Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

PARIS, Aug. 1, 2024–Steffen Peters will take the next two months to decide his future involvement in dressage in which he has been America’s star for much of the past four decades as he deals with what he describes as the “big disaster” of the Olympic Grand Prix.

That’s when the 16-year-old Suppenkasper became “very nervous” on the final centerline of the packed stadium at historic Chateau de Versailles to produce the lowest score over eight years of their Big Tour partnership.

Coming into his sixth Olympics beginning in 1996, Steffen has a record of enormous successes—historic team silver with Suppenkasper, or Mopsie as he’s called in the barn, at both the 2018 World Equestrian Games and the Tokyo Olympics, with Ravel only the second American to become World Cup champion which he did in 2009, on bronze medal teams on Udon in 1996 and on Legolas in 2018.

With Suppenkasper that he began competing at CDIs at the beginning of 2018, the pair started 85 times on both sides of the Atlantic to post 58 victories. As late as July this year, the combination placed third in the CDI4* at the most prestigious event, the World Equestrian Festival in Aachen, Germany.

The performance at Paris came as a complete surprise, with owners Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang and their two children present as well as his wife, Shannon who also manages their facility in San Diego, California.

The family had watched a “really good warm up” that they thought looked the best he had this season.

Mopsie, he said, “looked so good in the first halt with the half passes, the extensions, even the first piaffe that had an average of 7.5. Unfortunately in the walk we saw already the tension. I could not give him the rein as long as I wanted to and I knew he would start jigging and that would bring the score even more down. So I rode that very conservatively, rode the walk conservatively, and then made it even quite good through the canter work.

“And then as soon as I did the last extension away from C toward the beautiful background, I saw something there, and in the extension he went a little bit sideways to the right. I don’t think it was too obvious, but I could clearly feel it. He saw something on the short side, so we turned down the centerline. There was a TV camera there, and there were some photographers. Who knows?

“Then coming down the centerline toward the judges, I had so much energy in the passage that I knew that the last piaffe would be very, very difficult. So I barely rode that with any leg on him.

“He did a few steps but then he stopped and when I asked then he got really nervous and became very dramatic about it. I’ve only seen that from him when he’s really, really nervous in an honor round then he might act like that. And that, of course, was very disappointing.

“There was so much build up to this. We had a wonderful training camp the two months at Henri Ruoste’s place. Spending that time with Endel (Ots) there and training together. It was amazing.

“The The build up was even more. I went to the opening ceremony; when we were still on the boat, the Turkish Federation came by and they started screaming “USA,” you know people on the side of the Seine were screaming “USA,” people on the bridges.

“I’ve never experienced that in a different nation. So, there was such an incredible build-up to this.’

Including, he said, huge camaraderie within the team where three of the four members were males. I’ve never been on a team with three guys,. “It was so perfect. We came into this with such an incredible spirit. We really felt the Olympic spirit. It was a perfect set up.

“And then this huge disappointment.

“I woke up last night at 3 a.m. and it’s one of those things where you first think, ‘was this like a really bad dream? Was it a nightmare? Did this really happen?’

“Unfortunately, it did happen. And reality kicked in and the disappointment is very painful.”

“I know from previous years that if I hold on to that negativity, I know how damaging that can be. And I know and learned everything about emotional intelligence. I know how clearly I have to watch my thoughts and knowing that I don’t want this to escalate. I watch my emotions, I accept my emotions. Last night if I wanted to cry I did that.

“Just plain and simply accept it at 100%. And it’s already a little bit better. It is just obviously very sad that this happened toward the end of my career.

“Mopsie did so much, especially in Tokyo, becoming the “rave horse;” he did so much for the sport. I totally accept people criticize me and maybe criticize some riding”—some comments that he pushed the horse too hard, though he said it was the opposite as he was quiet and patient.

“With Ravel,” he said, “I went into the arena and then pushed him in the arena more and it always backfired. So I learned my lesson early on not to say this is the Olympic Games I need to push him more. But you know it’s everybody’s right to look at it a bit different and social media, criticize it and, honestly, I’ve accepted that, too.

“So it’s going to hurt for a while.

“This is a disaster, but I’m dealing with it much better because, again, I know how horrible that dark place is. I’ve been there. Really, really been there. And I certainly don’t want to go back there.

“I know what it takes to get there. I also know what it takes not to even approach that.”

Will he continue to compete as the nest major championship is in two years, the World Championships, when Suppenkasper will then be 18 years old.

Steffen will be 60 years old next month.

“I have not even discussed that with Akiko,” he said though he had dinner with Akiko, Jerry Yang and their two children.

“What I wanted to do last night is just hide and be by myself but I knew that wouldn’t be, so Akiko actually had a Mopsie dinner and I attended that with Tom (Myers, Suppenkasper’s physio) and the vet, Shannon and Akiko’s children.

“It was just the right thing to do,” he said. “Even there was already some healing. Jerry was there. You know, I shared with him the conversation that I had with Steph Curry (the basketball star, during the opening ceremony), because they know each other quite well.

“So, we just talked about the day, we talked about the past, but we did not talk about the future.

“Right now, I honestly can’t tell you, and that’s the truth. I’m not just hiding something, I’m just telling you the truth that has not been discussed.

“My first reaction was yesterday I had a really good run for the last 40 years. You always want to finish on a highlight.

“Of course. it has crossed my mind that Tokyo would have been a really good… A silver medal. That would have been a really good moment in time. But I have to say I was still hungry for more. And I talked to Carl Hester. We happened to ride in the warm-up together.

“He said that he might stop after the Olympic Games here. And he said, ‘Steffen, you can’t because the next Olympic Games are in your backyard. You absolutely cannot stop’.

“I think he’s just absolutely amazing in so many ways. And I would certainly consider his advice.”

Will he continue riding at high performance in dressage?

“To be honest, that was my mindset yesterday,” he replied.

“I said, ‘come on, you had a really good run. You know, this has got to be it.”

But so many people encouraged me through Facebook, personal messages, you know, that this is not the time.

“So again, you know, not that I’m comparing myself to the standard or the quality of any quarterbacks but I don’t think the quarterbacks make the decision right at the Super Bowl or right afterwards so it’s going to take some time one way the other.

“I will always stay involved in the sport. I enjoy the clinics and I will always be involved, especially working with younger people. A few younger students that are extremely talented. And that is my dream to have a student at the Olympic Games. It would be fantastic.“

Steffen has set himself a timetable to make his decision about his future.

He’s staying in Germany to spend time with his mother and then with some friends going to the mountains in southern Germany where he “needs to do some serious soul searching.”

At the end of August, he’s going on a cruise from Seattle to Alaska as a guest speaker “that also will be a wonderful time to reflect on how to make decisions. I do that by myself. So I think in September we probably have a pretty good idea what the future will be.”