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| Qrac and me at a show last summer |
Do you have moments when you’re driving in your car, music
blaring, dreaming up freestyle choreographies that match the beat of the song
you’re listening to? I do! All the time! There I am, cruising along to, say,
“Bailamos”, that old hit by Enrique Iglesias, visualising Qrac and I dancing
across the arena, half-passing and tempi-changing and piaffe-passing, then
pirouetting during the break in the song before taking off in a fabulous extended
canter. Yeah, it’s totally daft, but it’s a fun fantasy. And yeah, it’s
definitely a fantasy especially if you know how difficult it is to ride a perfect
ten metre circle. Needless to say, Qrac and I aren’t quite ready to do fancy footwork
to Enrique Iglesias! But that’s ok. It’s something to work towards, right?
I’ve only ever ridden one freestyle program, and that was
years ago, on Amanda, the mare I received as a wedding present from my
father-in-law. Amanda wasn’t a dressage horse, she was more of a jumper. Amanda
had a lot of thoroughbred in her and was never an easy ride. I jumped her for a
few years, but never really enjoyed it as she hated touching the bars so would
either jump massive, or pull up sharply, catapulting me over the jump instead,
which kind of sucked.
Anyway, after my children were born I decided I no longer
wanted to be a human cannonball, and luckily for me, my decision coincided with
the arrival of two lovely dressage divas at my stables who took me under their
wing, introducing my mare and I to dressage fundamentals such as “outside hand, inside leg”. Over the next few years I saw my mare change from a wiry,
skinny-necked, hollow-backed sewing-machine to a chunky, nicely chiselled
Muscle Woman. Ok, so she was never going to be a dressage arena dreamboat, but
the physical metamorphosis was definitely impressive. Amanda and I entered a
few dressage shows, and the one we did best in was a freestyle program
performed to Brian Ferry’s “Slave to Love”. I’d spent ages trying to find a
song that matched Amanda’s cadence in trot, and “Slave to Love” was perfect. Of
course, it didn’t work quite as well for the canter or walk work, but back then
(I’m talking maybe fifteen or sixteen years ago) we didn’t have the technology
we have now to create sophisticated home-made freestyle mixes (not that I’ve
any clue how to create one now), so we had to make do with riding to one track.
Having said that, I remember other people managing to put various tracks
together, but I guess they were just more techno-savvy than me. Anyway, whatever;
riding that test was the most fun I’ve ever had in a competition.
Qrac and I are going to be competing next week (in a regular
program, not a freestyle), so we’ve been working hard towards the test. It’s
nothing complicated, and frankly I find it kind of depressing to think that
I’ve been riding for eons and yet I’m still competing in the lowest levels. Not
that I’ve done many shows; as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m not a
competitive person. I’m far too emotional, and my nerves tend to get the better
of me. Also, I’ve never had a horse long enough to be able to rise through the
dressage levels. When
I bought Qrac two years ago he was extremely green. All
he did was run, so we had to go back to basics, get him to work through his
back, get him to connect, focus on trying to keep him soft and relaxed. One of
my main difficulties is keeping him in a slow rhythmic trot; he didn’t come
with a built-in metronome and finding the right cadence is quite a challenge. The
most common comment I get during my lessons is “slow down”, yet no matter how
hard I concentrate, I have an extremely hard time finding Qrac’s correct
“slowness”.
When I mentioned this to one of my trainers the other day,
she suggested I find music to fit his ideal rhythm. So I went home, grabbed my iPad, found the video of my recent
clinic with Bernard Sachsé, sat down in front of the computer, opened iTunes
and then spent ages going through songs, trying to determine which songs fit
matched his tempo when he was working at his best. It was an interesting
exercise as many songs I’d imagined would work didn’t at all. In the end I made
a playlist of four songs that work best. These are “Hall of Fame” by The Script
(I’m currently addicted to that song), “Breakeven”, also by The Script,
“Perdido sin Ti” by Ricky Martin (yes, I still love him) and “Weather with you”
by Crowded House.
Unfortunately, there’s no music system at our stables so
there’s no way I can burn a CD and play it while I’m riding. I don’t like
riding with an iPod and headphones; I think it’s dangerous as you can’t hear
what’s going on around you.
The only solution is to sing!
So I’ve been singing my heart out during my last few
training sessions. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not torturing my fellow riders, belting
out “Hall of Fame” at the top of my voice! For one, it’s really difficult to
ride sitting trot and not massacre Danny O’Donoghue’s catchy tune. I sing
softly, sometimes even just in my head, but I’ve found that this simple trick
really helps. As soon as Qrac speeds up, the song rhythm reminds me to check
him with a little half-halt, and the problem is solved. I also think Qrac enjoys
being sung too; his ears flick backwards and forwards, somehow he’s more “with
me”. I’m not saying “Hall of Fame” is going to solve all our cadence problems,
and that thanks to Danny’s uplifting track we’re suddenly going to woosh
through the levels and “the world’s gonna know (y)our name”, but it’s a useful
tool to work with, especially in the downward transitions from canter to trot,
which is where Qrac has a tendency to run. All I have to do is find the song to
find the rhythm. Besides, it’s kind of fun, too!
As for the other songs I mentioned that also work with
Qrac’s tempo, they don’t seem to come to me quite so naturally. I can belt them
out nicely on the way to the stables in the privacy of my car, but for some
reason I’ve found them far more difficult to sing on horseback. Or maybe it’s just
because, similarly to my Enrique Iglesias freestyle fantasy, I’m far too happy
trotting around in my own little “Hall of Fame”!
Do you have any personal, quirky “tricks” you use while
riding? Have you ever done any freestyle programs? And, more generally, what
music do you enjoy?
