If you’re even the slightest bit of an equestrian, I’m sure you’ve heard about WEG. Whether you’re going to it, heard about it in passing conversation, or are competing in it, it’s kind of hard not to know about it when you’re involved in the equestrian world. WEG is basically like the horse Olympics. It’s held every 4 years in between the actual Olympics. It’s a huge event that showcases every horse sport possible! I’ve been keeping up with it the best I could and recorded most of it so I could watch it on my own time. Starting with dressage it’s easily one of the top things I wanted to watch during WEG. Watching these top world ranking competitors ride always leaves me in awe!
For the US the big name right now is Laura Graves and Verdades as they’re ranked #2 in the world! They’ve been putting quite a smack down in Dressage and have really been coming into their own. There’s an inspiring story about Verdades and how he’s really the only horse Laura rides and about how the bond between them is unbreakable since they’ve been together since he was a foal. Laura had a beautiful ride scoring in the low 80’s which put the US Dressage Team in second, and got her an individual silver medal! As well, we can’t forget to mention the other US dressage riders that helped get the team to second place like Kasey Perry-Glass on Dublet, Adrienne Lyle on Salvino, and Steffen Peters on Suppenkasper!
While the US Dressage Team did incredible, it’s hard not to talk about the elephant in the room.. Isabelle Werth on Bella Rose. Holy Cow! It’s not hard to see why she’s ranked number one in the WORLD right now! It was a breathtaking performance!! Bella Rose is Werth’s number 3 horse, which means she left her number 1 & 2 AT HOME! Bella Rose was out for about 3 years, only coming back into training about 3 months prior to WEG! That’s crazy! Werth ended up scoring an 86%! Oh my god, it was beautiful to watch with how precise and technical Bella Rose is… I have no words. Werth took home the gold individual medal and Germany got gold in the team division as well.
The US did qualify for Tokyo 2020!!! While abled bodied dressage is so much fun to watch, obviously I really wanted to watch Para-dressage…. And it wasn’t televised!!!! What the HECK?? You had to watch it online to actually see what was going on and stay up to date. Sad, but, I suppose that’s the way it is for now. The US did sub-par (in my opinion) with Annie Peavy ranked 6 th , follow by Kate Shoemaker ranking 7 th in the Grade IV tests and Roxanne Trunell was ranked 5 th in her Grade I test after all was said and done. Rebecca Hart however came through and got bronze (aka 3 rd ), making her the first US Para-dressage rider to EVER medal at WEG. HOW EXCITING! She had a lovely ride on Texel scoring a 72.235%! This was a day to remember and definitely a day that made history! It’s a huge accomplishment for her and for the US and there’s still so much more to come from Becca and the rest of the US Para-Dressage Team.
So, what’s the takeaway from all of this? Work hard. After watching these rides this week (and more to come next week), it’s so easy to get caught up in it and want to be there too, but it doesn’t work like that. I’m nowhere near ready for anything like that at the moment, and definitely don’t have the right horse for it either. But, I think in 4 years when WEG comes around again (this time in another country), I will be ready and have a chance to compete in a tournament like that. There’s a lot of behind the scenes stuff that goes on that nobody tells you about (and that I have yet to discover since I’m not at that level yet). I want to be at WEG in 4 years. I also want to go to the Paralympics. I have all these goals that I want to accomplish and I want to accomplish them RIGHT NOW. But, everything takes time (which sucks), but I’m here, I’m learning and I’m ready! So bring it on!!!
