Musical freestyle rides are popular in Dressage, as well as in Reining competition. Frank and CeCe Maddlone of EquiChord professional music studio were invited to Mid-South Dressage Academy (MSDA) for a weekend of helping riders develop the right music and moves to create musical freestyles. Over three days, March 18-20, they helped individuals, pairs, and a quadrille to develop their Kurs and have fun doing it.
CeCe’s expertise is in dance and theater. She studied ballet and choreography with instructors from the Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Martha Graham, and others. Her degree studies were in Theater Arts. Frank has a degree in music and technology. His forte’ is musical computer composition and engineering, which skills he has used scoring motion pictures, as well as working with individual artists. Together their approach is similar to choreographing for dance: start with the music that fits the horse and then choreograph the movements.
“We begin by measuring the beats per minute at all three gaits,” CeCe explained. “The beats vary some with each gait, so we leave room for those variations. We can do that with adjustments in the studio. A nice test of fit is when the horse’s movements are on beat with the music about 65% of the time.
“This is a process that evolves over time. As we get to know the horses and riders well, we can more effectively suggest what to do. At the end of the process, when the riders knows the music and choreography well, then we can fine tune it.”
“From the performance aspect, there’s a difference between ‘circus’ and artistry,” she continued. “A true artist can walk on stage and have presence. What an artist does between the movements is just as important as the movements themselves. Setting up the movements is very important!”
“Horses feel the music! Being animals of rhythm, they respond to the music,” CeCe continued. “You can sense if the horse likes the music or not. My husband can look at a horse and see what fits the horse and the horse’s personality. If it fits, and the horse likes the music, you can see it in the horse’s feedback. The eyes soften and relax; the horse gives to the rider; the ears come forward; the neck stretches so the horse can come through to the aids. You see their best gaits! If the horse doesn’t like the music, or it doesn’t fit the horse’s personality, you can see the horse sort of ball up, get tense; the ears go back, etc.”
“Riding to music is for everyone!” CeCe emphasized. “Music is a great training aid. It’s a basis for rhythm and relaxation. The best moves are achieved through music. It should be integrated into riding and training, rather than a separate thing.”
Frank works on the technical aspects, observing how the horse and rider work together. “They are a collaborative team,” he explained. “I look at how the rider reinforces the horse and how the rider and horse interact through their body language. I pay attention to both personalities, more than just footfalls to the music. I pay attention to the instrumentation and see how they react to the music. Horses hear higher frequencies of sound than we do, but cannot hear frequencies as low as we can. I look at how they act to lower registries of the music, which is felt more than heard. The bass and tympani can sometimes scare horses. I want to see how the horse reacts when he goes by the speakers. If the horses don’t mind, I know they’ve been exposed to the music and had a positive experience with it. It’s part feel, part observation to determine what music will fit both.
Frank spoke about the variety of music that can be used in freestyles and how to handle music with vocals. “Be careful with vocals. Don’t cut a song in the middle of a phrase, or put two disjointed lines together. The words in the lyrics should mesh with the action going on; then vocals add to the overall effect. Lyrics should be a fun, positive addition to the performance. For example, a tagline can introduce a song, then go into the instrumental part. The lyrics should not get in the way.”
Some fun freestyles the team has put together include a Quadrille with music from the “Jersey Boys;” the freestyle with two grey ponies at MSDA. They worked with an FEI rider in Maryland riding an 18h horse to a freestyle using “ethereal harp music.” “The horse just floated!” Frank said. “He was the daintiest large horse I’ve ever seen.”
More advice on choreography: “The ride should tell a story with music. Be very particular about transitions to avoid the ‘radio dial’ abrupt transitions in music.” Frank may compose a few bars of music to make the transition seamless between pieces of music. He can also add percussion or other music, layer it to increase the orchestration, and still have it sound like the original music.
“Music ebbs and flows,” Frank continued. “So pay attention to what you want to achieve with your presentation and to the personality of the horse. You may want a strong or a soft finish. Story board the music and see what fits with the action in the arena. You want to accentuate the moves – make them make sense. A good way to help focus on the movements is to have layers of rhythm. That way it appears that the horse is always on the beat.”
The Maddlones have a companion book: Rhythm Riding: A Guide to Riding with Music, published by Trafalgar Books. It will soon be available in adigital version from Amazon.com. For more information about EquiChord, visit: http://www.equichord.com/Welcome.html
CeCe’s expertise is in dance and theater. She studied ballet and choreography with instructors from the Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Martha Graham, and others. Her degree studies were in Theater Arts. Frank has a degree in music and technology. His forte’ is musical computer composition and engineering, which skills he has used scoring motion pictures, as well as working with individual artists. Together their approach is similar to choreographing for dance: start with the music that fits the horse and then choreograph the movements.
“We begin by measuring the beats per minute at all three gaits,” CeCe explained. “The beats vary some with each gait, so we leave room for those variations. We can do that with adjustments in the studio. A nice test of fit is when the horse’s movements are on beat with the music about 65% of the time.
“This is a process that evolves over time. As we get to know the horses and riders well, we can more effectively suggest what to do. At the end of the process, when the riders knows the music and choreography well, then we can fine tune it.”
“From the performance aspect, there’s a difference between ‘circus’ and artistry,” she continued. “A true artist can walk on stage and have presence. What an artist does between the movements is just as important as the movements themselves. Setting up the movements is very important!”
“Horses feel the music! Being animals of rhythm, they respond to the music,” CeCe continued. “You can sense if the horse likes the music or not. My husband can look at a horse and see what fits the horse and the horse’s personality. If it fits, and the horse likes the music, you can see it in the horse’s feedback. The eyes soften and relax; the horse gives to the rider; the ears come forward; the neck stretches so the horse can come through to the aids. You see their best gaits! If the horse doesn’t like the music, or it doesn’t fit the horse’s personality, you can see the horse sort of ball up, get tense; the ears go back, etc.”
“Riding to music is for everyone!” CeCe emphasized. “Music is a great training aid. It’s a basis for rhythm and relaxation. The best moves are achieved through music. It should be integrated into riding and training, rather than a separate thing.”
Frank works on the technical aspects, observing how the horse and rider work together. “They are a collaborative team,” he explained. “I look at how the rider reinforces the horse and how the rider and horse interact through their body language. I pay attention to both personalities, more than just footfalls to the music. I pay attention to the instrumentation and see how they react to the music. Horses hear higher frequencies of sound than we do, but cannot hear frequencies as low as we can. I look at how they act to lower registries of the music, which is felt more than heard. The bass and tympani can sometimes scare horses. I want to see how the horse reacts when he goes by the speakers. If the horses don’t mind, I know they’ve been exposed to the music and had a positive experience with it. It’s part feel, part observation to determine what music will fit both.
Frank spoke about the variety of music that can be used in freestyles and how to handle music with vocals. “Be careful with vocals. Don’t cut a song in the middle of a phrase, or put two disjointed lines together. The words in the lyrics should mesh with the action going on; then vocals add to the overall effect. Lyrics should be a fun, positive addition to the performance. For example, a tagline can introduce a song, then go into the instrumental part. The lyrics should not get in the way.”
Some fun freestyles the team has put together include a Quadrille with music from the “Jersey Boys;” the freestyle with two grey ponies at MSDA. They worked with an FEI rider in Maryland riding an 18h horse to a freestyle using “ethereal harp music.” “The horse just floated!” Frank said. “He was the daintiest large horse I’ve ever seen.”
More advice on choreography: “The ride should tell a story with music. Be very particular about transitions to avoid the ‘radio dial’ abrupt transitions in music.” Frank may compose a few bars of music to make the transition seamless between pieces of music. He can also add percussion or other music, layer it to increase the orchestration, and still have it sound like the original music.
“Music ebbs and flows,” Frank continued. “So pay attention to what you want to achieve with your presentation and to the personality of the horse. You may want a strong or a soft finish. Story board the music and see what fits with the action in the arena. You want to accentuate the moves – make them make sense. A good way to help focus on the movements is to have layers of rhythm. That way it appears that the horse is always on the beat.”
The Maddlones have a companion book: Rhythm Riding: A Guide to Riding with Music, published by Trafalgar Books. It will soon be available in adigital version from Amazon.com. For more information about EquiChord, visit: http://www.equichord.com/Welcome.html
