Steffen Peters’ Olympic mount steps up his game in California.

At the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong, Steffen Peters proved he and Ravel had one of the best freestyles in the world, finishing third. But at the Burbank CDI-W, Feb. 19-22, it got even better.

“This was by far our best freestyle,” said Peters after his ride in Burbank, Calif. “I wish we would have had that one [at the Olympic Games]. Hong Kong was already pretty darn good, but this one was better.”

Peters and Ravel (Contango—Democraat) won the Grand Prix freestyle with a 78.50 percent, receiving an 81.25 percent from judge Janet Foy. They also topped the Grand Prix (73.91%).

Peters gave credit to his wife Shannon for Ravel’s improvement since the Exquis World Dressage Masters CDI (Fla.) in January. Peters won the Grand Prix there with a 75.57 percent, but then he had a few bobbles in the freestyle and finished third (76.60%).

“The neat thing is that I was able to work with Shannon on some details in the piaffe, and this time the freestyle worked out great,” said Peters. “With a horse like Ravel that comes so far underneath himself in the piaffe, it doesn’t feel like it’s active enough. Shannon tells me many times that it’s plenty. Sometimes I try to make it a 9 and risk that he gets a 5 or a 6. This time he got 8s through all of his piaffe, and that is certainly plenty.”

Peters is playing with some new ideas for the choreography in his freestyle as far as timing and possibly some new music for the trot work. But he’s still in the experimental stages of the redesign.

“The music obviously worked quite well this weekend,” said Peters. “But you always want to make it perfect, and that is extremely hard to achieve. I’m going to try the new version a few times. If I don’t think it’s quite as good as the old one, then we’ll stick with the one that works.”

Peters is amazed at how the 11-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding has matured since the Olympic Games. “Before it was much more about desensitizing him. Now he’s at a point where I can actually wake him up here and there for a few steps,” he said. “So I would much rather have it this way where I can wake him up and count on his relaxation as well.

“Now when we come home from a show we go straight into a preserving mode [with Ravel],” added Peters. “Usually you have horses that you need to polish in some things [between shows]. That’s not so much the thing with Ravel now. We’re keeping him fit, but it’s more of a preserving mode at home. It’s a nice luxury to have.”

Tip Top On Top

Leslie Morse of Beverly Hills, Calif., won the Grand Prix Special on her Swedish Warmblood stallion Tip Top 962 (69.00%). Morse was second in the Grand Prix with Tip Top and third with her Dutch Warmblood stallion Kingston.

“I’m just so proud of Tip Top,” said Morse. “He definitely proved he could hold his own this weekend. He’s getting so much more confident. He was wonderful in the Grand Prix, but I made an error after the last part of the zig-zag. I should have done my change and turned a little sooner. Instead I waited too long, and that gave him a little time to get a little tense around the corner.”

She said that tenseness carried over to the one-tempis but only for the first change, where he had a little bit of a short change behind. “So even though we had that error I was just so proud of him,” she said.

Morse admitted she rode much better in the Grand Prix Special on Saturday. “It was harmonious and really fun to ride,” she said. 

Tip Top (Master—Chagall) will be 15 this year. Morse has owned him for six years.

Morse was second in the Grand Prix freestyle on the 17-year-old Kingston (Voltaire—Burggraaf) with a 74.10 percent. She rode to her Pirates Of The Caribbean music, but she has changed the choreography and some of the music for the passage. At Burbank she did a slightly easier version of the choreography. The 10 days of rain before the show prevented her from schooling Kingston in the arena, and they were limited to hacking along the road.

“Kingston loves the freestyle,” said Morse. “He’s so confident in his job, and I trust him implicitly. The judges really rewarded him for his piaffe and trot extensions and gave him 9s.”

Morse and Marie Meyers, of Moorpark, Calif., are working as eyes on the ground for each other.

“We’ve known each other for 25 years, and it’s just a wonderful teamwork situation,” said Morse. “This is really an exciting time for me right now, to have these two stallions and have them going and doing so well. It’s a treat to know your horses so well and to be able to show that side when you go into the ring.”

U II Conquers His Fears

Guenter Seidel and U II continued their sweep of the small tour classes with their wins at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center. The 8-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Jazz—Rohdiamont) had a personal success with his calmness in the Equidome arena.

“This is his most horrible place in history,” explained Seidel. “When he was young I brought him here, and I could not even get him in the lower half of the arena. I had to excuse myself several times when I was showing here. He just was unrideable in here at the beginning. So for me to actually get around in there was great.”

Due to the rain over the previous 10 days, both the competition arena for the CDI classes and the warm-up arena were set up in the Equidome, with the spectator seating very close to the rings.

U II scored 72.01 percent in the Prix St. Georges and 68.33 percent in the Intermediaire I to win both.

“His changes are so good now at home, but at the show he gets tight and then he gets a little swingy in the changes still,” said Seidel.  “In the Intermediaire I there were a lot of movements going towards the judge’s stand. He was distracted there after the walk and then made a bunch of mistakes in the canter unfortunately. But I was super happy with him overall because at least he kept himself together and didn’t do anything terrible. Eventually he’s going to have to deal with stuff like this anyway. It’s good experience for him.”

The 17.3-hand U II is owned by Dick and Jane Brown of Carlsbad, Calif. Seidel has been riding him since he was 3. He admits that U II is a little spooky and hot, but he has good energy and a good work ethic.

“I think he’s a blast to ride now,” said Seidel. “He used to be very, very difficult to sit. His trot was super bouncy. You know you’re working when you’re sitting his trot, but the more balanced and through he is the better that becomes.”

She’s Back In Action

Amanda Harlan is back competing in the FEI Young Rider classes after taking a break last year to compete in the open Prix St. Georges and Intermediaire 1 classes.

A freshman at the University of Southern California, Harlan commutes to trainer Jan Ebeling in Moorpark, only an hour’s drive each way. The last few years Harlan has been commuting to Moorpark on weekends from her home in the Napa Valley.

Harlan wants to try out for the FEI Young Rider World Cup Final this year, for which qualification is determined by the average in the young rider freestyle classes.

Rather than ride in just the freestyle at the shows, Harlan decided to try out for the Region 7 North American Young Rider Championships team again. In 2007 she and Liberte were members of the gold-medal team from Region 7.

“I had so much fun at Young Riders,” exclaimed Harlan. “I’m only 19, so I said why not. I have three more years to do Young Riders so I thought this year would be a good year to just really focus on my freestyle and make it the best it can be and see where it takes me.”

This was Harlan’s first time riding the new tests, but she won the CDI Young Rider Individual and Team tests (66.57%, 66.40%) aboard Liberte, 17.

“It’s good to be back in the show ring,” said Harlan. “We had our little mistakes here and there. I was pretty conservative. We just made sure we didn’t do anything drastically bad.

 “I’ve had ‘Lester’ for four years now, and this is the first year that I’m fully riding him instead of him just going around and me just sitting there hoping that everything goes OK,” said Harlan. “I really feel like we have such a good connection this year. We spent most of the winter just bonding and relaxing together. I’m really excited for this year.”