Horse Illustrated Magazine

The U.S. Dressage Team concluded their final night at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 contesting the FEI Grand Prix Freestyle for Individual Medals. Steffen Peters, of San Diego, Calif., and Suppenkasper, as well as Sabine Schut-Kery, of Napa, Calif., and Sanceo both represented the team in their final event. Peters and Suppenkasper recorded an 80.968 percent from the Ground Jury, while teammate Schut-Kery and Sanceo recorded their third personal best score of the week, earning an 84.300 percent.

After their historic team medal performance last night, Peters and Schut-Kery rode down the centerline to their FEI Grand Prix Freestyle music, giving the arena in Tokyo one last ride. Peters and “Mopsie” have a very modern and upbeat musical arrangement that Peters as said reminds him both of his struggles and of his excitement and energy for what’s to come.

“Mopsie gave me everything yesterday,” said Peters. “Every single ounce of cooperation, and he fought for our team. It was a clean test and almost an 81 percent, so we’re happy. The beginning of the music is ‘It’s Going to Be Okay’ by James Blunt, and personally, I’ve gone through a couple of rough years, and my wife always kept telling me, ‘It’s going to be okay,’ so to honor her, I picked that music and also included the music I used with Ravel in 2009 when he won World Cup Finals. I figured after twelve years, it was eligible for recyling.”

Schut-Kery and Sanceo, who have been impressive in each of their outings this week in Tokyo, haven’t performed their Freestyle since 2018 and rose to the occasion to score a huge improvement on their previous personal best in the freestyle.

“It comes down to the fact that he’s there for me, and I really do feel like we have an incredible partnership. He’s just sensitive, but not over-reactive. Simply, he lets me guide him and lets me be the leader,” said Schut-Kery, as she described her longtime partnership with Sanceo. “My husband made this music for me. The first song with the piaffe and passage is from the Last Samurai, so it’s very fitting, and I just love it. It has some elegant pieces, and I think it really resembles Sanceo.”

The pairs efforts rounding out what has nearly been a two-month journey for the athletes, coaches, and support staff has come to a joyous close with the team returning to the United States with the team silver, the culmination of a massive group effort to ensure the team’s success.

“What an incredible few weeks we’ve all had together, and I am just so proud of this entire team,” said McDonald. “We came into these Olympics knowing that we could really deliver on the world stage, and this historic silver medal is a testament to all of the hard work everyone involved in this program has built upon over the last several years. I am thrilled with our team and the continued momentum we’ve seen year over year at this level.”

Next on the equestrian schedule for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is the discipline of eventing, which will begin tomorrow with the First Horse Inspection at 10:30 a.m. JST/9:30 p.m. EDT and the first session of dressage taking place on Friday, July 29 at 8:30 a.m. JST/7:30 p.m. EDT.

Complete Tokyo Olympics Coverage