What a beautiful day today in Aachen. Hot weather, great dressage and Steffen Peters blew away EVERYONE with his stunning performance aboard Ravel in the CDIO Grand Prix.
The American came to Europe to test his horse against the European competition and see where he is positioned at on the world ranking right now. Peters was not a breath of fresh air but an absolute whirlwind which swept through the Deutsche Bank stadion and stole the hearts of 5000 visitors and five judges. Peters was invincible and won the class with 77.830%.
Peters and Ravel were in unison in the Grand Prix. They started their test with strong trot extensions and superb trot half passes. The rhythm in piaffe and passage was good, but Ravel kicked out in the transition from passage to canter. The zig zag could have been more balanced and though the pirouette left was great, the one to the right was a bit too big. The single tempi changes were fantastic. The highlight of the ride was probably Ravel's constant relaxation and the soft contact with the bit. Everyone knew that Peters snatched the victory and the crowds went wild when Peters left the ring.
"After our win at Las Vegas there were higher expectations of Ravel and myself,” Peters told the press. “There was obviously more pressure to perform. One of the questions in America was whether we should compete in Europe. I felt it was important for us to measure ourselves with international standards, which we find at Aachen. We proved today that we can do it. We proved that we can go into the mouth of the lion and win.”
In Aachen, Peters was coached by Johann Hinnemann, Steffen's first professional trainer and employer.
“When I started in Germany I trained with Johann Hinnemann for six years. In the meantime, Klaus was our coach and I certainly cooperated and worked with him in a wonderful way, and of course the results speak for themselves. But actually my mom lives very close to Jo Hinnemann’s barn and the food and laundry services are great and made it obviously very easy!"
"Jo is a wonderful coach and he knows, especially that we are only there for ten days he is not going to go in there and change the world. Technically he is a great coach, and made a few minor adjustments from the ground. Today was a good cooperation between my wife Shannon who is my coach at home and Jo on the side. So it as a very good set up, and today the results speak for themselves.”
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