As soon as he arrived in the USA aged six months, the Graves family knew they had taken on quite a project. It took three men to get the weanling into the trailer to get him home.
It turns out Diddy fears everything. Fly spray, mounting blocks, people, dirt flicking at his belly, you name it, he’s scared of it. Laura says he is a horse with a big heart who is genuinely afraid.
Some days as a youngster, he was un-rideable.
“One time, he just launched me. Laura said. “I actually fractured my back.
“Cantering he’s such a big mover, he would scoop the dirt with his hoof and sometimes it would hit him in the belly and he’d completely lose it. It was never to get me off. It was because he was panicking about something. He’s just an interesting character like that.”
He was more than interesting; Laura got to saturation point and tried selling him. Diddy was considered too dangerous, so Laura gave herself a well-earned break and moved away to pursue a career in hairdressing.
After a while, she decided it was time to see what he could do. Although he had so many quirks, he was also effortlessly elegant with talent to spare.
Laura and Diddy moved to Florida. It was here, double Olympian Debbie McDonald saw them compete. Laura had lessons with Debbie in the past, but Debbie saw Diddy’s competition potential and offered to train them on a regular basis. It was the break they needed.
Although their arrival on the world stage seemed sudden, it had been a long, physically and emotionally painful process.
The pair burst onto the Dressage scene at WEG in Normandy in 2014. They were highest placed American pair on the team.
Two years later at the Rio Olympics, they helped the USA team achieve bronze, their first medal in 12 years. Laura and Diddy were again the highest place American pair with individual fourth.
