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Steffen Peters

Steffen Peters

Dressage
SPDS
Arroyo Del Mar, Calif.

Steffen Peters was introduced to small business at an early age but decided it wasn’t for him. Growing up in Wesel, Germany, Peters was expected to take over the family clothing store one day. “I helped out my dad, but I knew it was not for me,” he says.

But Peters loved horses. His family had a weekend house near the Dutch border, and “any second I had, I was with animals,” he says. “Understanding an animal’s mind is fascinating to me.” Today Peters is leading the U.S. dressage contingent to Beijing with Ravel, a Dutch Warmblood gelding with whom he’s won six Grand Prix titles.

And Peters has started his own family businesses. He and his wife, noted equestrian Shannon Barnes, run an eight-employee, $600,000 boarding facility for horses in Arroyo Del Mar, Calif. Peters’ other business, SPDS, trains horses to compete in dressage, an event in which riders guide their horses through complex footwork. Peters also sells horses to buyers all over the world. Not surprisingly, Peters has changed his thinking about entrepreneurship. “It’s a huge luxury if you can turn your hobby into a business.”