Louisville, KY – In January of 2009 Steffen Peters was honored with the USEF’s Equestrian of the Year Award for his uncanny sportsmanship and his achievements on the field of play throughout 2008. In 2010, at the USEF Pegasus Awards dinner he was bestowed the title again – this time for simply blowing the doors off the dressage world in 2009.

Made even sweeter by the fact that the beloved horse who made it all possible picked up the top honors the night before at the 2009 Farnam®/Platform™ Horse of the Year Awards dinner, 2009 is a year that will go down in history as the year of Peters and Ravel.

In April, Peters (San Diego, CA) became only the second American to win the FEI World Cup Dressage Final™, and the first to do so in the US when he stormed to victory in Las Vegas. With Ravel, the performance brought the crowd to their feet and then to tears as the 11-year-old Dutch gelding owned by Aikiko Yamazaki proved how much he had improved since his fourth place finish at the 2008 Olympic Games. He looked the very best in the eye and never wavered – putting the historically Euro-centric dressage world on notice that the game had indeed changed.

The pair then cruised into Peters’ native country of Germany and through the CDIO Aachen achieving another first for the US: they swept Europe’s most prestigious event.

But it is the character of the 45-year-old German expatriate that makes it so appropriate for him to take these honors back-to-back.

“Tonight was very special,” said Peters who rode at a horse show in California this morning. “Akiko made it possible (for me to be here). Last year I was in Florida for a clinic so this year. Being able to be here and give credit to Ravel, Akiko, Jerry and my wife Shannon. It certainly was an amazing year, and I have to thank Ravel for that. I want to thank every single person who voted for me.”

Peters is the definition of a class act – as a competitor, as a sportsman, as a trainer and as an ambassador for his country. He joins Beezie Madden (who won in 2005 and 2006) and the man who presented him with the award, USEF President and 2000 Individual Olympic Gold Medalist, David O’Connor, as the only two-time winners of this highest honor (O’Connor won in 2000 and 2002).

“I have learned from people like my teammate Debbie McDonald that as you become very successful, you always become more humble,” said Peters.

It was an historic night for the sport of dressage, and after Peters was recognized for his year of achievement, a woman who was a huge part of his story in 2009 was honored for a lifetime of it.
Names like George Morris, Lowell Boomer, Don Burt and Jack LeGoff have been bestowed the USEF Lifetime Achievement Award but until tonight there had been a name missing from the list.

No longer.

Jessica Ransehousen, the stalwart of the US Dressage program since arriving on the scene as a competitor halfway through the last century, she has been National Champion, a member of three Olympic Teams and a Pan American Games Team as a rider, her influence since she left the saddle will resonate throughout the sport forever.

Ransehousen (Unionville, PA) has been the Chef d’Equipe for the US Dressage riders at three Olympic Games, two World Championships and four Pan American Games, steering the teams to Team Bronze at both the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games and to Team and Individual Gold at the 1999 Pan American Games.

Ransehousen’s steadfast attention to detail, commitment to the sport and unwavering determination have put her, rightfully, in the company of the legends of the game.

“David called me up and I wasn’t there and I called him back and here I was thinking there was something wrong,” said Ransehousen. “He said, ‘Oh I am so glad to get you on the phone -you won the Lifetime Achievement Award.’ And I say, ‘What for?’And he says, ‘Well you do deserve it.’”

She served as Chef d’Equipe at both the 2009 FEI World Cup Final and the CDIO Aachen, and was an integral part of making sure that Ravel and Peters’ path to history was a smooth one.

“2009 was a very special year for America,” said Ransehousen after she described the evolution of the sport in the United States.

The evidence was in the awards handed out over the past two days.
Before Ransehousen’s name joined the company of legends, everyone attending the Pegasus dinner was assured that the future of the sport will be in good hands when Maxance McManamy was honored as the USEF Junior Equestrian of the Year.

McManamy (Templeton, CA) won Team and Individual Gold medals at the 2009 Adequan© FEI North American Junior/Young Rider Championships in August with her horse Beacon Hill, but she is a great ambassador, not only for the sport of eventing, but for all those who call themselves Equestrians.

As invested in her top horses as she is in developing horses for the future and giving back to a community and a sport that have defined her. She has developed the Marcel Fortney Iron Horse award for the highest placing young rider riding an Off-the-Track Thoroughbred in the US Eventing Association’s Area VI. Her goal is to expand it to the other nine Areas. She also volunteers at a number of local charity events, developed a non-profit for developing off-the –track racehorses into sport horses and manages to maintain a 4.0 GPA in her studies.

Complete list of the Equestrians of Honor is available here: http://www.usef.org/_IFrames/newsdisplay/viewPR.aspx?id=5175&star=true.

ENDS
For updates, blogs and video from the 2010 USEF Annual Meeting please see www.clubequestrian.com. For information about the USEF Awards Program, please visit: http://www.usef.org/_IFrames/pointsAwards/hoty/Default.aspx or contact the USEF Marketing Coordinator, Melissa Davis at [email protected].

Photo of (L-R) Steffen Peters, Jessica Ransehousen and Maxance McManamy to be used only in relation to this press release and credited to Geoff Oliver Bugbee

Please contact Joanie Morris at [email protected] with media requests for the 2009 Pegasus Award winners.