Laura Graves and Verdades enter the arena for the rider of their lives.

As they walked from the peaceful warm up through the Alltech entrance into the stadium, for the Grand Prix Freestyle du Dressage at the Alltech/FEI World Equestrian Games Normandy 2014, Laura Graves (USA) with her trainer Debbie McDonald were focussed and ready. As the packed stands of all countries roared Laura’s focussed expression changed as she burst into a smile, grinning from ear to ear. With her partner Verdades (Diddy), Graves launched  onto center stage and the Dressage history books in not only her first World Equestrian Games but her first European tour. Doing their fourth and final test in the last phase of their breakthrough debut on the biggest Dressage stage in the world, the 27-year-old young woman from Central Florida with a horse her mother bought as a foal became not only the highest placed Americans but in the world. They rose above most of the strongest riders in the world into fifth place over all.
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