Wellington, Fla.—Feb. 13

Coming into the CDI***** at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival this weekend, Laura Graves was feeling a lack of confidence in her work with Verdades.

While they’ve been pushing their Grand Prix scores towards 80 percent, Graves and “Diddy” had two uncharacteristic tests two weeks ago that left their scores in the low 70s, and Graves wondering what happened.

But this weekend, Diddy was back to himself, and he took home his second blue in the Grand Prix Special with a 74.66 percent. Tinne Vilhelmson-Silfven and Benetton Dream finished second (72.41%), while Belinda Trussell and Anton came in third (71.43%).

Graves explained after her winning Grand Prix test on Thursday that she’d been experimenting with power at home, and that it had overwhelmed the 14-year-old gelding in their last show, so she let her foot off the gas a bit this weekend.

“Again, I really wanted to ride him down and let him have another good experience,” she said. “Tonight I felt that it was far from being our highest score or our most precise, and certainly not our most powerful, but he was 100 percent himself, and that was a really good feeling. What we did in the Grand Prix on Thursday really paid off. It’s good to feel like I have him back, knowing that I could have ridden better, but at least I had that option.”

Laura Graves and Verdades. Photo by Lindsay Berreth.

Graves’ star has been on the rise since 2014, when she and Diddy first hit the international scene and represented the United States at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

Since then her scores have only gotten better, but when they had their first blip two weeks ago, Graves had to sit back and analyze what went wrong.

“Having this be the first kind of low point since we’ve been successful, it’s always hard, and it makes you question things and ask, ‘What do we do and how do we move on?’ It’s really true—if it doesn’t kill you, it does make you stronger, and you learn,” she said. “I know this will happen again—it’s not the first time, it won’t be the last, and this is life. This is a chance we take every time we go in the arena with another living being. It’s just a lot riskier than…skiing! That’s the sport. We take it so personally, the training and the time we put into these horses, and so you can’t help that it stings. I’ve learned a lot from it, and I’m happy with how he went this week. He totally felt like himself today.”

Vilhelmson-Silfven had only ridden the Grand Prix Special once before with her stallion, and she was pleased to earn a better score.

“I’m very pleased with my horse,” she said. “I had such a good feeling in the ring. He got really on when they applauded [Laura,] much more power than I had before. And he was going together with me in a nice way.”

She explained that “Ben” has been spending a lot of time breeding, but this season she’s going to focus more on showing.

“He’s a big horse and he’s a stallion, so for sure he gets a little bit nervous,” she said. “That can show in different ways. That’s why I was happy with today, because he was with me and wanted to go on my aids.”

Tinne Vilhelmson-Silfven and Benetton Dream. Photo by Lindsay Berreth.

Trussell loves the Special test because it highlights Anton’s best movement, the piaffe.

“Anton’s gift is his piaffe, so it’s just a dream to ride [the Special,]” she said. “I sit there and cluck and he piaffes. It’s so nice! He’s so consistent, and he loves to do it. In the Special, going from walk to piaffe is not difficult for him, so it’s a nice feeling. I feel confident with this test. I like the test because it’s a forward-moving test. I have to opposite problem of Tinne—when they applaud, I have problems! So I was dealing with that. He was really difficult in the ring—very nervous in the Grand Prix, so I’m happy that he went in there and was more relaxed in there.” 

Rosamunde Repeats Victory

Steffen Peters and Rosamunde found themselves on top of the leaderboard again in the CDI*** Grand Prix Special, earning a 73.33 percent.

Kasey Perry-Glass rode Goerklintgaards Dublet to second (71.35%), and young rider Juan Matute Jr. finished third on Quantico Ymas (69.05%).

Peters said there was clear improvement from “Rosie’s” Grand Prix test on Wednesday, but a few other small mistakes lost him some points.

“Today the one-tempis were already straighter. The weak parts were better,” he said. “Today there were silly little things. She anticipated the two-tempis a bit, then at the end, the final halt she stepped a little bit back, so silly little things that were expensive. The collected walk wasn’t quite as relaxed.”

Peters said he treated his three-star test the same as he would for the more prestigious five-star, in which he won the Grand Prix on Thursday and placed third in the freestyle on Saturday with Legolas 92.

Steffen Peters and Rosamunde. Photo by Lindsay Berreth.

“You always go in there and do your very best,” he said. “This test was just as important as any other five-star test. I knew that those two young people next to me would go in there and try to beat this old guy, so I knew I had to ride, and I did.”

Perry-Glass just moved up to Grand Prix this season, and she thought “Dublet” went well, despite a blip outside of the ring.

“He felt really good in the warm-up, probably the best I’ve ever felt him,” she said. “He was really focused and relaxed, but hot at the same time. When I went into the ring, I felt he got a little bit hotter and had a little temper tantrum outside, but we got over it. A few mistakes in the test, but he probably was the most focused and in front of my leg that I’ve ever felt him. That was a positive thing today.”

Perry-Glass is entered in the next CDI at AGDF and hopes to work on more details of the large tour tests.

“I think we have all of the relaxation and the movements,” she said. “It’s just a matter of pilot errors and closing up the passage and not doing 11 ones down the centerlines. It’s just that kind of stuff. We’ll work on that.”

Matute Jr. and Quantico Ymas also recently moved up Grand Prix, but they have been contesting the Under 25 Grand Prix classes. This was their first CDI in strong company, and Matute Jr. couldn’t have been happier.

Kasey Perry-Glass and Goerklintgaards Dublet. Photo by Lindsay Berreth.

“I was very happy with our results, and I’m very proud of our progress and our journey. I’m really enjoying every single day,” he said. “He’s a horse who’s very sensitive. He’s a jumping line by Fighting Fit, and he’s a horse that’s made me really work every day and analyze my basic concepts of riding. He has a lot of talent, and he’s definitely ambitious in the ring, which helps—a little bit too much sometimes, but today was very good.”

For full results, click here.