Normandie, France, was host to the World Equestrian Games (known the world over as the WEG) this August and what a fantastic outcome for Team USA. The western reining team received the gold in two events, the para riders going strong, and the eventers did well with their placings.
Since my main interest is dressage, and I have been following that all week in between things, I am happy to report that the last dressage competition ended Friday and also, happily and excitedly, our Valley representative Laura Graves, Fayston, went above and beyond everyone's expectations by nailing an 82 percent in the Grand Prix Freestyle to music!
There are videos of her rides on YouTube, and of eight-time Olympian Robert Dover and Laura's mom Freddie jumping up and down at the end of one of her rides! There were many family members in attendance, Laura's boyfriend Curt, many local Vermont horse people, including Bebe and Leslie Whittle, to cheer her on.
As reported previously, Laura and her Dutch-bred, Vermont-raised horse Verdades (Diddy) rose steadily in the rankings all week, with scores that started in the 70s hitting the 77 percent mark in the Grand Prix Special and ending with the freestyle score of 82 percent.This has has been an exciting precedent-setting week for the U.S. team. The U.S. has never ever had such a score at the WEG.
So get this: The Europeans are atwitter with excitement over Laura Graves. In Europe, there are big-time sponsors of the riders and with the fabulous breeding programs, especially the Germans, Dutch and now with the top riders in the world Great Britain, they usually have the top 10 places wrapped up.
Enter the U.S. wild card pair: Laura Graves and Verdades (everyone over there saying "who?" as neither horse nor rider had ever competed in Europe until July) had only ridden three Grand Prix tests before the championships in Gladstone, NJ, and suddenly found themselves on a plane to Europe, guaranteed a spot on the U.S. team.
Their rides just kept getting better and better, and Laura was so sweet in an interview I saw online. The reporter asked her if she was nervous. She told a story about how the morning of the competition she told Chef D'Equip Robert Dover that she had a pain in her stomach. He said that it was nerves. She said no, I'm not nervous. He said, "Laura, a pain in your stomach is from nerves!" Well she didn't know. Now she knows!
How great is that?
Also, get this: Steffen Peters, our top-scoring rider (prior to Laura), originally from Europe, is now a U.S. citizen who makes southern California his home. Akiko Yamazaki (wife of Jerry Yang of Yahoo.com) buys his horses for him and foots the bill for all of his training and competitions and has been doing so for years. Steffen took Laura under his wing as they embarked to cross the pond. He is our cream of the crop and Laura is getting higher scores than he is.
Not only that, Steffen has graciously been talking about passing the torch on to the next generation and has spent his time in Europe talking about none other than ... Laura! He even stated that Laura's rides were better than his. (True, you can watch a comparison on YouTube if you want and the link to Steffen's talk about Laura is below.) A member of the U.S. Equestrian Press, Ken Braddick (who has been taking outstanding photos of Laura for his Dressage-News.com publication) said that as soon as Laura came out of the ring, he was deluged by reporters wanting the story behind Laura and her amazing ride to the top.
Now there is more: There is a story with details that Laura will tell about how Freddie picked Verdades out from a video and they bought him when she was 15 years old and he was a foal (weanling), how they trained him, how she broke her back, and how Diddy broke his jaw. That is Laura's story to tell ... maybe it will be a movie? Anyway I am going to tell you more from my perspective as a longtime trainer, FEI rider and low-level judge.
Many consider the WEG to be on par with the Olympics and were recently wowed at the Olympics by a young British rider, Charlotte DuJarden, who blasted the Europeans bigtime with Carl Hester's Dutch horse named Valegro. Charlotte and Valegro have been scoring in the 80s and 90s since the London Olympics where they set the bar so high. Great Britain has recently ousted the Germans and the Dutch from their grip on the top horses and rider scores – a feat done with down-home effective training, not big sponsorships.
Now, back to Laura and her meteoric rise to the top, just 10 points and 4 places away from the top rider in the world, Charlotte DuJardin, and wonder, does Diddy have what it takes to stay in the 80 percent club? Will she get sponsorship to go to the next level, Rio in 2016? Will she continue to turn down ridiculous sums of money for the horse? My guess is yes to all, because this one horse is of her making, and she has control. So far, anyway, she will not hear any offers.
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