Steffen Peters Has New Pair of Dressage Boots Acquired After New Treatment of His Neuropathy Provides Hope of Riding Again
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Mar. 18, 2025
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
Steffen Peters has a new pair of dressage boots after a change in treatment of his debilitating neuropathy gave him hope he may be able to return to riding that has been his career for a half-century including six Olympics.
If the contrast therapy of infrared exposure for about 30 minutes followed by plunging into water barely above freezing for two to three minutes continues to work he expects to make a decision on riding in the future about the end of summer, or near his 61st birthday in September.
Steffen disclosed his neuropathy–weakness, numbness and pain from nerve damage in his case in the hands and feet–after the Paris Olympics last summer.
The affliction came after a lifetime of riding. His first international championship was on the U.S. bronze medal team at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, World Cup champion on Ravel in 2009, and two individual bronzes at the 2010 World Equestrian Games, and on silver medal teams at the 2018 World Games and the Tokyo Olympics on Suppenkasper.
Steffen began the contrast therapy at a facility in San Diego, where he is based, in January after months of research for treatment of neuropathy.
“I tried everything else,” he told DRESSAGE-NEWS.com, “really everything else in the book before. More medication wasn’t an option.
After a week’s trial, he signed up for membership.
“The first minute it’s extremely uncomfortable and your body wants to hyperventilate,” he explained. “I’ve learned now even in the first minute to breathe very slowly. And for those minutes, the best way I can describe it is meditation on steroids.
“I feel extremely calm coming out of it. And when I feel the pain come back in the afternoon, the neuropathy comes back, I sometimes do it twice a day.
“The pain goes to zero and the tinnitus goes to zero. It comes back sometimes after 45 minutes, but it’s actually gotten so good where I might even think about riding again.
“I recommend it to anyone. There are so many health benefits; increasing the immune system. For anybody who’s ever dealt with anxiety, try it. I guarantee you you will calm down.
“This was, I think, a lifesaver.”
Hope of returning to the saddle was so high that he went looking for riding boots.
He ended up with a pair off the shelf from DeNiro Boot Co., an Italian firm with outlets in the U.S. It surprised him as he usually has to have boots custom made.
“Does that mean if I’m going to compete again?” he said. “I don’t know.
“But I enjoy the clinics. I’ve increased those to one a month. Obviously, I love to be here. I love to work with Ilse and all the people that she’s inviting to the clinics. So it’s been going great. I’m enjoying the life.
“At home it’s a couple days of teaching but a lot of time with airplanes and getting on the river and just enjoying nature. And jumping into freezing cold water.”
