The U.S. Equestrian Federation has confirmed that Shelly Francis and Laura Graves will represent the United States in the FEI World Cup Dressage Final, running April 11-15 at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris.
Francis will ride Patricia Stempel’s 14-year-old Hanoverian gelding Danilo. Graves will take her Olympic mount Verdades, a 16-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding she owns with Curt Maes.
Shelly Francis will ride in her first FEI World Cup Dressage Final with Danilo. Photo by Lindsay Berreth.
Paris will be Francis’ first FEI World Cup Final.
“I’m so excited! I’ve already started packing,” said Francis, 59, of Loxahatchee, Florida. “I had the opportunity to do a World Cup Final a few times with Doktor when other people couldn’t go, but I didn’t do it because I knew he would get too excited. I know Danilo will do fine with the atmosphere. The goal is just to do as good a Grand Prix ride as I can get out of him and then really enjoy the freestyle. I don’t have room for mistakes in the freestyle; I’ve tweaked it to reduce room for bobbles. I want to have a clean, fun ride and ride to the music.”
Graves competed in the 2017 FEI World Cup Final in Omaha, Nebraska, placing second to Germany’s Isabell Werth. Graves said she’s looking forward to going head-to-head with Werth again.
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“This will be a really fun event,” said Graves, Geneva, Florida. “I have not beat Isabell in the Grand Prix or the freestyle, but we have beat her since the last World Cup in Omaha. We haven’t been wasting our time. We’ve carefully turned over every rock and are using all the resources I have to squeeze out every point.”
Laura Graves and Verdades will look to best Isabell Werth at the FEI World Cup Dressage Final in Paris. Photo by Lindsay Berreth.
The U.S. FEI Dressage Nations Cup, which will take place March 27-29 during the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida, is giving Graves another opportunity for some training, even though she’s not competing there.
“It wasn’t part of our plan to do Nations Cup because it’s so close to Paris,” said Graves, 30. “But we will be performing our freestyle on Friday night during intermission, so we get to practice without putting his legs through the Grand Prix.”
