Laura Graves talks about what makes her successful
Words Rebecca Ashton, Pix Rebecca Ashton, THM archive and Kenneth Braddick, Dressage News
Laura and current US coach, Debbie McDonald
You said the US has stamped their mark on dressage in the last five years or so. Can you go into detail what you see as the US training system? I know all the riders are not the same…
I think you have that country to country as well, every rider has their own slight differences in the technique, but I think really how we’re stamping our horses is that for the first time in a long time we’re seeing riders that have brought the horses themselves from the starting point to Grand Prix and moving a little bit on from where we were purchasing made Grand Prix horses from other countries. And that’s a big deal because I don’t think you really see what a country or a system is capable of until they’ve actually trained the horse themselves and solved problems themselves. I think we owe a lot for sure to Robert Dover, and now Debbie (McDonald) who’s been my personal coach for a long time. They have maintained, and never wavered from doing what’s very best for the horse and saying enough is enough, this is not how we ride, this is not how we train, we only work like this. They’re trainers and riders and so are we, and you might think that it could be a contest of egos, but it never is. We all work so well together, and you have to have someone hold you accountable. We all want what’s best for the horses in the end. But we go to all these top competitions in the world, and you can look at the other competitors and you can say that’s interesting, and they may produce a higher result, but that’s not the same pathway that we want to take to get there. We want our horses to last a long time. We’re still shallow in terms of our depth. We’re definitely digging and growing but compared to a country like Germany who has multiple riders, who have multiple Grand Prix horses, we’re not quite there yet. We can’t risk losing our horse, and we cannot train in a way that risks our horse, and I don’t ever want to be a person or part of a country where our horses are disposable.
The first big international competition, the WEG in Normandy in 2014
How would you say you keep your training relevant, or is that even a thing?
It is, and you look at how the sport has come over the years. If we didn’t evolve, we wouldn’t be seeing horses reaching 80 or 90% in the freestyles, so something is changing. I think a lot of it is the quality of the horses. We’re breeding these freaks of nature. We’re also really understanding what these horses are capable of. You don’t know until you’ve seen it and you’ve felt it, so it’s important to travel and to see these things and you realise, “Oh! Oh I’m going to go home and try that.”. It’s really important and I think you have to stay relevant in that way.
If you always stay the big fish, then you never grow. I’d rather be the small fish, I’d rather be in Aachen in the top ten than winning in America because that’s how you grow. You might only have a horse that’s capable of so much. You may not have an 80% horse, but you can watch how accurately the riders ride, or you can watch how structured they are in their schedule; they’re getting up at a certain time of day, they’re going to the gym, they’re eating their breakfast, you can learn something from being around people who are excellent in their field.
Name one thing that you’ve picked up from Aachen
I think there’s this healthy competition factor. When you can look around and you can say, OK well I can just be mediocre and still be the best at home, then what is the motivation? So I think when you really see that if you’re not completely focused, if you’re not completely on your game, if you’re distracted mentally, if you’re too rough on your horse, every little mistake…it requires great self-control. I think this is really the skill you have to learn to be in that top tier. Producing excellence, but also being able to have the self-control to not go over the top where it’s too much, and the horse’s eyes are big and bulging out of their head. It’s learning to be a showman.
Obviously everyone at the top is fiercely competitive. Do you think you can teach that, or only train it?
I think if you’re not competitive, you wouldn’t find yourself in that situation because you’d back off for some reason or another. You have to be a certain kind of person. I don’t think everybody enjoys it. I think there are people who are competitive, but they don’t enjoy it. They want to compete, but it’s a little bit difficult for them emotionally. Then there are people like me who are crazy, and I’m just an animal and when I compete, I’m just hungry and wild and primitive! But I think it’s about having the self-control.
You said that you’re always training to be strong in the right places and quiet in that strength…
I think people talk about how you have to be strong, you have to be fit to be a rider and I think the greatest part of our fitness comes from being able to be effective, but then being able to be fit enough to stay out of the horse’s way. You have to be strong, but not strong in a way that you’re rough with your hands and your legs. That’s an effectiveness and a timing situation. Everyone who can kick a soccer ball can kick a horse. That’s not any gift to the horse. But it’s a timing thing, and a fairness thing, and then once you have created something that’s really amazing, then the strength part comes in that you have to be strong enough to stay up there and not disrupt what you just created.
A couple of things from today. The half halt. You said you hate that term. Can you go a little bit more into why?
I think the term half halt is so overused, and I think it’s so annoying, especially because, if my trainer said half halt to me I’d think ok, fine, because I can feel what combination of things I need in that moment. But in general, most people – and myself included sometimes – if you just told me, half halt, that’s for me a general word I use, that means I touched the horse. So a half halt to me could be both legs and both reins, it could be two legs and one rein, it could be two reins and one leg, wherever you feel the horse needs your help in rebalancing. So when I just say, give him a half halt, it should be assuming the rider knew exactly how to touch the horse. So I find it more directive, both when I’m riding and talking to myself, and especially when I’m teaching. This word is kind of used like everyone is going to understand. “Just give him a half halt!”. Well it’s not as simple as that. Do I need left rein, right rein, leg? What do I need to make this happen?
What would you like people to take away from your Masterclass?
I hope the major takeaways when I teach are having extremely high expectations. That we don’t ever sell ourselves short, but we always maintain a real fairness in how we treat the horse. So, yes I’m going to ask him to give me everything he’s got, but I’m really careful in how I correct him, how I educate him, and that I will never touch the horse out of anger or frustration. It doesn’t mean you never kick the horse or touch with the whip, but it’s always with the purpose of education. I think being really clear in how we are trying to translate our message to the horses, that is our job in the saddle, to communicate with them. You have to have a purpose, and I think sometimes we get this complicated idea of half halt or you have to be in self-carriage or I have to make collection. The horse doesn’t understand that. Really trying to make sure that the communication is clear, and that the horses are interested and excited. 
Plans from here on for next year…World Cup, Tokyo?
We obviously have a team that did really well at Aachen finishing third in the Nations Cup, but my top horse is competition fit right now and he will have another little break this fall. We held him back from competition just for the sake of his legs. He’s won Aachen, he’s done everything, and he has a big year next year. I will try to qualify for the World Cup because it’s in Las Vegas, which would be a nice, easy trip for us. Then we try to move forward for Tokyo. Both myself and Kasey Perry-Glass, who has the number two American horse, kept our top horses at home this summer which I think is the first summer for me for six or seven years.
Team mate, Kasey Perry-Glass and Dublet
Is that hard? Are you going crazy?
I was doing just fine, and I talk to my team mates all the time. I talk to Kasey about three or four times a week, I talk with Adrienne all the time, but then when Aachen started, I was wishing I was there, but I knew it was the right choice.
You had to leave the country to cope – (Aachen was the same weekend as the Masterclass in Australia)
Exactly! I had to not even look at my horse to cope. Haha. Of course I’m sitting there at dinner last night with the live stream, constantly pressing refresh because it’s really exciting to me. You can’t help it.
The distraction, conducting the Masterclass in Brisbane…
What’s the next horse then?
I do have a couple of really nice mares. I’m always looking for something else. I’d love to add another one to my barn, but they’re both very young. One is four, and one is six, so it will be quite some time. I’m not going to take a horse that is schooling the Grand Prix and try and make it mine. I will not. It’s just not fun for me. I enjoy the training process. I like getting on a horse that I’m going to take down the centreline and have a pretty good idea of what’s gone into it, and what I’m going to get out of it. I think taking over someone else’s ride is a really different feeling. I’ve been blessed in my current situation, I know my top horse goes in there and does what he does for me, and I think there is something that when a horse is tossed around from this person to that person, you lose that. That’s what’s in this sport for me, that when I ride down that centreline, it’s THIS horse and me. And I think that’s really fun.
Who were the dressage champions at Aachen this year? What young horses are coming up? Find out about the breeding at this year’s Aachen, and WYH Championships at Ermelo
http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2019/08/aachen-and-ermelo-the-breeding-de-brief/