.515 | AUS | Nicholas Fyffe | Fiero HGF | 68.525 | 65.350 | 69.975 | 67.275 | 66.450 | 71.622 (10) | |||||
