Hometown: San Diego, Calif. Birthday: 9/18/1964 Sport/Disciplines: Dressage Olympic Years: 1996, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020
Born in Wesel, Germany, Steffen Peters came to the United States in 1984 to work for trainer Laurie Falvo in San Diego. Southern California was a good fit for Peters, and he made the decision to stay, and became a U.S. citizen in 1992. He has been one of the country’s top international dressage competitors ever since, having represented the U.S. at four Olympic Games, four FEI World Equestrian Games™, and two Pan American Games.
Peters rode his KWPN gelding, Udon, to team bronze in his first Olympic outing in 1996. With Legolas 92, he won team and individual gold at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto and team bronze at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. With his longtime mount, Ravel, the KWPN gelding owned by Akiko Yamazaki, he won the FEI Dressage World Cup™ Final in 2009 and individual bronze at the 2010 WEG in Lexington. He has been recognized for his accomplishments with three USEF Equestrian of the Year titles, in 2008, 2009, and 2011.
Peters has built a phenomenal record with his current top horse, Suppenkasper, a KWPN gelding owned by Akiko Yamazaki and Four Winds Farm. They were undefeated in 2020 through the Adequan® Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Fla., and the CDI3* at Desert Dressage in Thermal, Calif. The pair kicked off 2021 in the same winning fashion, winning the CDI4* FEI Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special at AGDF 3 and the CDI5* FEI Grand Prix and Grand Prix Freestyle at AGDF 7.
Peters and Suppenkasper were part of the silver medal-winning U.S. Dressage Team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, where they also placed in the top 10 in the Grand Prix Special and Grand Prix Freestyle to Music.
In 2022, Peters and Suppenkasper swept the CDI3* Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special close to home in Thermal and Temecula, Calif., before traveling to compete in Europe for the summer. They represented the U.S. at the FEI Dressage Nations Cup Germany CDIO5* at CHIO Aachen, then went on to win the CDI4* Grand Prix and Grand Prix Freestyleat Kronberg in July.
Peters and his wife Shannon, a U.S. Dressage Federation bronze, silver, and gold medalist and three-time National Championships competitor, operate SPeters Dressage out of Arroyo Del Mar in San Diego, California.