Looking for WEG Para-Equestrian Dressage Stories?

Yours truly did double duty at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (yes, I'm home from Normandy, and happy to be back with my family and our menagerie of four-footed friends).

As you know, I've been devoting most of this blog to the dressage competition, for the United States Dressage Federation. But for the first time, I had the opportunity to get up close and personal with the para-equestrian dressage WEG competition for the United States Para-Equestrian Association.

The WEG para-equestrian dressage venue: US competitor Angela Peavy rides Ozzy Cooper at the Hippodrome at La Prairie Racecourse in Caen. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

In case you missed the USPEA's daily features and press releases as they happened, click here for a link to the USPEA's news page, with all the stories, results, and photos archived.

I have some additional great material on para-equestrian dressage that didn't make the cut. Look for it in the November issue of USDF Connection, USDF's member magazine.

Speaking of great material, stay tuned for some additional WEG photos in my next post. I was hoping to curate and post them during the flight home, but there was no onboard wifi, and I was also beginning to succumb to some sort of in-flight respiratory crud. My apologies for the delay.

All Hail Queen Charlotte!

2014 WEG Grand Prix Freestyle gold medalists Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro (with Norman, the WEG horse mascot, redubbed Freddy by the British team) wave to British fans during their victory lap. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro won everything in sight at the 2012 London Olympic Games, and they’re not stopping any time soon.

The 29-year-old protégé of British dressage veteran (and Dujardin’s 2012 Olympics and 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games teammate) Carl Hester has a lock on the individual WEG dressage gold medals. Today in Caen, Dujardin picked up her second individual gold of the week, adding a Grand Prix Freestyle medal (and a Rolex watch) to the GP Special gold she won on Wednesday.

 

"Blueberry" in piaffe: "He's good at everything," Dujardin said. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

It was a decisive victory, with judges Isabelle Judet (FRA), Lilo Fore (USA), Stephen Clarke (GBR), Francis Verbeek (NED), Elizabeth McMullen (CAN), and Dietrich Plewa (GER) awarding Dujardin and Valegro a score of 92.161 percent over silver medalist Helen Langehanenberg of Germany on Damon Hill NRW (88.286).

 

The 2014 WEG Grand Prix Freestyle medalists: Helen Langehanenberg of Germany (silver), Charlotte Dujardin of Great Britain (gold), and Adelinde Cornelissen of the Netherlands (bronze). Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

From the audience’s viewpoint, it was almost a toss-up as to who would win bronze, Langehanenberg or the Netherlands’ Adelinde Cornelissen. But although Damon Hill looked a bit tired, his supple and harmonious test got the nod over Jerich Parzival NOP’s greater power and flamboyance that occasionally showed moments of tension, earning the Dutch veterans a score of 85.714 percent.

 

Helen Langehanenberg of Germany thanks Damon Hill NRW for his freestyle performance. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

“After London, I didn’t really think it could get much better,” Dujardin said afterward. “But then at the Europeans [Championships], two golds there, and then I focused on my first World Equestrian Games. To win any medal is always a great achievement, but to come away here with two individual golds and the team silver is just unbelievable. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”

Dujardin, like most riders, is well aware that the best rider in the world can’t do it on a horse that is not at the top of the international standard. She currently sits on the greatest jackpot the dressage world has ever known. Valegro, a twelve-year-old Dutch Warmblood (Negro x Gerschwin), is the Secretariat of dressage. He is more supple, more straight, more ridable, and with greater talent for both extended and highly collected work than any other horse today. The fact that he has an adorable pony face and is called Blueberry is icing on the cake.

Although Dujardin and Valegro have smashed all the high-score records and have nothing left to prove, the rider knows that although getting to the top is hard, staying there is harder.

“The challenge is then to recreate [the success], and try to do it on some other horse, a younger horse. I enjoy training young horses and getting them up to Grand Prix, so maybe I can do it again on another horse,” Dujardin said.

All of the riders who stood atop the medium podium today expressed fierce pride in their mounts. Dujardin said simply: “He’s just good at everything.”

 

Adelinde Cornelissen of the Netherlands describes Jerich Parzival NOP as "seventeen going on seven." Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

“He really deserved a medal today. I’m really proud of him. He just keeps on doing it, over and over again,” said Cornelissen of Jerich Parzival NOP, a seventeen-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Jazz x Ulft). Several times this week, Cornelissen said: “He’s seventeen going on seven.”

Of the medalists today, Langehanenberg gushed the longest about her mount, Damon Hill NRW, a fifteen-year-old Westfalen stallion (Donnerhall x Rubinstein I).

“He can speak and read; he’s something else than a horse,” she said. “Every time, he gets better and better and better. You think that [a performance] was perfect and the best, and then the next time it’s wow, even better. He has no weaknesses; he has perfect gaits, his mind is perfect. He is like a little dog. If he were a little smaller, he’d sit beside us on the sofa. He has the best character someone can have. He’s absolutely honest and he’s the best.”

 

French judge Isabelle Judet, the president of the ground jury for the GP Freestyle. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Although most of the fifteen freestyles today were not mistake-free—most of the horses showed a few signs of fatigue from the long week of competition—French judge Isabelle Judet, the president of the ground jury today, had nothing but praise for the standard.

“We are like the spectators: We just loved it. We had great fun,” Judet said.

All five judges were in agreement regarding the placings of the gold- and silver-medal winners, and there was little discrepancy regarding the bronze, as well.

Said Judet: “When you are in the booth, you are not thinking about the results. We don’t try to do any placing; it just comes out. We’ve had a lot of experience, all of us. [In the moment] we’re almost not thinking; it’s like second nature. We just trust our feeling and that everybody will do their best. Sometimes, like today, it happens that we all have the same idea. It’s not quite always like this, but today we did.”

 

Steffen Peters and Legolas 92 performing their "Under Pressure" freestyle. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Steffen and Legolas: Looking Ahead to Las Vegas

Aboard Four Winds Farm’s twelve-year-old Westfalen gelding, Legolas 92 (Laomedon x Florestan II), Olympic team and WEG individual bronze medalist Steffen Peters expressed satisfaction with today’s “Under Pressure” freestyle, which earned a score of 77.321 percent for tenth place.

“A lot of things worked out great, especially the difficult parts: going from the extended canter to the pirouette, from the pirouette to the piaffe. And when he’s this excited, as he was today, the walk can be difficult. But today he walked absolutely beautifully, very relaxed. I could push him actually a little bit in the extended walk. The collected walk was great; I could actually relax for a moment myself. Then he came very nicely into the piaffe from the walk. Overall, a very good freestyle. I’m super happy,” Peters said. “It’s always the one-tempis that are tricky, but they worked out today. There was one where he was a bit tense, they were not perfectly straight; but I don’t think we had a mistake.”

Of his score, Peters said: “Seventy-seven at the World Games, nothing wrong with that. Of course you’re always hoping in the freestyle that you get a little closer to 80 percent, but we’ll leave that up to Laura today.”

The US dressage-team veteran already has a long-term strategy planned for Legolas: “The next big step is the [2015 FEI] World Cup [Dressage Final] in Las Vegas,” he said. Referring to the very electric atmosphere in the Thomas & Mack Center, with the audience positioned very close to the arena, he said: “It’s obviously a very difficult arena for Legolas, a bit of a nervous horse, but we’ll go there in plenty of time, a few days before, to practice there. Right now he gets a long break, at least four weeks; then we’ll pick up again from there.”

Legolas’s freestyle won’t be quite the same when we see it again in Las Vegas, Peters said. “When we made the music for the freestyle, we made a couple versions of the music. There is room for some new ideas. Those I’ll show you guys in Vegas.”

 

Laura Graves and Verdades have trotted -- make that galloped -- onto the world scene, finishing fifth in the WEG GP Freestyle. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Hello, World, I’m Laura Graves

The 27-year-old American phenom from Geneva, FL, was the talk of the WEG dressage competition. If I had a nickel for every time a foreign journalist asked me what the US press knew about her before the WEG and whether we were surprised that she was doing so well, I’d be considerably wealthier.

Graves’s story has grown more and more remarkable this week. I’d never heard her name before the US WEG selection trials in June. She stormed in and finished second to Steffen Peters on her developing superstar horse, Verdades, a twelve-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Florett AS x Goya), elbowing many decorated veterans aside. She and “Diddy” proceeded to travel to Europe—their first time—and made the Europeans sit up and take notice at the CDIs Aachen and Fritzens. To top it off, the pair came to Caen, qualified for the Grand Prix Freestyle, and then finished fifth—fifth!—on a score of 82.036 percent.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to break 80 percent in, well, any competition, but particularly international championship competition? And the WEG was Graves’s first score over 80.

“It’s a great feeling,” she said afterward. “If we hit 82 now, I’m excited to see where this could go. Just because your horse is talented doesn’t mean you’re going to get the big scores right away. It has to be really reliable; it has to be beautiful; it has to be strong; it has to be relaxed. All these things have to come together.”

“I wasn’t even expecting to come to Europe, let alone ride on this team,” Graves said.

Of her freestyle performance, Graves was particularly thrilled that Diddy “was really, really calm in [the stadium]. I could feel how cool he was. That was the most exciting of all. I worked him really lightly this morning; I didn’t want him to be tired, but I didn’t want him to be wild.” As it turned out, Diddy was a bit lazy in the trot half-passes early in the freestyle—but “he’s an easier horse to rev up than to cool down.”

Whenever a horse starts to get noticed, purchase offers usually follow. Graves concedes that she’s been approached, but “I refuse to hear numbers because he is never for sale,” she says.

Diddy is a gem, and “I want a horse for many years,” Graves said. So she’ll “take really good care of him” and then begin pointing him, carefully, toward the 2016 Olympics in Rio. But the US dressage team didn’t qualify for Rio here at the WEG—we would have had to medal in the team competition in order to do so—so there’s work to be done before then, she said.

Meanwhile, although “everyone’s looking forward to going home,” there’s little time to relax and celebrate. “The horses have to be out of here between six and seven tomorrow morning,” Graves said. The riders will return to their Belgian training base, and then Graves flies from Belgium to Miami on Monday. So let’s get the party started without further ado: “Hopefully there’s cold champagne at the barn!”

Passing the Torch

The 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games is serving as a rite of passage for two members of Team USA dressage.

Riding in her first senior international FEI championship competition is Laura Graves, 27, with her 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, Verdades (Florett AS x Goya). The pair, who finished second at the WEG selection trials, impressed audience and judges alike at the European shows since the 2014 Dutta Corp./USEF Dressage Festival of Champions and stand to do the same here in Normandy tomorrow. Graves is poised, with an enviable confidence and maturity in her riding. The future looks bright for her and “Diddy,” and with luck this will be the first of many appearances for this talented pair.

Tina Konyot and her Danish Warmblood stallion, Calecto V, in the team Grand Prix test at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

For Graves' teammate Tina Konyot, Normandy will be memorable for a very different reason. Konyot, who was the first to go for Team USA this morning to earn a score of 69.643 percent, said after her ride that the 2014 WEG will be the swan song for her longtime equine partner, the 16-year-old Danish Warmblood stallion Calecto V (Come Back II x Rastell).

“I am very, very happy,” Konyot said after her Grand Prix test, ridden in a light drizzle and cool temperatures under grim skies. “I had, obviously, little mistakes that cost you points [they had a mistake in the one-tempis and slightly undershot the last center line], but overall I’m thrilled. And he was quite energetic. I feel like I got an 80,” she said with a laugh.

“It was my goal to get here with my horse,” Konyot continued. “It’s his last hurrah. He’s in the three-plus club: He’s done two WEGs and an Olympic Games. There are only three other horses in America that have done that.”

Will Konyot hold a retirement ceremony for her horse? In her own way, she will: “I’m going to Deauville to ride on the beaches Friday and Saturday. That’s my ceremony.”

With Calecto, Konyot also participated in the 2010 WEG in Kentucky and the 2012 London Olympic Games. Of the three competitions, she said: “It’s all a wonderful experience. This may be a bit…” she trailed off, her eyes welling with tears. “I’m retiring him and I don’t know what it’ll be like not to have him. I have a younger one coming up, but it’s a big experience to get here, to be here with my boy the last time.

“He’s not the greatest dressage horse, but he is the greatest horse in the world. There’s no other horse that’s going to go galloping down the beach in Normandy. Out of these 103 horses [in the WEG dressage competition], he’s the only one that will do that.”

But who knows: Konyot said she “absolutely” plans to breed her horse of a lifetime after he retires. With a little luck, perhaps some of Calecto’s talent, heart, and temperament (“He’s a big teddy bear,” Konyot said) will be passed down to a younger generation. Watching the normally steely Konyot struggle to talk through her tears, it's a safe bet that nothing would please her more than to see her stallion pass his own torch.

Singin' in the rain: A torrential downpour didn't affect Wizard's focus or relaxation, and he and Adrienne Lyle hit the rider's goal of a 72% in the team Grand Prix test. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

As for the other US rider who competed today, Adrienne Lyle on Wizard, this pair—in the international arena on a team for the first time after competing as individuals at the 2012 Olympics—is definitely on the rise. The fifteen-year-old Oldenburg gelding (Weltmeyer x Classiker), owned by Peggy Thomas, is “getting fitter and fitter” following his pre-WEG European training and competition tour, according to Lyle, 29. These two are entering their prime, and today it showed in Wizard’s relaxation and elasticity even while doing a Grand Prix test in a downpour, each footfall producing a spray of sand and mud on his face, legs, and belly.

“I was thrilled with how he went. He didn’t get fazed at all,” Lyle said afterward. She praised the footing for remaining secure even during the deluge.

Told her score—72 percent on the nose—Lyle exclaimed, “Yay! That was my goal, to hit a 72, so I’m thrilled. You just want so badly to do well for your team.”

As some dressage fans may know, the 2014 WEG dressage-team selection process caused some controversy when the selection committee removed Caroline Roffman and Her Highness O and named Lyle and Wizard to the team instead. Obviously Lyle is aware that some tongues wagged, but she had high praise for Roffman and her mare and said that “I think everyone had the team’s best interests and the horses’ best interests at heart. We just kept trying to improve as the summer went on, to let Wizard speak for himself [as a strong candidate].”

Currently lying in seventh place, Lyle is sure to advance to the Grand Prix Special on Wednesday; the top 30 combinations, plus any ties for 30^th place, will qualify—meaning that Konyot, currently 17^th, also may go on.

Before today’s Grand Prix, Lyle said, Wizard “was a little amped up, and I spent a few days cantering long and low, trying to burn off the energy. Now we can build the energy back up and go in with a little more horse. And the Special for us has always been our stronger test—big extensions, collected work. I never worry too much about that one.”

Still, she’s glad that her mentor and longtime coach, Olympian Debbie McDonald, has returned to Europe for the WEG. McDonald, who also coaches Laura Graves, has racked up plenty of frequent-flyer miles this summer, flying back and forth for the CDIs at Rotterdam, Aachen, and Hickstead. If McDonald’s hard work pays off, she may get an extra-special gift for her birthday this Wednesday: a chance to see one and perhaps two of her students vie for WEG medals in the individual Grand Prix Special.

Kristina Sprehe and Desperados FRH of Germany are in the lead in the team dressage competition going into day 2. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

The leader going into day 2 of team GP competition, Kristina Sprehe of Germany riding Desperados FRH, has set the bar high with a score of 78.814%. In second are Hans Peter Minderhoud and Glock's Johnson TN of the Netherlands (74.357). Great Britain's Carl Hester and Nip Tuck are currently in third place with 74.186.

At WEG Opening Ceremonies, Vive la France!

The French are mad for Anerican Quarter Horses. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

The main attraction: Team France! Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Barbary horses at the WEG opening ceremony. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

The audience at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games opening ceremony thrilled to the "breeds of honor" exhibitions: Norman Cobs, Quarter Horses, Barbary horses, and Akhal-Tekes. But they saved their biggest applause for -- naturally -- the French athletes' entrance into D'Ornano Stadium.

Actually, the overwhelmingly French audience seems thrilled to have the Games here, and is enthusiastic about everything. As the media shuttle bus made its agonizingly slow way toward the press center this afternoon, it was slowed by the massive traffic jam and crowds lined up to enter the stadium, a good two-plus hours before the show's commencement.

With events such as these pageants, pictures are most definitely worth a thousand words, so enjoy these snapshots!

Pre-sbow flyover. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Akhal-Tekes race from D'Ornano Stadium. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Canadian athletes. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Steffen Peters (front, left) helps to carry the USA banner during the parade of nations. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

An exuberant handstand by a Team USA athlete. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

French fans do the wave as the French WEG athletes parade. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Where Worlds Collide

Attending an international competition such as the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy always makes for some unexpected and interesting meetings. In my case, they started when I deplaned in Paris this morning, and -- after fighting my way through legions of travelers at Aeroport Charles de Gaulle, many more than I would have anticipated on a Saturday morning -- was thankful to spot a young woman holding a sign for the media shuttle to Caen.

Celine apologized and asked if I would be willing to wait a few minutes for another party. We chatted until they arrived: 2014 WEG reining judge and 2013 National Reining Horse Association Hall of Fame inductee Rick Weaver and his wife, April. (It wasn't hard to spot them in the crowd, as not too many men sport cowboy hats in these parts.)

Rick and April are lovely people, and we were enjoying comparing equestrian-discipline notes when up came another shuttle-bus passenger: an admittedly weary Elizabeth McMullen, Canadian dressage judge and a member of the ground jury for the WEG dressage competition.

No, I didn't get any juicy inside dressage-judging scoop -- although Elizabeth said this year's WEG judges are being required to evaluate about 50 horses a day, which is more than usual per the rules and something of a challenge to the judges, who will be asked to focus and concentrate and give potentially medal-changing opinions for, well, a really long time. She added wryly that, when the inevitable judging controversy arises, they'll have something -- fatigue -- to blame it on.

Nodding off myself during the 3.5-hour drive from Paris to Caen, I noticed Rick and Elizabeth, eyes closed, all of us tired from the long overnight flights from North America.

"And they wonder why we do this," Elizabeth had quipped of the life of an FEI judge, as she relayed tales of various travel woes. I think I know why -- why she and Rick and others, including America's own Lilo Fore, put themselves to the trouble. It's because they are dedicated and committed to their respective equestrian disciplines, and this is their way of giving back. But they're only human, and they get weary like everyone else. When I'm the one saluting at X, of course, I have a right to expect a rigorous, objective standard of judging. But it sometimes helps to remember that a certain amount of subjectivity is inevitable in dressage, and if I'm going to compete I need to accept that.

World Equestrian Games vs. Olympic Games

A common source of confusion among equestrian enthusiasts is: What's the difference, horse-sport-wise, between a World Equestrian Games and an Olympic Games?

A WEG is the quadrennial world championships for all eight of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) disciplines: dressage, para-equestrian dressage, eventing, jumping, driving, vaulting, reining, and endurance. As such the WEG is produced by, and governed by, the FEI.

The 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Caen, Normandy, France, begin tomorrow, August 23, with the opening ceremony and conclude September 7. Click here for a downloadable schedule of events -- which include not only the equestrian competition, but also a full lineup of concerts at the Alltech Music Festival and this year's exhibition sport, horse ball!

The Olympic Games -- the summer Olympics, to be precise -- also are a quadrennial international sporting championships, but they differ in some significant ways from a WEG.

For starters, the obvious: Olympics feature many sports besides equestrian. And only three equestrian disciplines are included: dressage, eventing, and jumping.

A very important but more subtle difference between a WEG and an Olympics is in the governance. Olympic Games are governed by the International Olympic Committee, under which fall all of the Olympic sports' international federations, including the FEI. The IOC's goals for the Olympics may differ somewhat from those of the FEI -- for one, the IOC places emphasis on global participation by as many nations as possible -- and therefore rules for the equestrian events at Olympic Games frequently are different from the strict FEI rules, right down to the dressage tests themselves. In London 2012, for example, competitors rode an "Olympic Grand Prix Special" that was shorter than the standard GP Special -- the better to fit in more competitors.

Aside from these differences, to the three Olympic equestrian disciplines, a WEG gold medal and an Olympic gold medal are equally prestigious. The Olympics get more mainstream press, but the competition is equally stiff. In fact, one could argue that in some cases a WEG medal is more prestigious -- such as in eventing, which is the sport most likely to have its track made a little less challenging at the Olympics, in order to accommodate the less-experienced nations.

Days Before WEG Start, They're Dropping Like Flies

Who's competing at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games? Darned if I know.

I can't recall another major championship competition in recent history with so many withdrawal announcements just days before the opening ceremony.

Totilas and Edward Gal canter to gold at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Yesterday I awoke to the news that the 2010 WEG dressage Grand Prix Special and GP Freestyle gold medalist from the Netherlands, the Dutch Warmblood stallion Totilas, had been withdrawn. Now  competing under the German flag for rider Matthias-Alexander Rath, "Toto" had demonstrated a "pain reaction" at the site of a previous splint injury, the German Equestrian Federation announced.

Well, shoot. Like many others, I was looking forward to seeing Totilas in the same arena as Valegro, the 2012 Olympic champion from Great Britain. I saw Toto in Kentucky 2010 and Valegro in London 2012. Both were astonishing, and many people have asked me which horse I think is better. My personal preference aside, I honestly don't know how I think they'd score until I saw them back to back. Although the Totilas-Edward Gal pairing is in the past and Toto and Rath had a rough start, they'd reportedly really been clicking of late, scoring major European wins. The 2014 WEG was shaping up to be a dressage match race of sorts, a la the legendary 1938 Seabiscuit-War Admiral showdown. But for now we'll have to shelve that meeting.

On to the other disappointments; my heart goes out to everybody associated with these horses, who've come so far only to see defeat snatched from the jaws of victory at the last minute.

Germany's Sam FBW (shown after winning individual eventing gold at the 2012 London Olympics) is out of the 2014 WEG with an injury. Rider Michael Jung will compete aboard his other mount, FischerRocana FST. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

First off, we learned that the 2010 WEG and 2012 Olympic eventing individual gold medalist, Sam FBW, was withdrawn from the 2014 WEG today as a result of what the German FN termed inflammation in a front hoof. Sam's rider, Michael Jung, will still contest the WEG aboard his second mount, the nine-year-old mare FischerRocana FST.

Then the Netherlands' 2014 WEG dressage squad suffered a double blow: That nation's equestrian federation announced that both Glock's Undercover and Siro have been withdrawn due to injuries. Edward Gal, who rides Glock's Undercover, will remain on the Dutch WEG team with his other mount, Voice. Siro and rider Danielle Heijkoop will be replaced by Diederick van Silfhout on Arlando.

The Netherlands' Adelinde Cornelissen on Jerich Parzival won silver at the 2012 Olympics and stand to be strong contenders again at this year's WEG. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Hmm...do these losses increase Team USA's chances of a dressage medal? Possibly -- although we're still going up against such powerhouses as Germany's Helen Langehanenberg on Damon Hill NRW, the Netherlands' Adelinde Cornelissen on Jerich Parzival, and of course Valegro and rider Charlotte Dujardin. And don't dismiss any of the German or Dutch replacement horses or riders. Trust me, these nations' "understudies" would be leading ladies or men practically anywhere else.

WEG Selection Trials: A Newcomer Among Familiar Faces

Two-thirds of the way through the selection process for the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games US dressage team, and lying in a strong second place is Laura Graves.

Who?

She's a 26-year-old Vermont native, former 4-Her, and former working student of Anne Gribbons, that's who. And you'd better get accustomed to hearing her name and that of her horse, Verdades, because I suspect you'll be hearing them a lot in the weeks and years to come.

Laura Graves and her Verdades finished second in the 2014 US WEG selection trials Grand Prix Special. A highlight was the Dutch Warmblood gelding's rhythmic, relaxed piaffe and balanced piaffe-passage transitions. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Graves, who now calls Geneva, FL, home, trains with Olympian Debbie McDonald. She bought her 2002 Dutch Warmblood gelding (by Florett) as a weanling in the Netherlands based on a video. And she and "Diddy" displaced many better-known names -- Olympian Tina Konyot on Calecto V, Olympian Lisa Wilcox on Denzello, and Olympian Adrienne Lyle on Wizard, to name just three -- to place second in the Grand Prix Special with a score of 74.549 percent. The competition was part of the 2014 USEF Dressage Festival of Champions presented by the Dutta Corp.

"My horse was there for me. He was really, really there for me," said Graves afterward. "This [riding at the high-performance level] has always been my dream, and I'm very fortunate to have this horse who is helping me fulfill my dream."

Graves admitted to some show nerves, saying she didn't watch the other competitors in the class and "hid in my stall" beforehand to escape the hubbub at the USET Foundation headquarters in Gladstone, NJ.

Steffen Peters and Legolas 92, winners of the Grand Prix Special. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

The only competitor who could best Graves today was Captain America, Steffen Peters, and two-time USEF national Grand Prix champion Legolas 92, owned by Four Winds Farm. After a winning yet not bobble-free Grand Prix test on Thursday, Peters, of San Diego, CA, put in an improved (yet still not mistake-free) effort to clinch the Special with a score of 75.647 percent aboard the 12-year-old Westfalen gelding.

Peters' test was not without a moment of anxiety. Following his final halt and salute, the judge at C, Anne Gribbons, stepped into the arena and began to examine Legolas's bits. Gribbons was joined by the technical delegate, Elisabeth Williams. Shortly after, the two women exited the arena and Peters gave the crowd a thumbs-up. He explained later that the judge at B, Gary Rockwell, had asked Gribbons to check the bits. Fortunately nothing was found to be awry.

Technical delegate Elisabeth Williams and judge Anne Gribbons inspect Legolas's bits after Steffen Peters concluded his GP Special test. All was deemed OK. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

"I wish we could have put in a clean test," Peters admitted afterward, but "I was happy we got the changes; those are always extremely difficult with Legolas. His pirouettes were good, and his half-passes felt wonderful. It certainly wasn't a bad test but not what I wanted to take from here to Europe. We'll polish it, and hopefully by Aachen we'll have all of it in place. Robert [Dover], Shannon [Peters, Steffen's wife], and I have a very good plan; we're going to polish it for Aachen and then hopefully take it a step up for Normandy."

Finishing a strong third was the darling of the 2012 Olympic Games, Rafalca, whose connection with co-owner Anne Romney (wife of 2012 US presidential candidate Mitt Romney) made for a perfect storm during the run-up to the London Games. The reliable 17-year-old Oldenburg mare, also co-owned by Beth Meyer and Amy Roberts Ebeling, finished second in Thursday's Grand Prix and scored 74.294 in today's Special with longtime rider Jan Ebeling, of Moorpark, CA.

Olympic veterans Jan Ebeling and Rafalca passage to third place in the Grand Prix Special. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

If anything, Rafalca looks stronger and fitter than she did in London. Ebeling said: "She's having a good week. She is fit and she feels great, and being beaten by someone like her is absolutely wonderful," he said, smiling at Graves. "I've always said we want more younger riders coming up. It's exciting -- good riders, good horses, good backgrounds, good training. This is what our sport needs."

Ebeling admitted to some relief at not being a staple on "The Colbert Report" and in the mainstream media this time around. Of the pre-Olympics media circus, he said, "It was a bit more attention than I asked for."

London Olympics individual competitors Adrienne Lyle, Ketchum, ID, on Wizard, a 15-year-old Oldenburg gelding owned by Peggy Thomas, placed fourth in the GP Special with 73.412 percent.

Tomorrow we'll wrap up the WEG selection process with the always eagerly anticipated Grand Prix Freestyle, which commences at 2:35 p.m. EDT and which will be streamed live via the USEF Network. For purposes of determining the 2014 USEF National Grand Prix champion (and the short list for the 2014 US dressage WEG team), the Grand Prix score is worth 45 percent, with the Special accounting for 40 percent and the Freestyle, 15.