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& ���������������� �������������� 70 www.EliteEquestrian.us EE Yes it is a privilege. It is a total privilege to reach Grand Prix by itself. It takes years of dedication and hard work, a great trainer, and so much support. This is just like any other Olympic sport except this one has two minds that have to be in sync as one. The road is very long for some us. I had never competed beyond Prix St Georges, and that was a struggle, but Grand Prix is very very elusive for most of us. You can never be sure that you will reach the level, let alone acquire the required pre-requisite scores in order to begin the venture of a Freestyle. Everything needs to line up for you, the horse has to have the mind, train-ability as well as the talent, for there are a lot of very difficult movements. When my husband, Liam, and I bought Malcarat, my dream of Grand Prix was another lifetime away. He had the talent to collect, but none whatsoever to extend. He was also very nervous and uptight, and very afraid of the world in general, yet with all of his quirks I knew that this electric horse was meant for me. With no show experience at age 8, I knew that we had a lot of challenges ahead of us. It seemed to take forever to obtain one clean flying change. Any corrections that were necessary sent him into a fit of hysteria. This is all very hard to believe when you watch him now. As our relationship flourished, so did his confidence. Our Grand Prix Freestyle was very emotional on two counts for me as it was a dream come true, but my music selection was even more emotional. You see I was born in Scotland, and spent the first 10 years of my life there. The inherited depth of the sound of the Pipes and Drums always made my heart dance, no matter where I lived in the world. I had declared to my dad, a very proud Scot, a few decades ago that if ever reached Grand Prix, my wish was to dance to our Celtic tunes. Even though I know he wished the same for me, the chances of this happening were very unlikely. Four years after my dad passed away, the dream with persistence and perseverance did pay off. I danced my first Celtic Dance with Malcarat in January, 2016 in Wellington, Florida. The Choreography came first. Belinda Nairn, my Coach, and I set about it. It came quite easy, to be honest. Malcarat, although very new to this level, didn’t find any of the movements too difficult. The challenge is to make everything flow, and to be seamless. Belinda’s expertise paid dividends. She explained that it is important to have a certain degree of difficulty in order to gain a higher score. This meant we would use double pirouettes instead of one, as well as steep angles in the half passes, both in trot and canter. We also decided to add a Piaffe Pirouette as well as two other piaffe movements, this was two more than the required which added even more to the level of difficulty. All of this could add up to a score higher, providing it could be executed properly. The more risk, the more reward, but also there is a higher risk of mistakes. There also had to be a flow to the test so it would be easy to follow for the judges as well as the spectators. We had to make sure that we had covered all of the compulsory movements, as these are all scored separately. It was very important to make sure that the required distances were accurate, for example we needed to put in 20 meters of extended walk as well as the same in collected walk. The movements would also be judged on interpretation of the music and Artistic impression, very similar to figure skating. Additional considerations included having an extra line of canter in case we made a mistake in the tempi changes... we couldn’t afford this as we had used up our allowed time of 6 minutes with all that we had put in it. Once we had decided on how we could pull all the movements together, we ran through it several times before we video taped our end product. We then sent the video to Lynette of Goldbar Freestyles, as she is an expert in this field, as well as a Grand Prix rider. We had a long conversation about the music that I wanted. She had reservations at first because the Pipes and Drums can sound a bit harsh and Malcarat is a very elegant horse. I began sending her music that I had found and we shared files back and forth for quite some time. Eventually it all came together. We got such positive feedback from all who heard it! I think that it’s wonderful to be able to choose the music that means something to you but at the same time I always hoped that it would be something that the audience can really enjoy, and be touched by it. As we head further into our Grand Prix career, time will be the judge of our success, but the privilege is definitely all mine. Thanks to my husband who I know that I can never repay...without all of his support in every way that you can imagine, Malcarat would not have ever left the starting gate! Freestyle �������������������������������������� Having just competed in my first and Malcarats first Grand Prix Freestyle, it was all that I had hoped it could be.


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