Wellington, Fla. – Feb. 11

Collective oohs and ahhs radiated from the packed stands at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival this afternoon as the sun set on Laura Graves and Verdades, the last to go in the CDI***** Grand Prix.

As she headed down centerline into her final halt, you could hear audience members clucking along to “Diddy’s” passage, and they erupted into applause when Graves gave her final salute and wrapped her arms around the gelding.

“I’m so glad we stayed until the end,” I overheard a woman say to her friend as she filed out.

“That was worth it,” said another.

Graves and Diddy earned a 76.44 percent to win the class, showing complete harmony and rebounding from two uncharacteristic tests two weeks ago in the CDI-W at AGDF. Steffen Peters and Legolas 92 made the trip from San Diego, Calif., to take second with a 74.10 percent, while Denmark’s Mikala Gundersen and her veteran partner My Lady placed third with a 71.76 percent.

Laura Graves was thrilled with Verdades’ performance in the CDI***** Grand Prix. Photo by Lindsay Berreth.

“Tonight’s performance was a big relief for us. We’ve been pushing a point in our training, adding power, and he’s just developing so fast—I think faster than he was probably ready for. Picking up the pieces from our last show, we just wanted to give him a really good experience in here,” said Graves. “We had two CDIs with tornados both times. The last show we ended up in the covered arena. He’s been under the lights now three times in a row for the freestyles, and we’re just hoping to come in here for the five-star and let him feel confident again. I could not be happier with how we got through today’s test.”

Graves added that she worked on riding the 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood (Florett AS—Liwilarda, Goya) downwards with lots of stretching for relaxation.

“That’s what we were going for because he’s developed such an idea of what he does at the shows now,” she explained. “We take his boots off, and he gets excited. He hears the audience, and he gets excited. These things didn’t used to mean much to him, and now he kind of knows what he gets to do, and he gets kind of overexcited now. We have to make him just feel confident and level him out, and tonight was a really good experience for him.”

Graves explained that during the CDI-W two weeks ago, in which the pair earned scores well below their average in the Grand Prix and freestyle, Diddy lost his relaxation as a result of working on his power at home.

“He’s gotten so powerful that when I go and say ‘extended trot,’ he would just go for it, and it feels great, but it got to the point where in the last show, we lost our relaxation,” she said. “The power plus a tense environment was too much for him. Here tonight, we tried to play down the power to get back his confidence. This felt like a warm-up for me, so to have such a good score knowing we can slowly start tapping back into that is where we want to go.”

Steffen Peters and Legolas 92 finished second in the CDI***** Grand Prix. Photo by Lindsay Berreth.

Peters was also happy with his ride on Legolas, a 14-year-old Westphalian (Laomedon—Furstin, Florestan II) owned by Four Winds Farm.

He earned his best scores ever on the gelding two weeks ago at the L.A. CDI-W in Burbank, Calif., but a small mistake in the last one tempi today kept his score a little lower.

“Especially today, there’s less tension—less tension than two weeks ago,” he said. “The walk is more relaxed, and at the same time he still does this brilliant piaffe/passage. Unfortunately today the very last one tempi was expensive. He was at a 76 percent and dropped down to a 74. Not sure if it would have been enough to get close to Laura, but the exciting part is that we have two horses that can do 76 percent and higher. Ideally we need one more for Rio where average 76 percent, then we have a chance for a medal. It was a good show. Not as good as two weeks ago, but they’re not machines and little mistakes happen.”

Mikala Gundersen and My Lady finished third in the CDI***** Grand Prix. Photo by Lindsay Berreth.

When asked about My Lady’s longetivity, Gundersen said the 16-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare (Michellino—Marion, Ritterstern) sticks to a routine that works.

“The horse treadmill is what’s keeping her superfit. She’s on the treadmill every single day on an incline, so that keeps giving her strength so I don’t have to ride her so hard,” she said. “She goes in the cold water spa everyday—I mean, this horse has a really good life! It’s all suppleness, throughness everyday. I never have to push her. She comes out every day, she’s fresh and happy.”

Go behind the stall door with My Lady to see what her life is like.

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