America's shooting Grand Prix star of 2014, Laura Graves, has confirmed that she will be aiming for a berth at the 2015 World Cup Finals in Las Vegas, on 15 - 19 April 2015. After making a stellar rise to the top, which culminated in a fifth place and a 82.036% score in the Kur to Music at the 2014 World Equestrian Games, Graves has been laying low since Caen.
Laura's absence from the 2015 Dressage in Florida show circuit, which is in full swing mid way through its programming, has sparked rumours of an injured horse as well as a rider anxious to reconfirm her scores and performance ability. The Geneva, Florida based Graves produced jaw-dropping performances in Europe in 2014 and beat the long-time U.S. number one Steffen Peters at the World Equestrian Games.
Graves confirmed to Eurodressage that her wonderful partner in crime, Verdades, a 13-year old Dutch warmblood gelding by Florett As x Goya x Renovo, is fit and healthy and ready to compete in the World Cup qualifiers at the 2015 Palm Beach Dressage Derby (4 - 8 March 2015) and 2015 CDI-W Wellington (11 - 15 March 2015).
"My absence from the 5* was a personal decision," Graves told Eurodressage. "My horse has been and continues to be 100% happy and sound. We had been running at full speed from October 2013 straight through WEG. Upon my return from Europe, the farm we had been leasing sold and I had just weeks to relocate (home and barn) as well as managing the explosion of business I was experiencing. After such a long year, I only feel that it is fair to only start my horse where it matters; that will be qualifying competitions, not just the money makers."
North American League World Cup riders qualify for Las Vegas based on their Kur average in at least two World cup qualifiers. The two highest scoring North American league riders will get selected for the 2015 World Cup Finals.
The World Cup Finals are only a lay-over in the bigger scheme which includes the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto (CAN) in August and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro (BRA).
"We, as a country, have a lot of pressure on us for Pan Ams and ideally, this will be my horse for Rio," Graves added.
Graves and Verdades were trained up to Grand Prix level by Anne Gribbons, but in 2014 she switched to U.S. Developing Grand Prix coach Debbie McDonald for further fine-tuning. Laura has several more horses in training, but has no plans of showing them this seaon.
"I do have a couple interesting new horses. Probably nothing that will be ready to show this year," she explained.
Photos © Astrid Appels
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