Steffen Peters and Ravel go into Saturday night’s Grand Prix in poll position. Peters – riding for the USA but originally from Germany – put in a fluid and fault free performance on the Contango sired gelding.

The combination made all the work look easy with the horse looking relaxed and attentive despite loud whooping and cheering from an excited home crowd.

Steffen sat very quietly yet the horse looked to be giving the test his all – a superb display of horsemanship. After the test he said: “He has felt better in the last six weeks than he felt last year. The ride today was one of the best ones – he felt really good and energetic. It is a wonderful start to the season.”

Ravel got rather excited on the victory lap, and afterwards Peters said: “I must keep him relaxed on Saturday with the music. As you saw today in the lap of honour, there is lots of fire in the horse. I need to increase the degree of difficulty but my priority is a happy confident horse. There is so much at stake now.”

“I have changed some things in the test so I have options,” he explained. “If he feels relaxed, I will go for it. I’ll know coming down the centre line.”

There was a tense moment after the test when Ravel stretched down and got a foot caught through his reins as he was leaving the arena, but Peters jumped off and the horse did not appear upset.

The World Dressage Masters are the richest dressage competition in the world, with today's prize money of 10,000 Euro and Saturday's prize money of 30,000 and 60,000 Euro for the special and the Kur respectively.

Dutch reigning Olympic champion Anky van Grunsven had to settle for second place with Salinero. The notoriously hot gelding was wearing ear covers and looked well, but small mistakes in the fluidity of the test proved costly.

The electronic scoreboard compared competitors’ scores with that of the current leader and saw the pair below Peters from the outset.

Anky said: “He felt great. The first two days here he was really tense, but I am really pleased with him.”

Salinero’s final halt today was still and square. When asked what she had done to improve this, she said: “The crowd is far away in this arena so that helps. That’s why it was ok today. The arena is quieter so it is better for him and the people are further away.”

Germany's Isabell Werth took third place on her Olympic partner Satchmo. The gelding looked relaxed when he entered the arena on a long rein and produced some sensational expressive extensions.

“After eight months without competing [Isabell has just given birth to a son, Frederick] you miss the fine tuning. He felt good today but we have to get the little mistakes away. He was quite concentrated but we made three mistakes; two unforced errors. Those mistakes are expensive against Stefan and Anky.”

“I think the arena is huge and I think as impressive for him as it is for me,” she laughed. “There is snow at home so I feel a bit guilty but I’m really impressed with the show ground. It’s my first time here but I’m sure it’s not the last.”

Today’s grand prix was the qualifier for Saturday’s competition and sees the top eight combinations going through to the kur under lights on Saturday night, with the remaining riders going through to the special on Saturday afternoon.

Here are the full results from today’s grand prix:

Steffen Peters Ravel USA 76.851%
Anky van Grunsven Salinero NED 74.638%
Isabel Werth Satchmo 78 GER 72.553%
Ashley Holzer Pop Art CAN 72.426%
Ulla Salzgeber Wakana GER 69.362%
Anja Ploenzke Le Mont d'Or GER 68.170%
Christa Laarakkers Ovation NED 68.170%
Pierre Saint Jacques Lucky Tiger USA 66.213%
Tina Konyot Calecto V USA 65.702%
Elisabeth Austin Oliver USA 65.702%
Mikala Munter Gundersen Leonberg DEN 65.532%
Belinda Trussell Anton CAN 65.404%
Leslie Morse Top Top 962 USA 64.851%
Aat van Essen Premier NED 64.170%
Diane Creech Devon L CAN 64.085%
Michael Barisone Olympus USA 63.489%