Selection of Steffen Peters & Suppenkasper for US World Championship Team Would Give Rider Rare Fifth Start in Event Held Once Every Four Years
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May 10, 2022
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
If Steffen Peters is selected for the United States team for his fifth world championships it will place him among a select handful to have competed at as many of the championships held once every four years.
With Herning, Denmark Steffen will have ridden in five straight world championships, beginning with Aachen, Germany in 2006 on Floriano, at Lexington, Kentucky on Ravel in 2010, on Legolas at Normandy, France in 2014 and on Suppenkasper in Tryon, North Carolina in 2018. All but Floriana were owned by Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang of Four Winds Farm.
Steffen of San Diego, California and “Mopsie,” as the 14-year-old Suppenkasper is nicknamed, have fulfilled qualifying for a squad of up to eight American rider and horse combinations to go to Europe to compete at Nations Cup events at Rotterdam, Netherlands and Aachen at the end of June to determine the team of four for Herning in early August. The pair rank second among U.S. prospects to Adrienne Lyle and Salvino, his team mates at the silver medal 2018 World Games as well as the historic silver at the Tokyo Olympics.
In addition to the silver medals, Steffen, has a team bronze from 2006 World Games and two individual bronze medals from Lexington in 2010.
Not surprisingly, the rider with the most world championship starts is six by Isabell Werth of Germany, according to a records search by DRESSAGE-NEWS.com.
Anky van Grunsven of the Netherlands competed in five championships before she gave up dressage after the 2012 Olympics in favor of reining.
Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén, a seven-time Olympian for Sweden, also has started in five world championships. So, too, has Mary Hanna of Australia. Both riders are still competing at top sport.
The U.S. team at Normandy was Laura Graves on Verdades, Adrienne Lyle on Wizard and Tina Konyot on Calecto V in addition to Steffen and Legolas.
On Ravel at the World Games in Kentucky in 2010 was described by Steffen as “very much a highlight of my career”–winning individual and Freestyle bronze medals. Team mates were Katherine Batson Chandler on Nartan, Tina Konyot on Calecto V and Todd Flettrich on Otto.
“That was extremely exciting and in front of an American crowd was extremely special. The Freestyle at night I’ll never forget that,” he recalled.
The Lexington success came a year after capturing the World Cup in Las Vegas in 2009, only the second American to do so, the first being Debbie McDonald on Brentina.
The start of his world championship run in 2006 in Aachen’s main arena in front of almost 60,000 spectators was, in Steffen’s word, “incredible.” His team mates were
Debbie McDonald on Brentina, Günter Seidel on Aragon and Leslie Morse on Tip Top.
“It’s very exciting that we might get another chance to do this,” he said of the chances of riding on the U.S. team at Herning. He and Suppenkasper plan to be in Europe in mid-June well ahead of the Aachen Nations Cup. A possible CDI4* at Kronberg, Germany in mid-July may also be added to the competition schedule before Herning, he said.
