USA Dressage Begins Intense 4-Year Drive to Rebuild for 2028 Olympics at Home in Los Angeles – Part 1

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Laura Graves on Verdades celebrating victory in the CDIO5* Grand Prix Special at the World Equestrian Festival in Aachen, Germany, the most prestigious event on the globe for dressage and jumping. Verdades was developed by Laura from a youngster to become the only American to reach No. 1 in the world. The victory in Aachen was over German superstar Isabell Werth on Weihegold OLD. The US duo achieved the same result in the World Cup Grand Prix in Paris the following year. Aachen will be a centerpiece of US top sport over the next four years. © Ken Braddick/DRESSAGE-NEWS.com

Jan. 1, 2025

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

United States dressage begins an intense four-year drive of mandatory head-to-head competitions at home, minimum scores required for world championships and European events centered on the World Equestrian Festival in Aachen, Germany to rebuild the sport for the 2028 Olympics at home in Los Angeles.

The World Cup Final that is staged typically immediately after the Florida and California winter circuits will play a more significant role in the program that for the next four years will be led by Christine Traurig, newly appointed by US Equestrian as chef d’equipe. So, too, will changes of venues to take riders and horses out of their comfort zones, and to encourage crowds to express support during rides as has become common and typified by stands packed with applauding spectators at the hugely successful Paris Games.

The goal, Christine told dressage-news.com, is for the United States to be competitive against the best in the world as she said was achieved by six-time Olympian Robert Dover from 2013 through 2018 and who coached the 2014 and 2018 WEG teams as well as the 2016 bronze medal squad at Rio de Janeiro Olympics pursuing a program he created that launched the most successful epoch for American dressage. Robert also created a highly popular entertainment lineup to raise funds to support the ambitious competition schedule.

The equestrian competition program stressed the importance of European competitions centered on Aachen where the U.S. earned Nations Cup silver for three straight years 2016 through 2018.

Debbie McDonald, a two-time Olympian and the first and still only one of two Americans as World Cup champion and personal coach of riders Laura Graves, Adrienne Lyle and Kasey Perry-Glass, succeeded Robert through the Tokyo Olympics where the U.S. team of Steffen Peters on Suppenkasper, Adrienne Lyle on Salvino and Sabine Schut-Kery on Sanceo claimed silver.

Christine, on the U.S. bronze medal team at the Sydney 2000 Olympics,  was at Tokyo as personal coach of Sabine.

The inherent problem of managing a program in a country the size of the United States were worsened by the Covid pandemic that impacted travel both within the country and to Europe. As a result, “we had to nudge ourselves a little bit.”

 

 

During historic peak of American dressage, team that captured 2018 World Games silver of Kasey Perry-Glass, Steffen Peters, Adrienne Lyle and Laura Graves. Laura also took individual silver. Steffen and Suppenkasper and Adrienne and Salvino were joined by Sabine Schut-Kery on Sanceo to become silver medalists at Tokyo Olympics. Kasey Perry-Glass on Heartbeat W.P. and Adrienne Lyle on Helix are back to seek spots on LA28 team. Photos: © Ken Braddick/DRESSAGE-NEWS.com

 

“We have to step up our game a little bit,” she said. “So we revisited the program requirements and we rewrote them where the requirements are pretty clear of what we need to achieve. The next step up is always the level above and until it reaches the elite which is the pinnacle of the pathway programs, we have to stay very focused on wanting to accomplish that.”

Christine has been the young horse coach for more than a decade and is adding development responsibilities to her role as chef d’equipe. Additional coaches are expected to be announced in 2025.

Correct training and development are features that Christine says, “I am so passionate about” so wanted to stay in the development and young horse programs because “it is so important and the young horses are also part of developing riders and horses.

“It has nothing to do with me wanting to represent myself as the one who does it all or knows it all, not at all,” she said. “But in my opinion, if you are in this big country as the chef d’equipe you need to have a clue on what’s going on with the horses in the programs leading up to the elite. We are talking about also to have a coaches network that also includes that we will add staff to assist in that and that I will continue to oversee. I’m very passionate about it,

“It is so important, especially nowadays, where the sport is under a microscope, we all have to speak the same language.

“What do I mean by that? You know, it drives me sometimes a bit crazy when people say, ‘Oh, that system, that system, this system.’ And I go, ‘there is one classical system that has evolved over a long period of time and has proven itself to be good, okay?’

“Now, when I talk about that classical system that is not a lockbox. We have to grow with the breeding of horses, the improvement of the quality of the horses and the temperament, the sensitivity as to where the system has to be modified. We modify it to best suit the individual horse. In conjunction globally with other federations, we have a better chance to get out from underneath that microscope.”

Part 2: USA Four-Year Path