Laura Graves' Verdades Passed Away

Dressage

U.S.A.

Laura Graves announced the passing of her career making dressage horse, Verdades, on 21 December 2025. He was 23 years old.

Verdades was a Dutch warmblood by Florett As out of Guelderlander mare Liwilarda (by Goya x Renovo x Gloriant). He was bred by Piet Crum and from the dam line twice in-bred on Renovo.

Bought from a Video

Laura discovered Verdades, or "Diddy", on video. Her mother selected the Florett As offspring from a VHS tape sent to them by a dealer. The Vermont based family acquired hi as a six-months old foal and shipped him to America.

“We saw dozens of foals but my mom saw something special in this one," Laura reminisced, describing him at the time as "extremely goofy and social on the ground but under saddle he is all business. He works so hard to please which is an incredible gift but can also cause him to make mistakes. He is very sensitive, mind- and bodywise, and so we must be sensitive in our training. He is really coming into himself and reaching a confidence level that had been lacking.”

Laura brought him up the levels herself and under the guidance of Anne Gribbons premiered him at international level. Their CDI small tour debut was in 2012 in Loxahatchee, followed by two more shows in Wellington and West Palm Beach.

U.S.A's First World Number One in Dressage

Their international Grand Prix debut was in February 2014 in Wellington and they caught the attention of the selectors when they placed second at the 2014 U.S. Dressage Championships behind Steffen Peters. They were sent to Europe to show in Fritzens and Aachen before being nominated on the U.S. team for the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Caen.

At the 2014 WEG they were the best performing American pair, finishing fifth in the freestyle and since then were the anchors of the U.S. dressage team until 2019. They were America's first and, so far, only pair ever to rank first on the FEI World Rider Ranking.

Coached by Debbie McDonald for the rest of their career as a combination, they they finished fourth at the 2015 World Cup Finals and won team gold and individual silver at the 2015 Pan American Games. In 2016 they went to their first Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where they were fourth in the Kur.

In 2017 they tasted first major global podium glory when they finished second at the World Cup Finals in Omaha. As of that year Graves began to compete Verdades sparingly with just the minimum allowed number of shows for championship qualification. The icing on the cake in 2017 was winning the Grand Prix Special at the CDIO Aachen (beating Isabell Werth on Weihegold). She was also third in the Kur at Aachen.

In 2018 Graves repeated her show strategy of 2017: the minimum set of World Cup qualifiers in Wellington to compete at the 2018 World Cup Finals in Paris, where they were second again (after winning the Grand Prix and beating Werth/Weihegold for a second time). In 2018 Graves could not pull the same Aachen stunt she did in 2017. She did win the Aachen Grand Prix, but was then 11th in the Special but bounced back to third in the Kur. Nonetheless they went to the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon USA as biggest rivals for Werth and favourites for the gold. The U.S.A team won silver and individually Graves got silver in the Grand Prix Special. The Kur was scratched because of Hurricane Florence.

Their final show in their career they were second in the 2019 World Cup Finals. It was Graves third consecutive second place in the World Cup Finals.

Retirement

Verdades was quietly retired from sport at the start of 2020 without a retirement ceremony. The horse spent his retirement at Graves' farm in Geneva, Florida.

Today Laura announced the passing of Diddy.

"I never thought this day would come. You were invincible. Thank you for choosing me and being my friend for 23 years. I don't know what a day looks like without you," Laura stated.