When I heard Steffan Peters was attending the 2009 FEI Dressage Forum, I was extremely excited. What a wonderful opportunity for New Zealand riders, trainers, judges and anyone with an interest in Equestrian. I was fortunate enough to be selected on my young stallion Doringcourt along with other riders throughout New Zealand. It was everything that I imagined and more. Steffan has a very special way with the horses and the riders. His training philosophy is fair, simple but extremely effective. “It should never be complicated,” he said. “We should always work towards doing as little as possible, making our aids simple but constantly testing the horses reaction to that aid. Can we make that aid lighter each time we give it? Work towards that.” Steffan also emphasized that when we are training at home, we need to not ride like we are in the competition arena and use the mistakes we make in training as opportunities to correct the horse. “Too often riders get tricked into being like show riders and sitting pretty but not being completely effective. It is important not to be afraid of mistakes - who cares if you make a mistake? Then we can fix it and take care of business and the horse learns and progresses from that mistake.
I rode Dorincourt in the flying changes section. I was slightly nervous as I have only just started teaching him single changes but I had a great ride and was rapt with the training exercises he used to help me get a clean change on both reins every time.
The biggest thing I took away from the Forum and what impressed me so much about Steffan was his mental attitude, especially towards his horses. He is so unbelievably humble and unaffected by his high status of being a World Champion. Steffan seems very balanced in the way that he lives his life, trains, competes etc and it was inspiring to see. Another thing which impressed me was his very obvious passion towards his horses and horses. When he spoke about his World Champion mount “Ravel” you could very much see the passion and emotion of how fond he is of his special horse.
I came away from the Forum feeling very excited and inspired and I really hope we continue to bring these wonderful World Class Riders and Trainers to New Zealand. It gives us great inspiration, encouragement and importantly exposure for the future of dressage in New Zealand.
Thank you to Dressage NZ for organising such a world class Forum!
Andrea Bank
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