It all started just a week ago tonight.
Lars Petersen competing at Grand Prix with his special mount Succes. (Photo © 2007 by Nancy Jaffer)
Lars Petersen was at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Fla., for the Friday Night Lights freestyle and walked over to speak with his old compatriot, Andreas Helgstrand. Lars, a Danish Olympian who is now a U.S. citizen, had recommended that Andreas replace him as a rider when he left Denmark’s Blue Hors dressage breeding, training and competition facility in 2002.
Andreas, now CEO of the Global Equestrian Group that last year bought the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center, opened Helgstrand Dressage in Wellington after buying a farm in the village in 2020.
Last Friday, during their casual conversation, Andreas asked Lars whether he’d be interested in helping train a few of his riders, and Lars said he would.
The next question was, would you be interested in working there full time? That’s according to Lars’ wife, Melissa. Lars said yes, and as of April 1, Lars will be Helgstrand Dressage USA’s general manager, and he’ll be overseeing the riding and training of all the riders there. Melissa will be stable manager of the facility.
“It is crazy exciting. Life has taken almost a full circle for Lars. It’s almost like fate,” said Melissa.
Lars and Melissa Petersen. (Photo © by Nancy Jaffer)
She explained it had been coming to the point for the Petersens where they were going to have to make a decision on whether to buy the farm they were leasing or find another property.
“And then this happened. It all kind of happened for the right reasons, everything is falling into place,” she observed.
It was fast. They sat down and talked last Saturday and signed the contract Wednesday.
“It’s a dream come true for us,” said Lars.
“We are very overwhelmed by this opportunity. ”
As he noted, who does not want “to be a part of something so big–we will at least do our part to make Helgstrand even more successful here in Wellington and contribute to many more riders getting their dream come true.”
The Petersens will be bringing their horses, grooms and riders with them to Helgstrand, but they will stay in their own home.
“A lot of the Europeans who had horses through Helgstrand will want to come, so it will be opening the door to bring more competitors over,” Melissa said when asked about the prospects for what Helgstrand Dressage can do for the area.
Lars is busy riding himself and has horses in his string that are developing, but nothing at Grand Prix at this moment.
“It’s just kind of that in-between phase,” Melissa said.
“We are not the type that go and buy a Grand Prix horse, we make them up from young horses.”
The new arrangement is quite a whirlwind.
“It happened so fast and of course, there are a lot of little details that need to get worked through. We just decided we’re doing this and then we take the step, take a little bit of time to work things out,” Melissa said.
Earlier this month, Andreas indicated his company might buy the Equestrian Village where the Adequan Festival is held. At the time, he said, “At the moment, we only own the jumping part, so of course, we put all our efforts into the jumping,” he said, referring to the massive improvements made to PBIEC after GEG took over last summer.
And then today we were told that the Grands Prix of the 5-star dressage show at the end of next month will be held at PBIEC rather than Equestrian Village.
The qualifiers for the Grand Prix Special and Freestyle will be held on Wednesday night Feb. 23, with the Freestyle and Special under the lights two nights later.
Steffen Peters and Suppenkasper in the June 2021 observation event for Olympic dressage candidates at PBIEC.
“We look forward to welcoming international dressage back to Palm Beach International Equestrian Center show grounds,” said Equestrian Sport Productions President Michael Stone.
“With the success of hosting dressage in the International Arena…(for the final Olympic dressage team observation competition last June), we aim to promote dressage and want to provide another spectacular venue for riders and spectators to enjoy.”
The last time a 5-star was held at PBIEC was in 2010.
