U.S. Olympian Laura Graves — famous for her medal-winning partnership with Verdades — has finally found a horse she believes could well be his successor. She took on the ride on Sensation FOD three years ago after the horse had finished as double young horse champion under Michael Bragdell.

At WEC – Ocala, Graves rode Carol McPhee’s 10-year-old by the Sandro Hit son Sunday NRW topped two Intermediate II classes, scoring 71.471% and 72.353%. This was despite Graves “riding with the hand brake on.”

Photo – Olympian Laura Graves and her horse of the future, Sensation FOD, won two Intermediate II classes. Photo by Q2 Photography.

“We’re honestly still forging our relationship,” said Graves, who piloted Sensation to the 2022 US Dressage Small Tour Championship title. “He has a lot of talent for a lot of the difficult stuff. He’s still not showing what he’s capable of; the piaffe/passage carries tension now, but when we work through that and turn it into confidence he will be quite impressive.”

50%

“I’m only showing him about at about 50% — I’m still riding him conservatively as he forgets to wait, which makes the idea of Grand Prix difficult still, but the enthusiasm is what we want at the end of the day,” added Graves, who credits much of her success to her coaching team of Allison Brock, Debbie McDonald and Robert Dover.

“I’m trying to bring the winning crew from the glory days back together,” she continued. “The bigger team you have around you — the more people in your corner — the more success you have, and I’m trying to rebuild that.”

Graves is quietly optimistic about making the step up to Grand Prix later this year, with an eye on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

“If we have a chance for next year, Sensation would be very green, but Paris is what everyone’s looking forward to,” she said. “The competition will be fierce, but it would be really exciting. It could be another breath of fresh air for American dressage, and this horse has the talent and the heart to do that.”

A Cool Guy

A testament to Sensation’s good temperament is the fact that Graves rode him the day she went into labor with her daughter, in December 2021.

“He’s a total cool guy, really sweet, safe and generous,” she added. “He’s always been so sweet and gentle with the children. It’s really a special thing. It’s exciting to be doing this again with a very different horse who is young.”

Graves lives just outside Orlando, FL, and is grateful that, even during Florida’s relentless summer heat, she can compete and train in a climate-controlled facility, which allows her to plan her horses’ shows around their needs and not based on the weather.

Sean Cunningham, who trains with British coach David Hunt, moved to Ocala in July 2023 after a decade in California running his own facility, AA Ranch. At the WEC – Ocala October show, he was unbeaten on event rider Ronald Zabala-Goetschel’s seven-year-old Hanoverian gelding Wise Santos Du Pele by Donatus. Their high score came in Training Level test three, where they scored 73.8% to top the leaderboard of eight starters across the divisions.