America’s current superstar Laura Graves burst onto the international scene at the WEG in Normandy with her bay gelding, Verdades. Since then the two have gone from strength-to-strength to be currently rated third in the world. They are part of the US Dressage Team, and recently won a Bronze medal at the World Cup in Gothenburg behind the German big two, Isabell Werth and Helen Langenhagenburg.

Story Rebecca Ashton, and images Rebecca, Roz Neave, and Kenneth Braddick and DigiShots

Rebecca spoke with Laura at Aachen in 2018 where she won the Grand Prix 5*. 

You burst onto the scene last WEG at Normandy. What have the recent years been like for you?
It’s really interesting to look back and see how much we’ve changed. It’s our fifth season on the team and it’s just fun to learn the lessons that these horses teach you, and to reflect on the first year I rode at Aachen and how small I felt. I felt like a kid. And now it’s very much the opposite. I feel big. When I go into the arena I feel proud to show off my horse. Most days, I feel pretty sure of what I’m doing, but it’s just different. Even though I was competitive before, I’m even more competitive because I know what’s possible. So that’s really exciting to me going into my second WEG in Tryon.

 You say you felt small. In some ways was that easier?
It’s always easier. Looking back, I wanted to be on top, but being on the bottom is the best place to be in the whole world because there’s nowhere to go but up. So now when you’re at the top there’s only one place to go…down. It’s a fear for sure.

 Obviously you love what you do, but is it a little bit, fear that keeps you there? Fear that’s the motivator?
No I think that’s who I am as a person. I think the fear part for me comes from knowing in life that at some point this ride will be over. That’s with anything, and I’m going to have to make that decision at some point and I want to be smart about it. I don’t want to have to make that choice after everything has started to go down.

So do you have any plans for that or are you just riding the wave for now?
Yeah this year we’re giving it everything we have. This is for sure his last WEG. He’s 16 now but it’s possible something really special could happen for us, I don’t know. But we’ll do that, then he’ll get his vacation like he does every fall and we’ll see.

 Going back to last WEG and everyone was thinking how amazing you were, but now you’re even more amazing! Was it just working on the details? The horse’s power?
I think the big thing I learnt, after that year I thought, I’ve got this all figured out! It’s pretty easy actually! My coach Debbie (McDonald) said to me, you better get it together because what they thought was good last time was because it was your first year: look how good they are, aren’t they amazing, the bond she has with this horse, it’s so soft, it’s so nice to watch, but then year two they want your piaffe on the spot, they want more bend in your half passes, the judges’ expectations are higher.

 So you think the judges really change like that? She’s done that, now she has to give us more?
Absolutely. You have to show that you’re improving. But also I think you reach a point where the judges just love what you are doing and they give you a little bit in that place and they say yeah, you earned that. Like where I really had to work for a 10 pirouette before, the judges now say, that girl delivers every time, it’s worth a 10, so I think it goes both ways a little bit.

 And how do you know with a horse, we’ve pushed it as far as we can, or there’s a bit more in there?
He’s (Verdades)  really going to be a tough one, because he always has energy and he always likes to work and he always likes to travel. So it will be tough. His mind will never tire, it’ll be his body that tells us we’re done or me saying that’s enough. I know we’re close to that point. Whether it happens this year or next year, we’ll see.

 What are some of the things you’ve done to work on the detail in the last few years?
I’ve learnt a lot, but this is also a very particular horse. He’s changed a lot. He’s really a very shy horse, not in life, in life he’s always busy, busy. But when you ride him and you take a feel, he’s very submissive. You couldn’t just get on him and say let’s go and hold him hard in the hand. It had to be done little by little or he’d be very afraid.

 Just now, in the fifth year of him doing Grand Prix, we’re able to change things a little. Things that maybe you wanted him to do three years ago but it wasn’t possible or you would have made him crazy. It’s just trying little by little. Is he ready now? Does he understand now? Because everything he does, he is trying to behave. If he tries something he wants to give 110% every time but if he gets it wrong, then he’s terrified. It’s fun that way because it’s like getting on a different horse all the time. That’s the fun part of the sport though.

 What would your daily training with him be? How do you vary it or how do you break down his training sessions?
He’s pretty well comfortable with all of the movements so I wouldn’t say we drill things at all. He’s really the kind of horse we get a really good feeling on everyday. We stretch him in trot getting him nice and forward making sure I can bring him back easy, making sure first that we have relaxation on him because that’s a bit where he struggles when he shows.  

Relaxing with a leg yield at Aachen

How would you go about that, keep stretching him out or do it with some gentle movements?
I’d give him some suppling exercises, maybe some haunches in, he likes to do leg yields in trot, ways that let him move forward, but also make him move sideways because if he’s tense and you make him come back, then he’s boiling over the top so he’s a horse you have to relax with forward and sideways. And again, getting a little bit creative with him. Transitions are really helpful for him.

But it comes from me too. If I feel he’s tense and hold him too tight or I forget to pet him or talk to him or focus on our relationship, that also makes him a bit tense.

 Would you work him every day?
At home? No. It’s a long week for us here at Aachen because I’ll be on him until Sunday…hopefully! When I’m here training with Debbie he might go four days a week but at home he really only trains three days a week. He does something for fitness, really stretching on Mondays, we’ll work on Tuesdays then on Wednesdays he goes for a hack, the horses are off Thursday then we work Friday and Saturday and then they’re done on Sunday, so he doesn’t really work hard at all. We get him feeling good like that then we might pick one thing a day. It’s not like I’ve got a whole big list. I just need to say ok, that’s where it needs to be, and move on.

Was there a movement he found really challenging as he was coming up the levels?
You know the hardest thing for him to learn was the flying change. One flying change took him FOR-EV-ER to learn. Then once he had one, he had them all the way down to ones and never made a mistake. And you know sometimes you teach them the ones and they go crazy and all they want to do is ones? Never. He was very funny like that because you’d expect him, the way he is in his head, to be one of those. But no. It was like a lullaby, he just never got confused.

 Was there an exercise that really worked for him?
We tried everything. For him, because he was such a big horse and we hadn’t really had the space in an arena to get him comfortable in counter canter and so then when I moved down to Florida, we were able to practice the counter canter and then he got so pleased with himself, and I asked him to change so then he was thinking he was a bad boy. I remember the first year we rode here he thought, “Oh I know, I’m so clever I’ll trot at M”, but it was time to go for the one times changes. So he trotted all the way to X, we got the canter back and we did 15 one times changes before K but then I knew, when I was going to ask him to trot, he wasn’t going to trot because he thought he’d made a mistake.

It’s like being his psychologist as well as his personal trainer!
But I was already laughing before I even had to do it, because I know him and I knew he wouldn’t trot because he would think he was in trouble the first time. You have to be really clever with him like that. You really need to know his mind. He keeps you using your own head. Because there are horses, you know you can sometimes get into a physical thing, come on with the leg and make them round in the hand and he’s really a horse you have to say, how’s he feeling about what I’m doing, because if he understands and he’s feeling like you appreciate it, then everything is beautiful and easy. But if he feels confused or like he’s in trouble, then everything’s a problem. Everything.

Next Rebecca asks Laura how she keeps fit

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For yourself, do you do any fitness work?
Very little. I mean in the barn at home I’m very active, I don’t just ride. We move a lot of hay! I chase around a lot of dogs! But we’re really lucky, we have a team physio, Andy Thomas who travels with us. He’s here with us now and he makes us little individual programs. I have to be careful, because it’s actually hard for me to keep weight on. I’ll go all day without eating sometimes, then I’m not taking in enough calories, so I have to be a little bit careful how I manage that part of it. He just gives us little exercises with resistance bands for core stability and trying to keep us symmetrical. It makes small differences, but you know with our sport the little things are everything. He’s just amazing. You don’t even have to tell him your problems.
I hadn’t seen him for a while, since Paris, and before I got on I said, “Andy, I can’t turn left anymore,”and he said, “Oh yeah, your muscles have just fallen asleep.”In 15 minutes, he puts you on his table and he gets the muscles to wake up and you get back on the horse and it’s unbelievable. It’s like voodoo.

 It’s amazing. It just shows you don’t have to work out like a crazy person for an hour….
And if you do, it’s making your strong muscles stronger. You’re not going to wake up the weak ones. It’s a real science to what each person needs. That’s why I never worked out because I never saw a benefit to my riding. And it’s not like I have to work out to stay trim. Now I see a benefit to my riding, so I’m happy to do it.

 With your diet, do you watch what you eat or are you really just trying to get calories in?
Yeah, I eat what I want. I’m really, really lucky. I have to make sure I eat enough, so even when I’m not hungry I have to eat. I love to eat and I can eat a lot, it’s just that I’m so busy I forget. Oh it’s 15:00! Time for lunch! And it’s hard when you’re riding and it’s hot. It’s easier here when you’ve only got the one horse. Making sure I get all my protein is a big deal for me.

 What’s your ritual on a big competition day?
I just like to make sure I’m really organised. The toughest part is waiting. It’s like this morning all of our horses schooled so well, but now we have to wait two more days! We feel ready to go tomorrow. So tomorrow we jog and then we get to go on Thursday. But the waiting is the hardest part. You just try to kill time and manage your adrenaline.

 What do you do?
It depends on what time you ride. If you ride a little bit later you’re lucky because you get to ride a little in the morning. Otherwise because I don’t necessarily want to be walking around, we just sit in the barn and do things on our phones or watch videos.

 It’s pretty obvious the American Team has gone from strength-to-strength and it seems like a great team; you all seem to get on well…you at least give the impression of that! What’s the secret?

 I don’t know if there’s a secret. I know Debbie McDonald has had a lot to do with that. She just happens to be our coach. I think even if she wasn’t everyone’s coach I think we’d all still be friends, but that’s kind of how we all met and her coaching is so fantastic, that’s how we all ended up on the team. We all live together, travel together, we do our laundry together and there are never, never, problems. It’s just something that works really well.

 We all have our own space, we’re all very different people. And even Steffen (Peters) who is older than we are, it’s just a really easy group to get along with. No one tolerates bad treatment of the horses, no one tolerates poor sportsmanship and it’s just the way it is. It just happened that way. There was a change in the top riders in the country and I was lucky I kind of came in in the middle of it and it’s just been really pleasant.

 When you’re entering the main stadium in those big competitions, what’s going through your head?
Turn left, turn left after X! Haha I’ll have my coach in my ear and she’ll sometimes say, “Ok walk me through what you’re thinking.”And then she’s like, “Ok, now stop!” because most of the time you’re thinking bend left, bend left, stop pulling on your horse’s mouth, it’s like a comedy act. Really, if anybody could hear! It’s just trying to remember everything you’ve learned and been working on because why would I be here if I wasn’t going to try to do something different to what I did before? I kind of lean down and go alright buddy, let’s go.

Next Rebecca asks Laura about team coach, Debbie McDonald

 What makes Debbie McDonald so good?
I think the greatest achievement is that she’s able to talk to everybody. It’s almost as if she’s feeling your horse and that’s a gift that not every trainer has. They can tell you that you need more bend; even my boyfriend can tell me I need more bend! But it’s more than that. Does he feel this way in your hand or on your leg? And that’s a real talent she has. And the way she delivers the message, you are very easily able to absorb it. Sometimes people can give me the same message, but it makes me a little frantic, or I thought I knew how to ride but I have no idea what you just said! So, I think that’s where it works. Your coach, whether it’s Debbie or whoever it is, has to be able to convey the information in a way you’re able to process quickly, because if you can’t understand right away, the moment’s gone.
And the amount of time we all spend together. We live with Debbie too and you get to know what the other one is thinking. I was riding this morning and I’d done something and I was thinking in my head, ok I’m going to come around and ride my twos and trot and that will be it. And then in my ear she said, ok why don’t you hit your twos across the diagonal and trot and then you’ll be done. Like one brain. The time we spend together makes that part of it easy.

Debbie and Laura –  Photo Kenneth Braddick Dressage-News

 And with your position…you sit beautifully on a horse. Is that something you’re really focused on all the time?
Thank you. I always pick on myself when I watch my videos.

 And the rest of us are thinking…oh we wish!
You see your own little flaws and bad habits. That’s why it’s so important at every level to continue to have training, eyes on you all the time because always when I take too much time away, then they start to sneak back in. So having someone to remind you of those things on a regular basis is important.

So when you’re teaching someone who’s struggling to sit to the trot, what’s the biggest help?
The biggest problem I find with poor riding position is that they’re usually sitting on horses that are not trained. It’s impossible to be beautiful and effective if your horse is not going in the right way under you. If you can’t make the back soft, you’re always going to bounce in the sitting trot. And you can sit beautifully on a horse, but it doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to make it go round and forward and go sideways and all these things. So, if somebody just wants to learn to sit on the lunge line, ok I can teach you like that, but if you really want to learn how to be beautiful and ride, you really have to ride first. You have to be able to create a horse under you that allows you to sit beautifully. 

What’s the key?
Good training. I hate nothing more when trainers MAKE people sit trot. If you don’t sit well or the horse’s back is not right, you’re not helping anyone. I teach a lot of clinics and they come in and think, okay warmup is finished now I’m going to sit the trot and really impress Laura Graves and you see the horse just go worse. Just post the trot! You’re not impressing me at all!

If you’re teaching someone long term, the horse’s back’s soft, where would you go?
I’d say play back and forth between posting and sitting. I do that myself with my own horses. I say, now that feels like I can sit on it and so I’ll sit on it and maybe we go one short side and the back gets tight again and I’ll work it a little bit. I try to really pick the moments when the back feels that way.

 Do you ever ride without stirrups?
No, and people are going to hate me when I say this….it’s not hard for me to ride without stirrups. It’s not a challenge. I think maybe it’s helpful for riders who like to use their legs stronger than they need to for balance. But I don’t struggle there. It’s harder for me…ok our physio made us do an exercise where you take a rubber band and you put your hands together with the band around your wrists. So then when you want to half pass I want to move my hands. It really keeps you where you’re supposed to be the whole time.

 Do you watch a lot of the riders and take in what they’re doing?
Yeah I like to watch, but once the competition starts you won’t see much of me out here (we were out amongst the warm up arenas). I can watch the four-star but I won’t watch the five-star. But I like to watch all the training for sure. Everyone’s style is so different but it’s interesting to watch and I had a real light bulb moment here two years ago, 2016. We had decided not to compete our top horses we were sending to Rio, it was a bit of a strategy, but we all came to watch and support our team because we were stabled not far away. I was watching Kristina (Sprehe) warm up Desperados. She was doing the passage and turning; 10m circle and 10m circle and 10m circle passage. I thought, THAT’S what I need to do and I never thought of doing so many circles in passage. So you do, you get ideas. It’s not like, what a genius idea, ride a 10m circle in passage, but it was reminding me at this level, because all we do in passage is a serpentine. It was like that’s something good I should remember in the saddle.

Is there anyone else that you find really inspiring?
I’ve recently been extremely inspired by a number of para riders. Whenever I think I’m having a tough day, or my job is so difficult, or complaining to Debbie, “You don’t understand how strong he is right now!”you watch these people ride, and the pain that a lot of them are in everyday, whatever condition they’re struggling with and the joy and the complete lack of ego they have in the saddle. They don’t complain at all. It’s amazing. That entire group of people is really inspiring, and brings a lot of joy to the sport.

 As a professional, and you have to present your self as a professional, and you have to run a business and ride well and manage everything, how do you do all that?
I don’t do it very well all the time to be honest! I wish I were better about it. I’m not an office/ bookwork person so I’m often really late responding to emails. I have really great girls who work for me and they’re helpful at running errands. You figure it out, and I have great clients who are understanding.

And the future… do you have any horses lined up?
You never know. I think there’s more to my life than horses. I’m 31, for sure a family is in the cards and whatever we decide to do with this horse, I think when he does retire that will be the next thing on my plate, while these younger ones are coming up a little bit.
I’ve got some interesting horses and always looking for other interesting ones but…needle in a hay stack. We were saying today…I’m very, very aware that the horse I have was my one horse. So, I’m not looking to fill his shoes at all. I love the job of training horses and teaching horses so that’s what I’ll do.
Would I like to be on more teams? Yeah, of course I would, but knowing what I have, it will never be more special.

On the World Cup podium Laura, Isabell and Helen…