If there’s a time when an athlete aspires to peak, it’s at the Olympics Games.

Dressage rider Steffen Peters (USA) did exactly that.

Competing in his fourth Olympics, Peters delivered a near-foot perfect Grand Prix test in Rio aboard the 14-year-old gelding, Legolas. It was the horse’s best performance to date, said Peters.

“It has always been my dream to deliver for my team. It’s the Olympic Games, so we are 90% about the team medal and the other 10%, maybe even less, is the individual medal. I’m just so excited that Legolas did one of his best tests of his life, maybe one of the best tests of my life!” enthused Peters.

It was a performance five years in the making. Peters first acquired the ride on Legolas in 2011. At the time, the Westfalen gelding had been trained to Grand Prix level by Ullrich Kasselmann but had very little show experience.

“It’s been a difficult road with Legolas. Sometimes I didn’t know exactly which horse was going into the show arena. But he did not change one single bit from the warm-up arena to the show arena, and there was not one single point that we gave away. He delivered everything that I dreamed of,” continued Peters.

“His half-passes felt amazing in trot. The trot extensions got better—that’s always been a weak point. His piaffe/passage was very high today. I was able to keep the 15 steps of piaffe in place. Again, there wasn’t a single point where I say, this could have been better.

“This was it! This was the test I dreamed of for my team.”

Teammate Laura Graves delivered the top result for Team USA, earning a 78.071% with her veteran partner Verdades. She currently sits in fifth individually, just ahead of Peters.

“Unfortunately, we were not able to ride clean today, but I’m super happy with the feeling and the way the training is reflecting [in the ring],” said Graves.

©FEI/Richard Juilliart

©FEI/Richard Juilliart

Team Germany (81.295%) leads by over two percent going into today’s Grand Prix Special with three riders—Kristina Broring-Sprehe, Dorothee Scheider, and Isabelle Wirth—in the top four individually. Great Britain (79.252%) and the USA  (76.971%) are in second and third, respectively. But the Americans have their work cut out for them in today’s Grand Prix Special. The Netherlands hot on their heels at 76.043%.

Current world record holders and defending Olympic champions Charlotte Dujardin (GBR) and Valegro logged the best score of the day with 85.071%.


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