{"id":362723,"date":"2025-12-24T13:34:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T18:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/?post_type=article&p=362723"},"modified":"2025-12-24T13:34:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T18:34:59","slug":"remembering-verdades-the-chronicles-2014-dressage-horse-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/article\/remembering-verdades-the-chronicles-2014-dressage-horse-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Verdades, The Chronicle’s 2014 Dressage Horse Of The Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With the news of the death of Verdades<\/a>, Laura Graves’ dressage star, at age 23, we’re looking back to January 2015, when Graves was named the 2014 Dressage Horseman of the Year and the Dutch Warmblood gelding was named the Chronicle’s 2014 Dressage Horse of the Year after the pair were the top U.S. finishers at the Alltech World Equestrian Games in Normandy, France. This article first appeared in the Jan. 26 and Feb. 2, 2015, edition of the Chronicle.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes when you look at a weanling, you can imagine him accomplishing great feats in his future\u2014competing at the FEI World Equestrian Games, maybe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes you can\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were not even remotely pleased with him,\u201d said Laura Graves of her first sighting of Verdades, whom she purchased from a video with the help of her mother, Patricia \u201cFreddie\u201d Graves, and then imported as a 6-month-old. \u201cI think we were kind of shocked because it was our first time picking up a horse from quarantine. They\u2019re leading out gorgeous warmblood after gorgeous warmblood, and my mom and I were thinking, \u2018This one must be him. No, this one must be him!\u2019 Then they brought out this one; he was covered in vinegar from being sanitized, and it took three people to manhandle this wild little foal. They called his name, and we were like, \u2018I guess that one\u2019s ours.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Laura Graves announced Saturday that Verdades, the horse she developed from foal to five-star and kept for his life, had died at age 23. Hippo Foto\/ Sharon Vandeput<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

That wild little Dutch Warmblood foal (Florett AS\u2014Liwilarda, Goya) would grow up\u2014eventually\u2014and become the top-placed U.S. horse at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (France) this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Verdades\u2019 first few months in the United States didn\u2019t make anyone think he\u2019d later set the world on fire. He was sick after his journey, and because he hadn\u2019t been handled much prior to import, the Graves family couldn\u2019t treat him at their Vermont farm. He stayed at a veterinary hospital until he recovered. Once \u201cDiddy\u201d returned, he lived out with a group of horses, and Laura, just a teenager, worked with him after school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was afraid of the saddle pad and the bridle, afraid of being taken from the barn,\u201d she said. \u201cHe took off and broke probably five snaffle bridles, for no apparent reason. He\u2019d be standing quietly, and then he\u2019d panic and take off. But once I was riding him, he was still very sensitive, but he was always really kind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the gelding was 4 or 5, Laura competed him at training level for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe almost took the judge\u2019s head off,\u201d said Laura, 26. \u201cHe kicked so high at C that he left dirt on the judge\u2019s table. I didn\u2019t show him again until he was going about third level. There was no point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What made training level difficult for Diddy, namely his hot temperament and sensitivity, helped him excel as he moved up, to third level in 2010\u2014around the time Laura moved from Vermont to Florida to work with Anne Gribbons\u2014and to the small tour at CDIs in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diddy won the open Intermediaire II at the U.S. Dressage Finals (Kentucky) in 2013, but the next step was a big one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy feeling was that I needed help. I\u2019d done a lot of the Intermediaire II work myself. I had the one-tempis, and the pretend piaffe and passage,\u201d Laura said. \u201cYou know, what you play with at home, and you think it\u2019s piaffe and passage, and then you go to a show, and the judges are like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s not a real piaffe and passage.\u2019 Luckily I found that help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time Diddy was doing Grand Prix in early 2014, people were taking note of him\u2014not everyone yet, but the right people, notably U.S. Dressage Chef d\u2019Equipe Robert Dover and USEF Developing Coach Debbie McDonald, with whom Laura started training full time this year.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Laura Graves and Verdades at their last international competition, the 2019 Longines FEI World Cup Finals in Gothenburg, Sweden, where they finished second in the Grand Prix and the freestyle. Hippo Foto\/Stefan Lafrentz<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI always knew the horse had an amazing ability,\u201d said McDonald. \u201cI said to her several times, \u2018I think he\u2019s honestly one of the most talented horses in the world as far as what he can do with his body.\u2019 He\u2019s almost a freak at certain things, and yet, with her on him, he\u2019s a pretty cool competitor. They have a longstanding relationship, and he has one hundred percent trust in her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diddy\u2019s Grand Prix work was developing throughout the season, and when they left for the U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions in Gladstone, New Jersey, as one of the last pairs qualified, Laura and her horse had only once scored above 70% in a CDI Grand Prix test, and that was a freestyle. But they earned a spot on the U.S. Team after taking the national reserve title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think it was possible at all,\u201d Laura said. \u201cI knew we had to bust our butts to be in the top eight. But when I looked around, I said, \u2018I have a great horse.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In France, Laura relied on her hard-earned knowledge of her mount\u2014allowing him to walk all the way around the outside of the arena, only picking up a canter right before entering at A\u2014and the dressage world noticed him in a big way. A few people weren\u2019t shocked by Diddy\u2019s fifth-placed finish in the Grand Prix freestyle at the World Games\u2014and one of those was sitting on him. Laura had felt him improving through all the years of training and months of fine-tuning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy horse stepped up to the plate,\u201d Laura said. \u201cThese things pay off. I know if I\u2019d pushed him two years ago, it would have blown his mind. Someone greater than all of us had this planned. There was no way these things could have just come together like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laura isn\u2019t sure what 2015 holds for Diddy\u2014maybe the Pan American Games in Toronto, most likely some CDIs, and she\u2019s aiming for that elusive 80% in the Grand Prix. She\u2019s also facing a new challenge, one she never expected based on her first meeting with Diddy more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore we went to Gladstone, I was sitting with Debbie, and she said, \u2018I want you to be prepared. There will be people offering you large amounts of money for this horse,\u2019 \u201d said Laura. \u201cI said, \u2018I don\u2019t even want to know what kind of numbers.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve still never heard a number,\u201d she added. \u201cThere is not an amount of money that would fill the hole in my heart if this horse were gone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the news of the death of Verdades, Laura Graves’ dressage star, at age 23, we’re looking back to January 2015, when Graves was named the 2014 Dressage Horseman of the Year and the Dutch Warmblood gelding was named the Chronicle’s 2014 Dressage Horse of the Year after the pair were the top U.S. finishers […]\n","protected":false},"author":114810,"featured_media":362728,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false},"tags":[4713,2618,2676],"article_categories":[976,2302,9401],"acf":{"ad_unit":"","ad_unit_mobile":"","spotlight_visible_till":"","image_home_display":"","facebook_image":"","featured_image_caption":"","hide_featured_image":["yes"],"sponsor_heading":"","sponsor":"","sponsor_logo":"","sponsor_link":"","related_gallery":"0","blogger_profile":70987},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/362723"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114810"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/362723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":362767,"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/362723\/revisions\/362767"}],"acf:post":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blogger_profile\/70987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362723"},{"taxonomy":"article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chronofhorse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_categories?post=362723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}