Dressage-News

June 25, 2024

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

USA Olympic dressage team of Adrienne Lyle on Helix, Marcus Orlob on Jane and Steffen Peters on Suppenkasper with Endel Ots on Zen Elite’s Bohemian as traveling reserve was announced Tuesday by the U.S. Equestrian Federation with the Games beginning in Paris in 35 days on the grounds of historic Versailles Palace in Paris.

The team:

—Adrienne Lyle, 39, Wellington, Florida, on Helix, 12-year-old KWPN gelding (Apache x Jazz), owned by Heidi Humphries’ Zen Elite Equestrian Center of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

—Marcus Orlob, 42, of Loxahatchee, Florida on Jane, 10-year-old KWPN mare (Desperado x Metall), owned by Alice Tarjan

—Steffen Peters, 59, of San Diego, California, on Suppenkasper, 16-year-old KWPN gelding (Spielberg x Krack C), owned by Four Winds Farm and  Akiko Yamazaki.

Traveling reserve:

—Endel Ots, 38, of Wellington, on Zen Elite’s Bohemian, 14-year-old Westfalen gelding (Bordeaux x Samarant), owned by Zen Elite Equestrian Center.

This will be the second Olympics for Steffen and Suppenkasper having been on both the Tokyo silver medal team as well as at the 2018 World Equestrian Games, and Steffen’s sixth Olympics overall.

For Adrienne it will be her third Olympics, this time with Zen Elite Equestrian Center’s Helix. Endel Ots is also on the Zen Elite Equestrian Center’s Bohemian as the traveling reserve.

For Marcus on the mare Jane it will be the first time he has represented the United States since first riding for the Stars ‘n’ Stripes nine years ago.

Steffen has competed in five Olympics–Atlanta in 1996 on Udon for bronze; on Ravel in Hong for the Beijing Games in 2008; on Ravel in London in 2012; in Rio de Janeiro on Legolas for bronze, and on Supenkasper for silver at Tokyo.

In five World Championships, he and Floriano won team bronze at Aachen, Germany in 2006; on Ravel two individual bronze medals at Lexington in 2010; on Legolas at Normandy in 2014, and on Suppenkasper silver at Tryon in 2018.

Steffen on Ravel became World Cup champion in 2009, one of only two Americans to achieve the individual title, the other Debbie McDonald on Brentina in 2003.

On Ravel in the same year as his World Cup title, he was Dressage Champion at the World Equestrian Festival in Aachen, Germany, the most prestigious event in international horse sports.

He won team and individual gold on Weltino’s Magic at the 2011 Pan American Games and repeated on Legolas at the 2015 Pan Ams.

All of the horse were owned by Four Winds Farm and Akiko Yamazaki except for Udon and Weltino’s Magic.

Adrienne has competed at two Olympics, on Wizard in London in 2012 and on Salvino at Tokyo on the silver medal team with Steffen and Suppenkasper.

Adrienne and Salvino, owned by Betsy Juliano, also earned silver at the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon. She competed Wizard at the 2014 WEG in Normandy.

With the retirement of Salvino after a partnership of nine years, Adrienne was given the rides on Helix and Lars van de Hoenderheide, two European Grand Prix horses. She didn’t start competing them until the end of March and with no expectations by owner Heidi Humphries’ Zen Elite Equestrian Center with little time remaining in the U.S. qualification procedures.

However, Adrienne made the short list to go to Europe for two events in June–placing second behind Steffen and Suppenkasper in the first event and second to Marcus Orlob and Jane in the two competitions in the second event.

Debbie McDonald, her long-time coach and mentor, was in Europe supporting Adrienne.

Marcus Orlob on Jane is a near rookie at international Grand Prix but with classical German training he has emerged as a serious prospect for top sport on Jane, equally new to Grand Prix at the age of 10.

Marcus first competed Jane at Big Tour less than three months ago after owner Alice Tarjan found the horse to be too strong for her, though she had developed the mare from the age of three to 11 straight victories at international Medium Tour, just a notch below Grand Prix, through last year.

Marcus, who began riding under the Stars ‘n’ Stripes in 2015, has not competed on an American team before now. He and Jane will be on the team at Aachen’s CDIO5* Nations Cup next week.

In the two European qualifying competitions, he fulfilled one of the stated requirements–upward trending scores.

In the first event in early June he was seventh of eight U.S. combinations in the Grand Prix, moved up to fourth in the Special. By the time of the second event two weeks later he was the outright winner in the Grand Prix with a score second only to Steffen and Suppenkasper by an American this year and not only won the Special but on a score that was the best of all Americans this year.

Endel Ots, who will be traveling reserve, took over the ride on Bohemian when the horse was bought by Zen Elite Equestrian Center from Korea’s Dong Seon Kim.

He had acquired the horse from Denmark’s superstar Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour who rode the gelding at the Tokyo Olympics and 2021 European Championships for team and individual bronze medals and freestyle silver.

Endel competed in two World Young Horse Championships and selection at Small Tour for the U.S. team at the 2019 Pan American Games stymied when the horse was injured in transit. Until Bohemian he had no previous international Grand Prix experience.

The three team riders and the reserve will compete at Aachen next week.

Steffen on Suppenkasper and Adrienne on Lars van de Hoenderheide are entered in the CDI4*.

Anna Buffini on Fiontini, Anna Marek on Fire Fly, Marcus on Jane and Endel on Zen Elite’s Bohemian are on the CDIO5* Nations Cup team.