“When a correction takes too long, you miss a training opportunity.”
“Find a better frame and neck position before asking for a canter depart.”
“Your horse needs to learn to be less dependent on you — self carriage!”
“I never saw the benefit of keeping a horse too long at First Level.”
Those words of dressage wisdom were among many helpful comments delivered by Steffen Peters, the World Cup champion; Olympic, world championships and Pan American Games multi-medalist, in a clinic at the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation in Gladstone, N.J.
Eight riders at various stages of training took the opportunity over the weekend for a critique from one of the sport’s greats, and a few dozen auditors showed up to listen as well.
Steffen’s observations in the clinic were always to the point, but delivered with tact and kindness.
Morgen Myrdal admitted that if she hadn’t audited a 2024 clinic given by Steffen in Warwick, N.Y., “I probably would have been too intimidated” to sign up for the one in Gladstone with her sturdy 14-hand Connemara, Irish Gate’s Oberon McDuff (known as Doc).
But after watching how Steffen handled the New York clinic Morgen realized, “He is very understanding. I knew that he could help me; there were a couple of horses that had similar issues” to what she has encountered with Doc.
Steffen offers tips to Morgen Myrdal and Doc. ( Photo © 2025 by Nancy Jaffer)
She thought as she watched Steffen’s New York clinic, “I’m taking a lot of notes. If I could ride with this guy, that would be even better.” And that’s just how it turned out.
Born in Germany, Steffen rode with trainer Jo Hinneman, then came to the U.S. to work in 1985, establishing himself on the West Coast. The horse that arrived with him was Udon, a talented KWPN gelding his father had bought as a three-year-old. Udon was his mount when he rode in his first Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 as a naturalized citizen on the U.S. team. He would go on to ride in five more Olympics.
These days, Steffen is doing one clinic a month, in Europe and Australia as well as the U.S.
“I enjoy this,” said the Californian about being a clinician, “and it doesn’t always have to be finished Grand Prix horses. We saw here three or four horses that still need to be taught to be properly connected. If I can bring across a little inspiration, I’ve done my job.”
He emphasizes with the riders “the standard of energy and suppleness, that the horse truly moves easily forward from the leg, maintaining this inside the horse, instead of letting the energy go out the front door.”
Rebecca Bowden, a 17-year-old high school student, is a former hunter rider now focusing on dressage with her skewbald (spotted, or as the British say, coloured) 15-year-old RPSI (German) gelding, Sky’s the Limit GSF.
She acknowledged riding in front of Steffen was “a little bit intimidating at first, but I didn’t ride the first day, I just audited. Listening to how he was teaching other people was very reassuring. This is what I could expect and he’s calming to listen to, so I imagined riding would be similar.”
Rebecca Bowden and Sky’s the Limit GSF raised their sights after getting suggestions from Steffen. (Photo © 2025 by Nancy Jaffer)
What was the most important thing she learned?
“To have higher expectations for both of us, to think of him (her horse) more as a partner and have more confidence in what we can both do,” Rebecca reported.
Emily Amon drove 90 minutes from South Jersey to audit the clinic. She is riding Second Level on her New Zealand sport horse and explained that she came because, “I want to take every opportunity I can to learn as much as I can, so when I saw this, I jumped on the opportunity to sit and learn. You can learn a lot by watching and listening. It’s super educational.”
The clinic was very well-organized by Lidiya Frumova of Tewksbury, N.J. A rider who is working toward her U.S. Dressage Federation silver medal on horses she has trained, she missed riding in front of Steffen because she is pregnant, though her energy level was high as she made sure everything ran smoothly.
Clinic organizer Lidiya Frumova with Steffen Peters. (Photo © 2025 by Nancy Jaffer)
“All of the riders gave me wonderful feedback,” she said.
“They’re extremely happy with the progress they made with just one lesson and a lot of the auditors are asking if we’re going to be having another one of these.
“I’m hoping to get a date from Steffen for next year. We’re hoping also to do others,” she added, mentioning Kim Herslow (Steffen’s teammate at the 2015 Pan American Games) and respected judge Linda Zang.
Steffen, 60, who hasn’t been in a show since the Paris Olympics, told me when we chatted at the lunch break that “I’m 99 percent sure that I want to retire from competing.”
His last Grand Prix horse, Suppenkasper, retired after the 2024 Games.
However, he added quickly, “I’m not quite ready to say I’m 100 percent retired. Not quite yet. There’s that 1 percent of me that still says I’d love to give it one more shot for LA (the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics), since it’s at home.”
But he’s philosophical about what fate might have in store for him.
“Let’s face it: For 20 years, we had a really good run, so many wonderful horses that consistently did really well. We were blessed with a lot of sound horses. We never missed a major competition because of injury or lameness. I take a lot of pride in that.”
Steffen on Suppenkasper at the 2023 FEI World Cup Finals in Omaha. (Photo © 2025 by Nancy Jaffer)
He thought a moment and added, “It’s been six Olympics, with a gigantic highlight (team silver) in Tokyo. It’s probably good enough.”
He had two horses with possibilities, but his wife, Shannon, took them over, as Steffen is dealing with neuropathy in his hands and feet.
“We’re optimistic I can make this more manageable, and I don’t think competing would help that,” he explained.
His treatment involves “daily contrast therapy, with hot sauna, and then a three-minute cold plunge in 40-degree water. The pain goes to zero, but unfortunately, it comes back. At least I can interrupt the pain cycle.”
We talked about how U.S. riders are faring on the international scene.
“Looking at America at the moment, let’s be honest, we are in a rebuilding time,” he pointed out. “There are clearly three/four team horses that we can see. On many occasions, the year before the Olympics, we get something together and produced a heck of a team.”
In order to do that, he said, “What we need to look for is again those training camps together, not just two weeks or three weeks, but those two months in Europe, competing together, being there for each other, building that real family feeling we had in Rio (the 2016 Olympics); we had it in Tokyo (2021), we had it on so many occasions.”
Before Paris, he noted, “we didn’t have the option to have too many people together. We were a little bit on different farms before Paris. Everyone knew that needs to change for the future.”
At the Paris Games, he finished fifty-first after his horse “got very nervous, very spooky. He’s seen more electric arenas, like the World Cup in Omaha.”
So Steffen was surprised.Then he pointed out, “They’re animals, it happened and I don’t think that defines his career or my career, it just can happen.
“When people ask me about Paris, what happened in Paris, let’s not sugarcoat that either, that wasn’t good.”
But he doesn’t dwell on it.
“I’ve learned to switch so quickly to all the good times we had. Someone asks me about Paris, I give a very detailed explanation, (then) my mind switches immediately to Tokyo.
“We have choices. We can either question what happened in Paris or we can say those other 20 years before, they were pretty darn good.”
With controversy these days about dressage training methods getting publicity, “it’s a challenging time in the sport,” he observed.
“Maybe it’s not the wrong time for me to take a break.”
Then he smiled and emphasized, “But again, the door is open.”
