‘I will always accept criticism’: former medal-winner responds following Olympic dressage disappointment

US rider Steffen Peters has responded to criticism of his “disappointing” performance in the Paris Olympic dressage grand prix on Wednesday (31 July).

The six-time Olympian and 16-year-old Suppenkasper, who were part of the silver-medal winning team at the Tokyo Games, scored an uncharacteristic 66.49%. This meant they came ninth of 10 in group F – and out of the qualifying scores for the individual medal-deciding grand prix freestyle on Sunday (4 August).

Steffen and Suppenkasper started off positively, with their marks trending above 70%, but at the end of the extended walk Suppenkasper appeared to spook, and from then the pair had a tricky ride. In the last centre line they struggled to get the piaffe, and the halt was not immobile.

After his test, Steffen said it was “tough” and that Suppenkasper had been “a little too much on fire”.

“He’s been in places like this before, and I thought right after the walk I had him, and he got more and more excited, and even on the last extension he was drifting a little right,” said Steffen.

“He saw something on the short side, and [it] gave him from behind so much energy for that last passage, and I knew that could be trouble for the last piaffe.”

US chef d’equipe Christine Traurig said that she shared Steffen’s disappointment, “especially taking into consideration what this combination has done for this sport, our country, and worldwide, bringing so much positive engagement to and energy to dressage over the past few years”

“It became obvious to me during their test, ‘Mopsie’ was not himself. Once he returned to stabling after cool-down, he was taken care of by his team and our team US Equestrian veterinarian and is starting to feel more himself, which is the most important thing,” she said.

In an update today (1 August) Steffen thanked everyone for their support leading up to Paris, and he addressed the pair’s performance.

“Of course it wasn’t a good performance yesterday, and I just wanted to clarify, Mopsie came in pretty relaxed and did a good halt. We started with beautiful extensions and half passes, but as soon as the walk came around, you could clearly see the tension,” he said.

“For some reason Mopsie got hotter and hotter towards the end of the test, and unfortunately the big disaster on the last centre line.”

Steffen said that he wanted to be “upfront and clear” that the test was “a very painful disappointment”.

“I woke up this morning at 3am and you hope it was just a bad dream, but it was very obvious that it was the reality, and the reality hurts,” he said.

“I know from the past that if I hold on to the negativity and disappointment; I know exactly how damaging it can be. It’s going to take a few days, maybe even a few weeks, to let go of this. But I will let go.”

Steffen added that “as far as my riding, there were some negative words”.

“I totally accept this. And I will always accept the criticism. But what I won’t accept is if Mopsie’s criticised, because he will always be my ‘rave’ horse,” said Steffen, referring to the pair’s upbeat freestyle performances for which they have become fondly known.

“And he’ll always be my best friend,” he said.

The US dressage team has had a tough time in Versailles. As well as claiming silver in Tokyo, the US won bronze at the Rio Olympics in 2016, and silver at the 2018 World Equestrian Games, but in Paris they have failed to qualify for the team or individual finals.

Marcus Orlob and 10-year-old mare Jane were eliminated during the grand prix on Tuesday (30 July) under the blood rule, as the mare sustained a “very minor cut” when she knocked herself prior to entering the arena. As all three combination scores count, this meant the team did not make it into the team medal-deciding grand prix special on Saturday (3 August).

Adrienne Lyle and 12-year-old gelding Helix scored 72.59% in the grand prix on Tuesday, to finish third in the group C. Only the top two from each group qualified for the freestyle, followed by the six next highest-scoring combinations, and Adrienne missed out; sixth place went to Poland’s Sandra Sysojeva and Maxima Bella, who scored 73.42%.

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