Photo by Kimberly Loushin

Marcari Oliva is just 21 years old, and competing at his first World Cup Final. He’s Brazilian, but is based in Germany with his trainer, Norbert van Laak. Oliva has made an amazing rise in the sport, debuting at Grand Prix in 2013 and has already competed at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (France), the 2015 Pan American Games (Toronto, Ont.), where he helped Brazil take team bronze, and the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Marcari Oliva’s mother, Hortencia Marcari, has a silver Olympic medal from the 1996 Atlanta Games, where she played basketball for Brazil.

“I’m very proud of my horse. He’s the only Lusitano here, and I am the youngest rider,” Marcari Oliva said. “He has a super character. He’s maybe not the best quality here, but he has the biggest heart. I just came here to show good riding and not to win. I’m proud of my riding.”

Van Laak, who has trained Marcari Oliva for three years, is also quite proud of the young rider. “He’s like my son in some ways. He wants to learn a lot, and he does. I think he’s really a horseman, even at this age,” he said. “He really loves the horses. I think first of all he likes animals—he finds a dog on the street, he keeps him. The animals come first for him.”

Van Laak said that Marcani Oliva’s father breeds Lusitanos but has also added some warmbloods to their stock in recognition of his son’s interest in the top end of dressage. “When you see the other horses you think, “We want to do the next step [to those],” he said. “But for the moment, [we are focused on] going correctly and properly, showing nice dressage, and showing that the Lusitanos are able to do a good job.”

Photo by Kimberly Loushin

Reynolds was happy with her test, though she noted that Vancouver K isn’t the biggest mover in the building. “The horse doesn’t have the most amazing natural paces, so again we don’t have the best trot extension and that sort of stuff, but where the points are doubled we can make it up,” she said. “He has a great piaffe/passage tour. And then he also does really good pirouettes, that’s quite good because that’s where we can rack up the points.”

And when Reynolds canters into the ring on Saturday for the World Cup freestyle, the crowd is in for a treat as she has a brand new freestyle to perform. After her triumphs in the United States at the Rolex Central Park Horse Show (N.Y.) and Dressage At Devon (Pa.) last fall, Reynolds went home to Ireland and started from scratch on her freestyle.

“[Last fall], I was still riding my Rio freestyle which was degree of difficulty-wise a lot easier and a lot more straightforward,” she said. “So then we went home and ramped up the degree of difficulty. We’ve taken on quite a lot. I think we have the highest degree of difficulty of anybody, I think. So it is extremely difficult… I won’t tell if it’s too difficult or not! It highlights his ability to be very focused, hopefully, and really stay with me, with a lot of changes, a lot of transitions. So it’s a great test if we could pull it off.”

Photo by Kimberly Loushin

Perry-Glass noted that this is Dublet’s first indoor competition, since the U.S. show circuit is primarily at outdoor venues. “We’ve never done an indoor before; it’s definitely different for us. We’re shaking out my nerves and his nerves,” she said.

This is the start of Dublet’s second year at Grand Prix, and he had a meteoric rise last year, making the Rio Olympic Games team. “Last year was a lot coming at him, especially for his first year at Grand Prix,” Perry-Glass said. “There were a lot of expectations on him—and me. I took this year as a building year to work on the fundamentals, the basics and really the true throughness with him. My main goal this time was to work on my own relaxation and, like I was telling Debbie [McDonald], make this a positive experience for him, no matter where we place, no matter how well we do or not do, make it a happy, positive, fun experience.

“I think we’re slowly getting it. He’s just becoming more and more calm. I just tell you how thrilled I am with him to be in there with all those people and stay happy. The freestyle is kind of our fun spot. I relax a lot more in the freestyle and so does he. I think we’re going to go out and have fun with it and ride to the music that we both really love and they choreography that we really love and I think he’s going to thrive on that. Hopefully we end up in a good spot.”

The FEI World Cup Final is an individual competition, though riders are representing their home countries. But for the U.S. riders, with three riders from the 2016 Rio Olympic Games team—Peters, Kasey Perry-Glass and Laura Graves—together in Omaha, the atmosphere is congenial.

“Right before we go into the ring we talk to each other—there’s a little high five, a little fist pump, good luck. It honestly feels like a team competition,” he said.

Peters hasn’t altered the choreography of his freestyle with Rosamunde, but he did hint that he’s got a trick up his sleeve. “There is a little surprise at the very end in the music,” he said with a little smile.

Photo by Kimberly Loushin

This is the first year that the great Valegro has been retired, and apparently Nip Tuck is missing his usual travel partner. “The problem is of course that he’s always traveled with Valegro,” Hester said. “Now he’s quite stressed traveling on his own. Valegro is such a pro—never gets stressed, eats on the plane. And now ‘Barney’ is on his own, and he’s just insecure. He just needs to travel a bit more on his own. He’ll get it.”

Hester acknowledged that Nip Tuck doesn’t have the innate natural talent that Valegro or his own Olympic partner Uthopia have. But he has immense appreciation for Barney’s character.

“He’s a horse we never expected to do this level,” he said. “I’ve had him since he was 1-year-old. So it’s quite a dream, really, because we’ve gone on this journey together. At many points of his life I was like, ‘Eh just give him up.’ He’s too this, too that, and that sort of thing, but he always showed talent for the difficult stuff, and now he’s here. Basically, he’s a horse who just wants to work.

“I’ve been so lucky in my life to have medal horses. If every horse you ride you presume it’s going to be a medal horse you’d be in a sad place. This is the best he can go, almost, and he tries as hard as any of those other horses we have like Valegro or Uthopia,” Hester said. “You have a comparison of course at home, when you still have great horses, but I know that riding a horse like Nip Tuck gives me as much pleasure because of the work ethic he has for it. He’s doing the best that he can for his physical being. I think you have to be old enough and wise enough not to be disappointed and to accept your horse’s capability.”