Laura Graves
Laura Graves and Verdades (2014 FEI World Equestrian Games)
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| Born |
July 22, 1987 Burlington, Vermont, United States |
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| Residence | Plymouth, Florida | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Laura Graves (born July 22, 1987) is an American dressage rider. She represented the United States at the 2016 Summer Olympics where she won a bronze medal in the team dressage competition.
Growing up in Vermont, Laura rode her first pony at an early age when a family friend boarded two ponies at the Graves' farm. Laura and her sisters got attached to the ponies what eventually persuaded their parents to trade a washing machine and a tumble-drier in order to keep them. At the age of 15, Laura and her mother bought a foal named Verdades from the Netherlands, a horse that eventually became her Olympic partner. Verdades however proved difficult at his early age, in 2009 she suffered a broken back after it threw her from the saddle. Following the setbacks, Laura decided to focus on her cosmetology studies and sell the horse. However, later on she moved to Florida and cotinued pursuing her career as a dressage rider after not being able to sell him.
Laura and Verdades started competing at the international Grand Prix level in 2014. At the American Dressage Championships, held in Gladstone, New Jersey, she surprisingly placed 2nd overall and qualified directly for the 2014 World Equestrian Games. In the build-up towards the World Equestrian Games, Laura and Verdades competed at the CHIO Aachen 5* event, placing 10th in the freestyle final. At the World Games, held in Normandy, France, she finished fifth in the team, fifth in the freestyle and fifth in the special dressage competitions.
Graves opened the 2015 dressage season with FEI World Cup Finals in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she finished 4th, narrowly missing out on a podium finish. Later that year, she competed at the Pan American Games, which were held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She won a gold medal in the team and a silver medal in the individual dressage competition, behind her team mate Steffen Peters.
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