July 17, 2025
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
Laura Graves, returning to high performance dressage seven years after becoming the only American ever to rank No. 1 in the world, intends to ignore the “really terrible things” labeling the sport.
“I think we just have to be so hungry and not hide and give up, you know,” Laura said in a candid interview with DRESSAGE-NEWS.com. “I mean, it’s just you have to be willing to have these people say really terrible things about you and not hide.
“I think we have to ignore it. You know, I might find myself in a bit of trouble one day for ignoring it, but in our hearts, we do this because we love horses. This is not easy. Do you think I want to be spending my weekend at a horse show? I mean, the sad part is, I do. But it’s not because this is a leisurely lifestyle that we choose. We choose it because we love the sport and we love the animals that we do it with.
“And you like to feel like you’re building on that and I think if you keep letting the negative influence impact your view of the love of the sport and the love of the animal, you are gonna let yourself down.”
“We’re trying to train these 1,400-pound animals to be a partner in this sport and I don’t look around the warm-ups on a regular basis and think negative thoughts. Of course there’s amazing performances and there are not amazing ones, but I don’t generally look around and see that. And so I think when people are worried that that is what’s being seen, you ride a notch below.”
With Verdades, the KWPN gelding she partnered from a youngster to retirement in 2019, Laura was not only one of the top riders she was widely admired for her soft but effective riding style, coached by multi-Olympian and World Cup champion Debbie McDonald.
Laura, 38 years old later this month and the mother of a three-year-old girl, now has three horses previously developed by other riders to Grand Prix. She is coached by Robert Dover who led the U.S. dressage team through most of the Big Tour career of Laura and Verdades.
Lider Seven, the 11-year-old Lusitano that Laura has ridden just a few times, gives her the feeling she can improve the stallion.
“I love watching a horse go,” she said, “and even if the feel isn’t mine yet, when you watch the video and you think, ‘well that looks really good, if I can improve it a little, I know it’s gonna be great’.”
She has the same feeling about Sole Mio an 11-year-old Rhinelander stallion, and Java Dulce, 14-year-old Danish Warmblood, that were developed by Emily Miles for owner Leslie Waterman. Laura’s opinion of Emily is as a “fabulous trainer” and her departure from dressage is a loss for the sport.
In their time at top sport, Laura and Diddy, the barn name of Verdades, logged the highest scores ever for an American–89.083% at Freestyle at Paris World Cup in 2018, 81.824% placing first in the CDIO5* Grand Prix Special in 2017 at Aachen, Germany, and 81.537% at Grand Prix at 2018 Tryon World Games. Those marks still stand as the best by an American.
Laura has come by the three horses in recent months, two that were trained by Emily Miles who decided to pursue a medical education and the third a Lusitano stallion that was U.S. Dressage Federation reserve champion in 2024.
Reports of her return to top sport brought questions and positive comments from both riders and media to this correspondent at the World Equestrian Festival in Aachen, Germany earlier this month.
Laura also commented on changes in the views of judges the over the years.
“Okay, so we’re going to have loose nosebands,” she noted. “Alright, giddy up with your loose nosebands. My mouth is wide open. Right. it’s not going to hurt him to loosen the noseband, but now you’re going to have to see maybe he opens his mouth a little, and you’re going to have to be okay with that because you think that’s better for the horse. Then if that’s what is better for the horse then let’s get on that ship because I don’t believe that loosening the noseband is going to hurt him.
“So if you tell me and that rule is universal if I think it harms the horse I’ll push back but if you tell me to do that and it’s universal but let’s just get on with it.
“I remember in the 2016 Olympics, and it was like, ‘oh, not the tongue’. You know, you’re seeing a little bit of the tongue on the side, and everyone’s tightening their nosebands and trying to make the judges happy, because this is what we ride for.
“We’re a competition, we’re trying to please a panel of objective, subjective human beings. And we’re asking them to basically scrutinize our performance. We have to accept that we’re being guided by their rules. And not feel like we’re not going to ride our very best or push very hard because of the rules that they’ve given us and what it might look like.
“And I think that’s a very scary place or, you know, riding the horse too round. Sometimes it’s not my choice. Sometimes I’m trying to get the horse to come up, sometimes I’m trying not to get run off with, sometimes it’s a safety perspective and so that for me is horse welfare. Making the right decision for that horse in that moment. And keeping everybody else around me as safe as I can, too. These are just what I consider to be welfare for these animals.
“I think when we are too fixated on all of these rules and riding for someone else, we stop riding for the partnership and that is really for me in my career what has been the magic part. If I came up to every piaffe in Diddy’s career and went. ‘oh gosh, they’re gonna comment that he doesn’t sit right.’ you know I would have been riding him differently. I tried to push his butt down… It didn’t work anyway. I mean, we tried, okay?
“But you have to come into those things and say, this is the best way that I know how to train a horse. This is the best way that I know how to ride him in this moment. And get on with it. You know because I think it’s hard to keep that perspective.
“For me you’re never gonna make everybody happy right and I truly feel that this time will pass.
“I truly think we’re gonna come out the other side and maybe it’ll be completely different. But I don’t think we’re going to come out the other side if we allow this to shut us down.”
