Steffen Peters couldn’t have asked for much more from 2008. He won every U.S. Grand Prix he entered with Ravel. He took home the Collecting Gaits Farm/U.S. Equestrian Federation Grand Prix Championship. He was the highest-placed U.S. dressage rider at the Olympic Games in Hong Kong and narrowly missed an individual medal.

While these accolades would certainly be enough to make him the Chronicle’s Dressage Horseman of the Year, they’re only the latest in a long line of accomplishments that prove Peters is dominating U.S. dressage.

What is it about Peters that lands him at the top time after time? Certainly his natural talent and fierce competitive spirit play a role. And then there are the three “Cs” that rule his life—calmness, consistency and clarity.

“There’s a method that’s very clear, especially after you’ve been riding with him for a while. To me it feels like it’s one of the fairest systems to the horse,” said Akiko Yamazaki, who owns Ravel and trains with Peters. “It’s black and white; there’s no gray zone. You expect a lot from the horse, but you’re clear about what you’re expecting.”

“He showed me the next level of expectation from the horses. It’s not just passage, it’s the best passage you can get out of the horse,” said Courtney King-Dye, who has ridden with Peters as a student and an Olympic teammate. “He’s so quiet. Even when he’s very strong with the horses, it’s never wild. He has so much control over his body. He can be very clear and strong without making a big deal. It’s just that quiet focus that makes him really special, along with the timing.”

The consummate professional, Peters’ quiet, consistent demeanor reaches beyond the horses into every aspect of his life.

“The way he treats his horses and the way he trains his horses permeates through his whole existence. The relationship you have with Steffen is a very easy, clear and pleasant experience,” said Yamazaki.

And the proof that his methods work is never more obvious than in a pressure-cooker situation like the Olympic Games.

“He plays the game at the highest level,” said Gil Merrick, who was the U.S. dressage team leader for the 2006 World Equestrian Games and the 2008 Olympic Games. “Steffen’s a master at managing everything around him so he’s totally focused on the horse and the training. There’s an aura of calm around him. Every single detail is managed. There’s so much order around the management of the horse, the management of the groom, the management of the equipment, managing the owner’s needs. He has all the pieces thought through.”

Peters’ routine includes more than riding his horse at a certain time of day for a certain length of time. While at the Olympic Games he went to the gym daily, made sure he got the sleep he needed every night and managed his diet down to the last calorie.

“He didn’t touch a drop of alcohol from before the selection trials in California all the way through the Games,” said Merrick. “It’s that kind of discipline and focus. He’s there as an Olympian to be in training himself. He’s a role model for what produces success at an Olympic Games. He has an enormous talent as a rider, clearly. He’s an incredibly kind and nice man. But it’s this management that goes above and beyond what you see. It’s worthy of study.”

Peters is able to stay so focused in the ring that he’s gained the reputation for “having ice water in his veins,” but as soon as he leaves the arena he’s warm and gracious regardless of what happened.

“When he saw that Heike Kemmer got the score that got her the bronze medal, and it was a very small difference, he couldn’t have been more professional,” said Merrick. “He thanked everybody. He said how thrilled he was with the horse. It was sportsmanship at the highest end of the game. It was all genuine.”

So genuine in fact that one of Peters’ few regrets from the Games occurred when the Dutch press used his fourth-placed finish as an example of bad judging.

“I didn’t call it bad judging. I wanted to make it 100 percent clear that that wasn’t my intention,” said Peters. “You can discuss the judging all day long, but if I hadn’t made the mistake in the two-tempis, it would have been enough for individual medal. I don’t think my name or Ravel’s name would have been used to set an example for the controversial judging.”

Peters’ sense of fairness and sportsmanship affects everyone around him. “When I went out to California before the [FEI World Cup Final] in 2006, he helped me a great deal. He let me stay at his house, and he made room for my horses in his stable, which is always full,” said King-Dye. “It felt really good to have somebody who wanted to see me succeed as a friend and a potential team member.

“At the past two national championships, we’ve been neck-and-neck by the end of the competition,” she continued. “He was really happy to see that we could get to that same quality and push each other. He’s competitive, and he wants to be the best, but I never got the sense that he would want to keep me below him. He simply wants to be the best.” 

Personal Profile

Birthdate: Sept. 18, 1965

Home: San Diego, Calif.

Weakness: “I’m absolutely terrible at multi-tasking. If I’m on the phone and somebody else is in the room, it irritates the heck out of me,” said Peters. “But that helps me with the competitiveness in the dressage arena, because I can really focus on each and every movement. There’s nothing else that goes on in my mind.”

Sense of humor: “I forget a lot of things, but I always remember a good joke. I’m known quite well for that at the barn. When there’s a good joke, I make pretty sure everyone knows it.”

On dressage politics: “I haven’t been on too many committees, and I usually stay pretty quiet about all those issues. That’s worked for me in the past, and I think it will work for me in the future. When it comes to training and riding, if I’m a leader in that field, that will be fine, but when it comes to committee decisions and political issues, I’m definitely not a leader. There are definitely more qualified people for that.”

On not winning team bronze: “In general it was a strange year for sport. It started out with the Patriots not winning the Super Bowl, then Big Brown didn’t win the Triple Crown and the American dressage team didn’t win the bronze medal. Those were three very strange things that happened in sports this year.”

Support team: “You can’t do well on your own. I always want to give credit to Akiko and Jerry [Yamazaki], who own Ravel, and Shannon [Peters, my wife] who’s been a hell of a coach for the past five years,” said Peters. He also credited his groom Rafael Hernandez and his physiotherapist Tom Myers for Ravel’s accomplishments this year.