US Dressage Team for WEG Headed By RH Faves Steffen Peters & Ravel
The USEF Festival of Champions has wrapped up in New Jersey, and we officially have our first World Equestrian Games team named! Steffen Peters, Tina Konyot, Todd Flettrich and Katherine Bateson-Chandler will be representing the US in dressage at WEG next month.
I’m super thrilled and not all surprised that Steffen Peters and Ravel have the top spot on the team. My only disappointment is that Anky and Salinero won’t be attending WEG. I like when Steffen has the opportunity to thoroughly trounce her. His horsemanship, quiet manner, and level of care for all horses totally won me over when I saw him as a clinician at Equine Affaire a few years ago. Plus he’s one that I just love to watch ride. He and Ravel have been on the up and up, winning nearly every major title since their fourth place finish at the Olympics two years ago. And they just scored an 82% in a Grand Prix in California prior to catching a red-eye flight to join the rest of the team in New Jersey.
Honestly, since I have a habit of following a little bit of all horse sports instead of one in-depth, I don’t have a clue who any of the other dressage riders on the team are. I guess that means will have to find out! It’s always fun to know a little bit about each of our team members at a major international event like WEG. I’ll do some research and get back to you with some more info on the other riders and their horses.
Our WEG dressage team gets a very short respite from competition, and then they will start working hard to prepare for their stint in Kentucky. They met with USEF Dressage Technical Advisor Anne Gribbons yesterday and today to go over the plan for the next month. Training begins in earnest on September 4, where they will cover everything from mental and physical preparation, to WEG etiquette and how to handle the media.
In honor of the US dressage team, next on the docket is the profile of World Equestrian Games dressage. Keep your eye out for the run-down in the next day.
And best wishes to our entire dressage team – and especially to my favorites Steffen and Ravel!
Update: Silly me forgot that I already wrote the WEG dressage overview. Check it out!
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The team this year is really great people! I wrote up profiles of all the riders (well I am still working on Kathy’s) that I will post on my blog so you can get a little bit of a bio. If you can interview any of them for a video try and get Tina because she is hysterically funny! I also bet if you get in touch with Todd you might be able to interview him at WEGs because he is the nicest person ever. Like he is just a normal guy who happens to be an amazing rider. I was worried that the jerk and spur riders would be rewarded, but three out of the four on the team are super quiet and super great riders!
Todd is a amazing guy and great rider. He has had a great career and he is a solid teammate.
Tina has a fabulous horse in Calecto,a Danish Stallion. She is a effortless rider and scores consistently in the 70% including at AAchen,
Katherine, is a beautiful rider, and the protege of Olympian, and Canadian team coach, Robert Dover. Her horse, Nartan, Was the horse of Dutch team rider Janette Hadgens, The horse is owned by Jane Forbes Clark, Who also sponsored Robert Dover, throughout his career.