A light-hearted look at a Training Scale for Freestyle Designers
The freestyle team is committed to maintaining the correct principles of training and through these the athletic development of the horse. We do not wish to produce a circus performance matching music to a series of tricks and complicated choreography. We strive to develop horse and rider combinations with the Scales of Training- Rhythm, Contact, Suppleness, Impulsion, Straightness and Collection firm in our minds.
In this article we take a light-hearted look at a designers training scale to show how we approach freestyle production
The first training priority is to establish rhythm. It is important to work within your horse’s natural rhythm so we calculate your horse’s beat per minute (bpm) in all three paces to determine which music tempo to use. Typically the walk will be 96 - 116 bpm, trot will be 136 - 172 bpm and canter 90 - 108 bpm but clearly there will be those which fall outside these figures.
From rhythm we establish contact. For the freestyle designer this is viewed as contact with the audience and the judge! We want the spectator to feel connected to the performance, to feel that the music matches the horse and to be clear what the routine is about.
Once we have rhythm and contact we can work on Suppleness. Suppleness in the horse is demonstrated by ease of movement and harmony with the rider. We want to produce routine where music flows with seamless (Supple!) transitions that make the audience want to listen and watch to the end.
If suppleness is about a flow of energy then we want a routine that shows a connection between the combination and the style of music. A routine which moves freely forward. This leads us to impulsion, the controlled forward movement of the horse, the balance between speed and power. This impulsion should be reflected in the music choice.
The music should neither overwhelm the horse creating tension and lack of harmony or fade into the background so that the horse is merely performing a test with music tinkling underpowered in the background.
Straightness is an elusive goal, easy to define perhaps as the horse’s hind feet needing to follow the tracks of the forefeet whether on a straight or curved line harder to realise. Difficult to equate to music too! In the best tradition of freestyle I will translate this requirement and liken it to a good routine being straightforward. Patterns that are too complicated or music which chops and changes will not encourage correct work or give the rider time to think about straightness….
The ultimate goal in the training of horse and rider is collection. For the freestyle designer the phrase “Cool, Calm and Collected” where the performance appears effortless and the routine unhurried may be the Holy Grail.
Alison Kenward
Freestyle Dressage Team