Steffen Peters made history tonight. No one could have predicted he would beat out the world’s reigning dressage queens, Isabell Werth and Anky van Grunsven, to become the first U.S. rider to win the Rolex FEI World Cup Champion on U.S. soil.
Only Brentina and Debbie McDonald have matched his feat, winning the 2003 World Cup Final (Sweden). It’s fitting that just one day after U.S. darling Brentina retired, we have a new hero in Ravel.
“To share that moment in time with the most amazing dressage fans in the world is an incredible feeling. It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. In a few hours, when I see family and friends, it will. It’s just an incredible feeling,” said Peters.
Coming into the Rolex FEI World Cup Final, it looked like Germany’s Werth was a sure thing for the win. Van Grunsven seemed less likely than usual, since the nine-time World Cup winner had to bring her second string horse IPS Painted Black instead of Olympic champion IPS Salinero.
When Steffen Peters won the Grand Prix test on Thursday, it was a huge victory, but it still didn’t seem possible that his result might repeat on Saturday night. After all, the Grand Prix doesn’t count for the freestyle, and surprises don’t happen very often on the international dressage stage.
Werth, who rode right before Peters, put in a good but slightly underpowered test. Satchmo showed no sign of the piaffe issues that plagued him at the Olympic Games, and the crowd loved Werth’s one-handed passage half-pass at the end of the test. The score of 84.50 percent seemed like a definite winner.
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Peters rode into the arena to a roar from the excited audience. Ravel kept his cool, although you could see the normally focused Dutch Warmblood (Contango—Hautain) was feeling the electricity. His fans continued to cheer throughout the test as Ravel showed off his spectacular piaffe, supple half-passes and powerful canter pirouettes. It didn’t hurt that the pair was riding to the strains of popular songs like Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” and the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy For The Devil.”
Ravel had a few moments in his test where it appeared that the crowd’s enthusiasm was worrying him, but Peters was able to immediately refocus the gelding’s attention. “I was definitely a little concerned [about the audience noise],” said Peters. “This was at the end before the quarter turns and piaffe, but the energy was still good, and I could see his ears were still pointed towards me instead of reacting to things, so I knew he was still with me. There was an amazing electricity in the crowd. It was very hard for the dressage fans to hold back, and I appreciate it.”
A Photo Finish
The scores were very close, but Peters and Ravel finished just ahead of Werth with 84.95 percent. Three judges had Werth in first, but high scores from Dutch judge Wim Ernes and U.S. judge Linda Zang placed Ravel in the winning position.
“[Werth and Peters] were extremely close together,” said Zang. “Both of them have a wonderful way of riding in a light contact. What made me like Steffen a little bit more was his piaffe. It was more correct, and there was more power, but a controlled and uphill power.”
“For me it was a really tough and close competition,” said an embittered Werth. “At the end I was second, but next time I’ll try to make it a bit harder for him. Maybe I’ll have one more judge, and it will be four, not three that have me in No. 1. I’m really, really happy with Satchmo. He was super. I had no problem inside. I think he’s really settled down in the arena. We were both really concentrated so it worked.”
Van Grunsven, the reigning World Cup title-holder, rode after Peters, and she appeared to be going for broke with IPS Painted Black. Her interpretation of the engaging and dynamic tango music was fantastic as usual, but when Painted Black had mistakes in both lines of two-tempis, it became obvious that a 10th World Cup wasn’t meant to be tonight.
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“I was really happy. It’s his first time at a big competition like this, and he can be sometimes better than other times,” said van Grunsven. “He was very good and very concentrated. I had a mistake in my two-tempis, but even with the mistake I’m very happy. I didn’t expect to be third before I came here. It was tough competition. He tried to do well. We had a mistake, and that can happen, but I’m still very pleased.
“I think it’s good that Steffen won. He had the highest score, and he was the best today,” van Grunsven continued generously. “Of course we’re going to go home and practice very hard to beat him next time. That’s how competition should be. It shouldn’t be that people think Isabell or Anky is going to win. It should be between all of us.”
Strong Performances Across The Board
Van Grunsven wasn’t the only Dutch rider to make an impression tonight. Hans-Peter Minderhoud had the ride of a lifetime with Exquis Nadine. Zang scored him with 9s for his extensions and 8s for his half-passes. Nadine got just a little bit tired at the end of their brilliant test and had a bit of trouble in the final line of piaffe and passage, but it was certainly good enough for fourth place (81.05%).
Canada’s Ashley Holzer had the bad luck to ride after Werth, Peters and van Grunsven, but she and Pop Art put in their usual cheerful, harmonious ride for fifth place (79.20%) over Germany’s Monica Theodorescu on Whisper (76.85%) and the Netherlands’ Jeanette Haazen on Nartan (75.60%).
It was Jan Brink’s last freestyle aboard his famous Swedish stallion, Bjorsells Briar 899, who at 18 is ready for retirement. Things didn’t go quite as Brink might have hoped when Briar decided to canter instead of passaging and then had mistakes in the two-tempis. But the pair got a big cheer from the crowd nonetheless, and Briar enjoyed a farewell lap of honor at the end of the show. They placed ninth (71.65%) behind Poland’s Michal Rapcewicz and Randon (72.75%).
