OK, I have no video, or even photos, to prove this. But we did rock our world at the horse show yesterday. We’ve tightened up our moves since early June and junked one awkward-looking sequence for something much more elegant. The progress is evident in our highest-ever score (probably never to be equaled again)…and I do have proof of that. To wit: here’s the scoresheet!
The horses and riders…
The score…96.385% in case you can’t read it
The GMO’s (US Dressage Federation Group Membership Organizations) in my area for some reason have never come up with an official Anything Goes Quadrille Musical Freestyle score sheet. So they use the one for Pas de Deux and just scratch that out and write in “Quadrille”. Sloppy looking, but it sure doesn’t change the results! In case you were wondering, a perfect score would be 100%. Our previous high score since inception of the team was 84.615%, which we had considered to be unbeatable until now…
Alli Farkas Artist Adventures 
Congratulations on a fabulous score, Alli. What fun this must have been for all to see.
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The judge actually thanked us for giving such an enjoyable performance. We of course thanked her back for her appreciation. She had a smile on her face that could have lit up the sun. It’s gotten to the point that, since we have appeared at the same venues over the last three years, folks approach us when we’re just wandering around the show grounds between rides to tell us how much they look forward to seeing us perform. Can’t get any better than that!
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Wow! You guys obviously blew the judges off their seats this time!
How fun to do this together as a group.
Curious, could you keep the same music or did you guys change it because the switch in the program? SO much to practice to get it all together…
Oh, and I rarely get home with any show pictures too, seems to be too much going on on show day!
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We kept the music the same. The issue was that coming out of a canter circle into a trot, we needed to be able to pair up on opposite sides by the time we hit B and E. But since each rider came out of the circle a quarter of a circle behind the rider in front of them, by the time the last rider came out it was a hustle to catch up. We had put a couple of tiny circles in for the first two riders but it was truly awkward. So what we ended up doing was having the first and second riders halt at B and the third rider halt at E and when the fourth rider caught up at E everybody moved off as a single unit.Video does exist, but I don’t have it. Will see it on Friday and maybe get a copy then.
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I loved the first video, it all looked very coherent. Really nice group of horses matched up for all of you!
SO much thought to go into the planning of the program. Who is doing it? You, or a trainer from the ground?
If I had more people at my barn I’d pick this up as a second hobby! 🙂
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Three years ago an extremely talented fellow rider asked around for participants in a quadrille that she wanted to do. She selects and edits the music, sets the choreography, and with some input from us designs the costumes. She and a couple of the others make the costumes. We originally incorporated the quadrille into what had been called “Ladies Night” at our barn, utilizing the expertise of our trainer to learn how to get our horses to cooperate with each other and how to get our movements synchronized and our positions worked out. This year we did it largely without the trainer, but since we had acquired a fifth member who also had experience, she became our eyes on the ground as needed. We start practicing late February or early March, once a week. When it gets warm enough to use the outdoor ring we practice twice a week as show dates approach. It’s a bit dicey as far as musical timing goes until we can get outside in the full-size ring. The indoor is only 20 x 40 meters, so we mostly work on the movements in sections while still indoors, then work it out to the music when we can move outside.
The challenges are all substantial, but the key one is to get four or five people who can consistently show up. It’s really hard to practice without four riders–trying to figure out where the “invisible” horse is can twist your brain up a bit!
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Oh!!!! Serious horse riding friend envy over here!!! ❤
I love it.
How time consuming, but fun!
I’d imagine you can practice alone to learn the program inside and out, but the of course need the whole group!!!
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Congratulations with the highest-ever score! Must have been a delight.
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