Wellington, Fla.—Dec. 10  

“Are we on a reality TV show?”

Laura Graves joked with Steffen Peters Thursday after racking up yet another victory with Verdades in the Grand Prix Special at the USEF Dressage Festival of Champions. The PA system had accidentally sounded, loudly playing music from a dramatic movie soundtrack, while Peters was recounting his runner-up test with Rosamunde.

The music was fitting, as Graves and Verdades’ well-documented rise to stardom is worthy of its own screenplay. A year ago, the duo finished second in the USEF Dressage Grand Prix National Championships, outperforming expectations in their first year on the big tour. This year, they take a comfortable lead in those championships going into the final test, a Grand Prix freestyle Saturday night, and will have targets on their backs.

Laura Graves and Verdades on their way to the win in the Grand Prix Special. Photo by Catie Staszak

“It was so much easier being an underdog,” Graves said. “Nobody expects anything. I mean, when you don’t know what you’re capable of, it’s easy to not be as nervous. [It’s different] when you know what you’re capable of and you’re concerned about falling short, when you know that people are watching and you’re aware that they’re expecting you to get a certain score.

“My big learning curve was when Lisa Wilcox pulled me aside at a show and said, ‘Stop riding like people are watching! That was one of the most charming things about watching you ride! You don’t even care. You’re just riding for that moment.’ So that’s what I do now. I have to take all of that, put it in a box, lock it up and ride.”

After winning the Grand Prix Wednesday, Graves rode yet another stellar test Thursday; her dominant score of 77.13 percent was nearly three-points higher than that of Peters, who again took second- and third-place honors, though his horses switched positions.

Rosamunde, third in Wednesday’s Grand Prix Open, finished second (74.549%), and Legolas 92, Wednesday’s runner-up, finished third (72.412%).

That also moved Rosamunde into second in the overall Grand Prix Championship standings, as Thursday’s scores count for 45 percent of the total championship scores. Wednesday’s Grand Prix scores comprise an additional 40 percent of the total, and the final 15 percent will be derived from scores earned in a final Grand Prix freestyle Saturday night.

“This is normally a better test for us,” Graves said of the Grand Prix Special. “The transitions that are in this test seem to work better for me and better for this horse. He was amazing in the warm-up. He was actually a little lit. He’s a big horse and the heat is normally not his thing, but he was really lit.

“I always get a feeling for that, when we come into the stadium and we walk and we pick up the canter. I say to myself, ‘Please don’t buck on the centerline! Please don’t buck on the centerline!’ When I have that feeling and he doesn’t buck on the centerline, we usually have a pretty good test, so it’s a good feeling.”

After a personally frustrating afternoon Wednesday in the Grand Prix, Peters was much more pleased Thursday, especially with Rosamunde (Rock Forever—First Lady), his 8-year-old Rhinelander mare. It was the first time Rosamunde had ever beaten her older and more experienced stablemate, and that is quite an accomplishment, considering Legolas 92, 13, is the reigning national champion, the Pan American Games individual gold medalist, and a veteran of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games and Reem Acra FEI World Cup Finals.

“It’s the best test that she’s done so far,” Peters said. “She was just absolutely fantastic for me today. I can’t even pinpoint a single movement; it was just the overall feeling, how she floats through the test and how awesome the connection is and how awesome she tries for me. That’s the highlight of the test. From there, you can build on the movements, but the fun factor of this horse is incredible.

“It’s not time to push those extensions yet. We’ve done it a few times, but in my heart, I love this horse so much, I just can’t do it yet. I love Legolas too, but he’s older, and he’s a horse who has confirmed that you can push him a little. That’s hard for me to do with Rosie. That might happen here in the spring, especially when we go to Europe, but at the moment, she’s still my little baby, and that’s how I treat her.”

While Graves was satisfied with her win, she was also particularly satisfied with her score. She is hungry for marks in the 80 percent range, knowing that will take her to the next level in her riding. She is getting closer and closer to that objective. 

“An 80 percent score has been a goal since I started CDIs,” she said. “I don’t just want to be mediocre. I want to be the best: not just here, but in the world. That’s where we know we have to be is in the 80 percent range.

“When you come out of the ring, the first thing you do, is you thank your horse, and then you think about what you can do better next time. That’s why we come back to do it again the next day,” Graves said.

Going For It 

The first thing Jane Karol did upon sitting down to the press conference following her win in Thursday’s Intermediaire I was congratulate runner-up Christina Vinios. There could not have been a more genuine display of sportsmanship. After listening to Vinios detail the negative elements of her test, Karol exclaimed, “You were spectacular!”

It’s safe to say that Karol and her 8-year-old Oldenburg mare Sunshine Tour (Sir Donnerhall I – History) were pretty spectacular, too. The duo, after finishing third (68.42%) in yesterday’s Prix St. Georges, won the Intermediaire I (69.10%) and moved up to second overall in the USEF Intermediare I National Championship standings behind Vinios and her own Folkestone.

Jane Karol and Sunshine Tour trotted off with the win in the Intermediaire I. Photo by Catie Staszak

Shelly Francis and Rubinio were third in the Intermediaire I and also sit in third place in the overall Intermediaire I standings. Thursday’s scores count for 45 percent of the overall championship scores, with Wednesday’s Prix St. Georges scores accounting for another 40 percent of that total. The final 15 percent of the scores will come from an Intermediare I freestyle, which will be performed Saturday afternoon.

“I think overall, I just went for it more,” Karol said. “[Sunshine Tour] just felt exciting to ride—she always does, but more so.”

Karol, 54, of Concord, Mass., has schooled with U.S. dressage Chef d’Equipe Robert Dover at the Festival of Champions, and she said the horseman has made a tremendous difference in her riding in just those brief sessions. Most notably, Karol said Dover has pushed her ride more aggressively.

“I have spent a lot of years riding conservatively, but with Robert’s help, I really felt like I went for it more,” Karol said. “I still think I can do more. I’m more naturally geared toward the harmony and the rhythm and the swing and not as much the power, and I feel like I got into the power more. There’s still a ways to go and there’s always a risk I think, and there were times where I think [Sunshine Tour] had more tension because of it, but it was really a great experience to be able to put more excitement in there and power.” 

With only Saturday’s freestyle remaining, the top three are within range of a national championship, as Vinios, Karol and Francis’ total scores (59.16%, 58.46% and 58.44%) are separated by less than 1 point. Karol hopes to continue her active style of riding in her freestyle, while Vinios will look to maintain her composure in the face of a small mistake. 

“I want to go with the same kind of ‘go-for-it’ idea, but it’s even harder in the freestyle, because you try to bring [the routine] to the edge of difficultly with the choreography,” Karol said. “Trying to balance the difficulty and pushing to the edge of the horse’s power and excitement is hard, but that’s what I want to go for. I want to really try to not be too conservative and still not get [Sunshine Tour] too crazy and tense.”

“I don’t want to try to change too much,” Vinios said. “I think sometimes if you have a ride with mistakes or you feel like you messed up, you feel like you have to do all this stuff, but I don’t want to change too much, because he’s been super. I’m just going to really try to ride a clean test, and hopefully things will go along with that.”

Sunshine Tour, whom Karol has had for four years, is the youngest horse competing in the Intermediaire I at the Festival of Champions. Karol purchased her at an auction at the Oldenburg Horse Center Vechta in Germany in 2011. Viola Abrahams, a rider and trainer in Oldenburg, guided Karol through the process.

“I called her, and it was just a few days before the auction,” Karol said. “I was looking for a horse, and she said, ‘Let’s look at these horses [at the auction].’ 

“To be honest, [Sunshine Tour] wasn’t the first horse I was going to pick, but the first horse went for just hundreds of thousands of euros, so I didn’t go for that one, but thankfully so, because I saw Sunshine just had this beautiful way of moving off the ground, so we went for her and got her at that auction,” she continued.

Karol started Sunshine Tour at first level and then competed her at the Markel/USEF Young Horse 6-Year-Old National Championships at the Lamplight Equestrian Center (Ill.) in 2013, where the duo took home reserve champion honors. Karol hopes to move the chestnut up to the Grand Prix level next year.

“I think above and beyond, she’s just a game horse,” she said. “She wants to go. She wants to please. She’s never saying, ‘When is it over?’ unless she’s really tired. Honestly, she’s just like, ‘What’s next?’ That’s her psychology. She’s a chestnut mare, but she’s the best of that.”

See full results from the Grand Prix Special and also full results from the Intermediaire I. See a gallery of photos from Day 2 of the Festival of Champions and read about all the Day 1 action.  

Following Saturday’s freestyles, the Intermediaire I and Grand Prix Dressage National Champions will be crowned. The Intermediarie I freestyle will take place at 4:00 p.m. Saturday, and the Grand Prix Freestyle will follow at 7:00 p.m. Make sure to follow along with the Chronicle and read more in the Jan. 11 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse.