After winning double silver medals at the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon, NC, Laura became the first American dressage rider to be ranked No.

At the age of 15, Laura (along with her mother) bought a foal named Verdades from the Netherlands, a horse that eventually became her Olympic partner.

After briefly working in Boston, Graves decided to move to Florida and continued pursuing her career as a dressage rider after not being able to sell Verdades because of his opinionated spirit.

At the American Dressage Championships, held in Gladstone, New Jersey, they placed 2nd overall and qualified directly for the 2014 World Equestrian Games.

[5] In the build-up towards the World Equestrian Games, Graves and Verdades competed at the CHIO Aachen 5* event, placing 10th in the freestyle final.

[6] In 2018, Graves successfully defended her World Cup Finals silver medal at the competition held in Paris, France.

[2] Graves started the 2019 season at the Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida, during which she qualified for the 2019 World Cup Finals.

Verdades is a 2002 KWPN Bay Gelding (Florett As x Lilwilarda by Goya) bred by the late Peter Jan (Piet) Crum of Herveld in Holland.

[9] At just 11 years old, she buried a clay model of the Olympic rings inside her fifth-grade time capsule in hopes that she'd make it to the sports world's biggest stage one day.