Peters, Ravel No. 2 at Aachen

By Kelly Sanchez July 20, 2011

The United States Dressage Team came away from the World Equestrian Festival CHIO Aachen with much to celebrate—notably Steffen Peters’ second-place finish in the Grand Prix Freestyle with Ravel, and his sweep of the Prix St. Georges and Intermediaire classes with his “small tour” horse Weltino’s Magic. The annual German show, which ran July 8-17, is widely considered the most prestigious equestrian competition in the world.

In his first trip to Aachen since he and Akiko Yamazaki’s 13-year-old Dutch gelding Ravel swept the Grand Prix classes there in 2009, Peters, of San Diego, debuted a new Freestyle with music from the film Avatar. The difficult routine was so well received by the capacity crowd that when his score of 82% was posted, loud boos could be heard throughout the 5,000-seat Deutsche Bank Stadium. The Dutch equine phenomenon Totilas and his new rider, Matthias Alexander Rath of Germany, followed and scored an 82.825% to narrowly take the lead. Adelinde Cornelissen of the Netherlands and Jerich Parzival—the only combination to have ever beaten Totilas—ended up in third, with 81.775%. After the Freestyle, Peters said, “It is a dream come true to finish so close to Totilas. This was an amazing show for me here; the crowd was really behind Ravel and me.”

Peters and Ravel had had to settle for fifth place finishes in both the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Special classes in the days leading up to the Freestyle. The rest of the American dressage team— Californians Guenter Seidel of Cardiff, riding U II, and Moorpark’s Jan Ebeling on Rafalca, as well as the Florida-based Todd Flettrich of Wellington, riding Otto—had high hopes coming into the competition. But only Seidel came close to making the final cut of 15 for the Freestyle Final, with his 19th place finish (in a field of 30) in the qualifying Grand Prix Special (Flettrich was 23rd and Ebeling was 26th).

In the Grand Prix, Seidel and U II were 17th, Flettrich and Otto were 26th and Ebeling and Rafalca were 28th.

Peters and Jen Hlavacek’s 9-year-old Weltino’s Magic were the only American pair competing in the small tour events at Aachen, and they won them decisively, with a score of 72.759% in the Prix St. Georges and 73.947% in the Intermediaire I. It was the Westfalen gelding’s first taste of international competition, and it was clear that the meticulous preparation and training of the horse by Peters and his wife, Shannon, has paid off. Peters and “Magic” are expected to compete at the Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF National Dressage Championships in September for a spot on the U.S. team at the Pan American Games, which will be held in Guadalajara, Mexico, in October.

 

Short URL: https://theequestriannews.com/?p=3707