Katie Duerrhammer & Quartett, Steffen Peters & Suppenkasper Reactions to Achieving World Championship Goals of Qualifying USA Team for Paris Olympics

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Katie Duerrhammer riding Quartett at the world championships to qualify a USA team at the Paris Olympics. © 2022 Ken Braddick/DRESSAGE-NEWS.com

Aug. 14, 2022

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

The ride by Katie Duerrhammer on Quartett at the world championships in Herning, Denmark to help qualify the United States for the Paris Olympics in two years was “an unbelievable experience” in her first ever senior team experience while Steffen Peters, America’s most experienced and successful competitor, was disappointed that he missed out riding Suppenkasper in the Grand Prix Freestyle under lights. Adrienne Lyle on Salvino was the sole U.S. combination, placing sixth.

For the 33-year-old Katie of the Denver area community of Greenwood Village, Colorado, just 19 months after her first Big Tour competition, the ride on Quartett, made the Dutta Corp. team “all so proud” to achieve the biggest goal of qualifying for Paris.

“My personal goal for the championship was to put in a solid, harmonious and confident Grand Prix for the team and break a 70%” she said of the 14-year-old KWPN gelding. “I feel like Quartett accomplished that and to finish so close to qualifying for the Special was amazing. I am very very proud of how he handled the atmosphere and how dependable he is.

“The whole experience was beyond words and I feel so blessed to have had my first senior team experience with such seasoned, supportive and fun team members. It was extra special to have Quartett’s owner, Kylee Lourie, there and to be in the team with my coach and good friend Adrienne Lyle. The level of riding that we were all able to witness was so inspiring and motivating for the future.”

While Quartett gets a vacation and Kylee Lourie gets to ride him, Katie heads to the U.S. national championships next week to compete other horses and later in the year head to Wellington, Florida for the winter-long Global Dressage Festival.

“Quartett has given me such tremendous experience and confidence at this level and I know that it will aid me greatly with my up and coming horses like Paxton,” she said after the summer where she competed Quartett and Paxton in Nations Cups at both Rotterdam and Aachen ahead of the world championships.  the Nations Cup in Nations the two biggest Europeandressage .

“It was definitely a whole summer of what dreams are made of.”

Steffen Peters on Suppenkasper at the world dressage championships in Herning, Denmark. © 2022 Ken Braddick/DRESSAGE-NEWS.com

For Steffen in his fifith world championships and the second on the Suppenkasper, the 14-year-old KWPN gelding, Herning “was a wonderful experience… loved everything about it; the venue was incredible.”

The evening of the freestyle of 15 combinations under lights “had a very, very spectacular atmosphere,” said Steffen of San Diego, California.

“Of course, I’m very proud of my team mates that secured a team for Paris that was a part of the mission. As far as my rides the Grand Prix was quite good. The Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Special were a little bit below my average , especially in the Grand Prix Special with three minor, little mistakes–one unbalanced trot extension, a little break to the canter then a little jig in the collected walk.

“At the world games those mistakes were marked down quite heavily. This brought the score down. It’s a bit unusual for Mopsie to have a few mistakes but at the end of the day we have to ride with a little risk especially in the Grand Prix Special since the score did not count for the team. You can go in there with a little bit more risk; that’s what we did, and the mistakes happened. It’s something we certainly need to accept.

“Of course a bit of a disappointment not making it to the freestyle but we have to learn to let go of the disappointments very quickly, which I was able to do and the focus was afterwards in supporting Adrienne in the freestyle which was absolutely fantastic in my opinion. I thought Adrienne’s 83.7 was even a touch too low. It was a fantastic freestyle and a very, very strong finish for the United States.”

Akiko Yamazaki and husband Jerry Yang with family showing their support for Steffen and their Suppenkasper. ©˙ 2022 Ken Braddick/DRESSAGE-NEWS.com

The opinion of the scores for the musical performance by Adrienne and Salvino, the 15-year-old Hanoverian stallion that were on the silver medal teams at the 2018 World Equestrian Games and the Tokyo Olympics last year, were widely shared on both sides of the Atlantic.

Adrienne and Salvino were awarded 83.704% with American judge Anne Gribbons the lowest mark, about two points to more than six points below the other six judges.