Name Laura Graves | ||
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Born July 22, 1987 (age 37) ( 1987-07-22 ) | ||
Laura graves verdades grand prix test 2015 u s dressage festival of champions
Laura Graves (born July 22, 1987) is an American dressage rider. She represented the United States at the 2016 Summer Olympics where she won a bronze medal in the team dressage competition.
Contents
- Laura graves verdades grand prix test 2015 u s dressage festival of champions
- Laura graves verdades world cup dressage 2015 freestyle
- Dressage career
- References
Laura graves verdades world cup dressage 2015 freestyle
Dressage career
Growing up in Vermont, Laura rode her first pony at an early age when a family friend boarded two ponies at the Graves' farm. Laura and her sisters got attached to the ponies what eventually persuaded their parents to trade a washing machine and a tumble-drier in order to keep them. At the age of 15, Laura and her mother bought a foal named Verdades from the Netherlands, a horse that eventually became her Olympic partner. Verdades however proved difficult at his early age, in 2009 she suffered a broken back after it threw her from the saddle. Following the setbacks, Laura decided to focus on her cosmetology studies and sell the horse. However, later on she moved to Florida and continued pursuing her career as a dressage rider after not being able to sell him.
Laura and Verdades started competing at the international Grand Prix level in 2014. At the American Dressage Championships, held in Gladstone, New Jersey, she surprisingly placed 2nd overall and qualified directly for the 2014 World Equestrian Games. In the build-up towards the World Equestrian Games, Laura and Verdades competed at the CHIO Aachen 5* event, placing 10th in the freestyle final. At the World Games, held in Normandy, France, she finished fifth in the team, fifth in the freestyle and fifth in the special dressage competitions.
Graves opened the 2015 dressage season with FEI World Cup Finals in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she finished 4th, narrowly missing out on a podium finish. Later that year, she competed at the Pan American Games, which were held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She won a gold medal in the team and a silver medal in the individual dressage competition, behind her teammate Steffen Peters.
In 2016, Graves competed at her first Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She won a bronze medal in the team competition and earned 4th position individually.
Following year, Graves and Verdades qualified to compete at the 2017 World Cup Finals in Omaha. She eventually finished in a runner-up position, behind Isabell Werth, and thus won her first individual medal.