ing Anky’s [van Grunsven] Bonfire kür music,” she said. Momentarily struck by the fact that she was riding to the music of one of the most decorated dressage Olympians in history, “I had an idea of where I was but lost count. And then I didn’t give the aid that I needed. I prayed for the change instead of riding for the change. I was mortified.” If that Grand Prix test wasn’t Brock’s best effort—her 72.686 ended up being the team’s drop score—she redeemed herself in the Special, besting Perry-Glass’s 73.235 with a 73.824 aboard Rosevelt, a 2002 Hanoverian stallion owned by Claudine and Fritz Kundrun. The effort was sufficient to qualify Brock for the individual medal final, the Grand Prix Freestyle, along with Peters and Graves. (Perry-Glass missed the cut, failing to place in the top 18 individually.) “It was quite hot, and yet he couldn’t care less about that. He thinks he belongs here,” Brock said of her mount. “He just cantered in there like he owns the place.” That wasn’t always the case, however. According to Brock, Rosevelt “used to be a horse that was very environmentally sensitive.” In one experience she called “terrifying,” her freestyle music volume wasn’t adjusted properly, and the blast of sound “really scared him.” Patient training helped the stallion to overcome his fears, and now Rosevelt is “a perfect gentleman,” said Brock, who expressed her pride that “my horse stood like a rock and calmly trotted around the awards ceremony in Rio.” It was Peters’ score of 77.614 percent in the Grand Prix that put Team USA on the fast track to a medal. Later, he rhapsodized about the effort: Even though he went on to score 79.393 in the freestyle, “The one ride that I will remember for the rest of my life is the Grand Prix. It was exactly what I had dreamed of. I wanted to deliver a score that would put the team a little bit ahead of nations who were in the running for third place, and that is exactly what I did. Let me rephrase that: It was exactly what Legolas did,” he said of his mount, Legolas 92, a 2002 Westfalen gelding owned by Four Winds Farm. Peters and Legolas have had an enduring and successful partnership, with appearances at the 2012 Olympics, the 2014 WEG, the 2015 Pan Am Games, and the 2015 World Cup Dressage Final. Peters made it clear that these Olympics were extraspecial. “I remember getting off, and even after four Olympics being crazy emotional about his performance,” he said of his horse. “And then when I started talking to the TV crew [in the round of mandatory post-ride press interviews], I made it through the first crew, but by the second crew I was bawling my eyes out. When you have a group of people together for three months without a single conflict, without a single
THIS IS WHAT 80 LOOKS LIKE! Laura Graves and Verdades pour it on to top 80 percent in the Grand Prix Special
incident, it is more than friendship; and then to deliver for three incredible people and for their families, their support, and for our country, to try to put that into words, it’s almost impossible.” If the Grand Prix was emotional for Peters, the Grand Prix Special was equally memorable, but for a different reason. The audience saw Legolas make one obvious bobble in a half-pass—a momentary loss of balance, Peters said—but the real (and unseen) story started in the first piaffe. “The buckle of my belt broke, and for the entire test the belt was flapping around, and I could feel my pants getting looser and looser and sliding down,” Peters recounted. “Finally, by the last center line, I grabbed the belt with my left hand, and when I saluted I looked at [judge] Gary [Rockwell], who was at C, and he saw me taking the rest of my belt off. He had this look on his face as if to say, ‘What is he doing?’” The distraction concerned Peters because “I didn’t know if the score was going to be good enough to support the team. I knew we needed a 74.198, but the score was not up on the scoreboard.” Fortunately, the effort was more than sufficient, and when his score of 74.622 was announced Peters got “super excited. I knew it was a supporting team score. From there on, I was quite happy coming out with a belt in my hand.” But the bronze medal wasn’t secure yet. With both PerryGlass and Peters scoring slightly lower than hoped in the Special, it came down to Graves. She’d earned the top US score in the Grand Prix with her 78.071, and after the Special she USDF CONNECTION
•
November 2016
37