Wellington, Fla. – Jan. 28, 2020 – During the third week of the 2021 Adequan Global Dressage Festival (AGDF), the International Arena hosted 12 horse-and-rider pairs for the CDI4* Grand Prix, Thursday, Jan. 26th. At the end of the competition, it was United States’ Steffen Peters with partner Suppenkasper, who emerged triumphant with a score of 76.761%.
Peters has been working with Suppenkasper, a 13-year-old KWPN gelding owned by Four Winds Farm and Akiko Yamazaki since 2018, and while it took the team some time to settle into their partnership, they continue to show their talents each year. They represented the U.S. at the FEI World Equestrian Games in 2018 and were members of the bronze medal team at the CDIO5* Nations Cup in Aachen, Germany, in 2019. At the 2020 AGDF, the duo was victorious in the CDI-W Grand Prix with a personal Grand Prix best score of 76.896% and had their eyes set on the FEI World Cup Finals in Las Vegas before the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the world.
With the Covid-19 pandemic cutting competition time, Peters is optimistic about how the time off affected their relationship. While he mentions that Covid-19 has been a great tragedy worldwide, he is thankful to walk out of quarantine and back into the show ring with a new perspective. Taking time to appreciate the little things can greatly impact how you perform in the ring. Instead of focusing on one little mistake, Peters recommends looking at the big picture and enjoying all of the things that went right.
In the past, Suppenkasper has been overly sensitive to the electric show environment, causing moments of tension. But Thursday’s test saw a confident pair who earned multiple scores of 9.0 for their extended canter, canter pirouettes and trot half pass.
Saving her best for last, Brittany Fraser- Beaulieu of Canada and All In, her own 16-year-old KWPN gelding, finished out the competition with a score of 71.891%, securing the second-place spot. The pair helped Canada earn the silver medal in 2020’s unexpected final competition at the AGDF venue, the CDIO5* Nations Cup, just before the final two weeks of the festival were canceled due to coronavirus concerns. Fraser-Beaulieu and All In finished out the final test of 2020’s Nations Cup competition, the individual Grand Prix Freestyle, with their personal best score of 78.72%.
Rounding out the top three was Katherine Bateson-Chandler aboard Alcazar, her 16-year-old KWPN gelding, with a score of 70.913%. In December, Bateson-Chandler and Alcazar finished second in the Global Dressage Festival Fall II CDI-W Grand Prix Special, her first international competition since helping the U.S. earn gold at the CDIO5* Nations Cup in March.
Competition at the AGDF 3 CDI4* will resume Friday, Jan. 28 at 8 a.m. with Prix St. Georges CDI1*.
Results: CDI4* Grand Prix
Rider / Country / Horse / Total Score
1. Steffen Peters / USA / Suppenkasper / 76.761%
2. Brittany Fraser- Beaulieu / Canada / All In / 71.891%
3. Katherine Bateson-Chandler / USA / Alcazar / 70.913%
4. Susan Pape / USA / Harmony’s Eclectisch / 70.196%
5. Charlotte Jorst / USA / Kastel’s Nintendo / 70.022%
6. Mette Rosencrantz / USA / Dzeko / 69.522%
7. Susan Dutta / USA / Figeac Dc / 68.239%
8. Anna Buffini / USA / FRH Davinia La Douce / 68.000%
From the Winner’s Circle
Steffen Peters – CDI4* Grand Prix for the Grand Prix Special Winner
On his ride:
“We had a nice [schooling] ride this morning. I usually work him twice a day and he felt great this morning. I did exactly 22 minutes this morning and 25 minutes in the warm-up because sometimes the longer I work him, the hotter he gets. Remembering last year when I went into this ring, he was still a firecracker and the first test wasn’t as good, so I rode a little bit with that mindset. Let’s not go crazy in there, let’s not push it. The entire time I had a little bit more of the mindset of riding conservatively. And he surprised me! I think I could have ridden him a little more, but it’s a wonderful start at a 76% clean test. I’m very happy with him.”
On how quarantine affected their partnership:
“I think for both of us, it was great to take a little break. I was pretty bummed that the World Cup didn’t happen last year. It is such a highlight riding in front of a crowd. But then you have to accept it, and for both of us it was good to take it easy and enjoy a little biking and boating. We most certainly took it easy in April and May, and then in June we picked it up again a little bit. While there’s nothing good that came out of Covid because we lost so many people and there’s so much tragedy, I think it really opened up our eyes. When we wake up in the morning we can take a deep breath and we learned to appreciate those little things. I have to say, I wake up with more gratitude every single day, and I think that shows a little bit in the ring. You know that if there are a bunch of mistakes or it didn’t go that well, it is really so extremely irrelevant nowadays.”
On the rest of the season:
“I go day by day. At the moment, it doesn’t make sense to go to Europe this summer and I would be perfectly happy if we did the quarantine in the United States as planned and then fly from here to Tokyo. That would be a good plan, but first of all, I’ve got to make the team. So we’re just going to do the CDI5* at the end of February and then the week after is the Nations Cup.”
