Ravel

2009 USEF Horse of the Year 

The bay Dutch Warmblood gelding Ravel made his indelible impression on the dressage world after winning 10 out of the 11 FEI classes he entered in 2009. Ridden by Steffen Peters, Ravel’s historic win in the Grand Prix and Freestyle at the 2009 FEI Dressage World Cup Finals in Las Vegas, Nevada, made the US entry the first ever to win the title on American soil in front of an excited home crowd of 7,000!

© Arnd Bronkhorst

Owner Akiko Yamazaki of Four Winds Farm bought the horse as an Olympic prospect in 2006. After spending most of 2007 recovering from injury, he finished just out of the medals as the highest-placed U.S. entry at the 2008 Beijing Olympics - his first year of Grand Prix level dressage. Next year at the 2009 World Equestrian Festival in Aachen, Germany, he was the first US entry in the almost 80 years of history of the show to sweep all three tests. Ravel and Peters finished out their spectacular year with the highest of honors. Peters was named US Equestrian Federation 2009 Equestrian of the Year for the second year in a row.

Out of the 130,000 horses registered with the USEF, Ravel was voted USEF 2009 Horse of the Year. Ravel was also U.S. Dressage Federation Horse of the Year, KWPN-NA (Royal Dutch Warmblood) Horse of the Year and Chronicle of the Horse Horse of the Year, inspiring his proud owner to call him a horse that “made a dream [she] didn’t even know could have come true!”

At the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Lexington, KY, Ravel and Peters earned double individual bronze medals - the only individual medals won by Americans at WEG. After competing in the 2012 Olympics, Ravel was officially retired to Yamazaki's Four Winds Farm. He was honored with a place in the USEF Horse Stars Hall of Fame in 2013, speaking to his outstanding achievements as one of the greatest American dressage horses of all time.

Ravel's portrait model was available as part of the Breyer lineup from 2010 to 2012.