Germany won Olympic Dressage team final gold Friday at Deodoro Olympic Park. The Rio Olympics gold medal bring’s Germany’s all-time team gold victories to 13. Great Britain earned the team silver and the U.S.A. the team bronze.
In the dressage team final, Germany’s team, Isabell Werth, Dorothee Schneider, Sönke Rothenberger and Kristina Bröring-Sprehe, reflected the depth of the sport in their homeland. The day’s highest score went to the last German team member, Isabell Werth, who earned an 83.711 with her outstanding mare Weihegold. Britain’s 2012 double champions Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro, Great Britain’s 2012 team and individual gold medal winners, anchored the British team with a second place in the individual standings.
The bronze medal was in play until the last Team U.S.A. rider. When Laura Graves and Verdades finished the Grand Prix Special test with a personal best score of 80.644, the pair had secured the bronze in the dressage team final for the U.S.
MEDAL RESULT | Equestrian Team Dressage
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U.S. Olympic dressage horses
The Chronicle of the Horse profiled Laura Graves’ Olympic mount Verdades and Steffen Peters’ Legolas 92:
Verdades:
Bay gelding, 14 years, Dutch-bred Dutch Warmblood (Florett As—Liwilarda, Goya), bred by P. Crum, owned by the rider.
Barn Name: Diddy
Until 2014, few had ever heard of Graves and Verdades — now they’re making headlines wherever they go. Graves bought Diddy as a foal and spent several years trying to get through to the difficult horse. A former hairdresser, Graves decided to move to Florida once they ironed out the kinks with hopes of making it to an international championship.
The pair earned a spot on the team for the 2014 Alltech/FEI World Equestrian Games (France) where they were the top-placed U.S. pair, finishing fifth individually.
Since then they’ve competed at the 2015 Reem Acra/FEI World Cup Dressage Final (Nev.) where they were fourth and helped the U.S. take team gold at the 2015 Pan American Games before taking silver behind Peters.
They won eight Grand Prix level tests this winter in Wellington, Fla., leading the way for the U.S. team in the Nations Cup to take gold. This summer, they won the Grand Prix Special at Rotterdam (the Netherlands) and finished second at Rotterdam, Roosendaal (the Netherlands) and Compiénge (France).
Legolas 92:
Bay gelding 14 years, German-bred Westphalian (Laomedon—Furstin, Florestan II), bred by Johannes Kissing, owned by Four Winds Farm LLC.
Barn Name: Legs
The most experienced rider on the dressage team, this will be Steffen Peters’ fourth Olympic Games after competing in 1996, 2008 and 2012. He first paired with Legolas in 2011 and they made their FEI debut in February of 2012.
The pair led the U.S. team to gold at the 2015 Pan American Games (Toronto) before taking home the individual medal. Peters, who holds the record for most U.S. National Grand Prix Championships at 8, rode Legolas to three consecutive championships (2012, 2013, and 2014).
Most recently they won the Grand Prix at the Roosendaal CDI**** (the Netherlands) with a 76.82 percent.
Peters has put a lot of work into improving Legolas’ freestyle, including playing a soundtrack of applause loudly over his barn speakers to help the gelding get used to extra noise during his test.