Excuse the incomplete sentences and rushed sounding text – but I have to keep running back to the media centre because the signal isn’t working in the stadium.
Pierre St. Jacques did a wonderful demo and I have to brag just a little, since I made his freestyle. I am very impressed at his composure and his horse’s focus since this was their first time in there.
Here’s my snap shot impression of the first five:
Peter Gmoser – Fiddler on the Roof – interesting political statement that an Austrian chose something so very Jewish. I get the American tribute of course. The arrangement is a bit quiet and the whole first part of the freestyle is collected trot and passage so it didn’t reach out and grab me. The vocals were annoying and much louder than the instrumentation. I didn’t notice a real mismatch in tempo for the trot and passage, but the canter music is too slow for the horse’s canter. The spoken word vocals definitely didn’t work out too well. There were some technical problems too.
Fiona Bigwood – latino medley – I like it. It’s well put together and suits the horse. Very testlike half passes in the trot. The walk music seemed like a bit of a departure in theme. Very good use of the music for her canter tour. She went safe on the ones and did only what she needed to get a mark. She made up for it with extra pirouettes on a diagonal with some ones in between. If Peter made it only to luke warm on the entertainment scale she pushed it up a few degrees for sure.
Marcela with the long last name from Switzerland – gutsy start with twos on centre line. Then into the trot work – original choreography but the music is a slightly elevatory arrangement of some music that is actually quite good in the original. The crowd loved her circle of twos that turned into ones – very good use of the transitions in the music.
Michal from Poland – the music needs some melody – it’s dramatic but it doesn’t go anywhere. The drums are giving some bad feedback on the sound system. This is such a lovely little horse with a great work ethic. He did a good job of waiting for the transitions in his music since he was a bit ahead all the way through the canter tour. Unfortunate moment near the end when he was meant to transition to an extended trot on centre line, and he never got the trot. In my experience a canter pirouette into trot is about as nasty as a transition gets. Interesting tidbit is that Michal apparently made the music himself at home. What isn’t clear is whether that means it was an original composition or that he just put it together from pre-recorded music. It’s an impressive achievement regardless.
Ashley and Poppy – the crowd gave a good cheer when she came in. yay it is so prideful to see a freestyle that I made! Really good passage and piaffe tour. Super extended trot. She’s right on her music. She got her ones! She really had to wait on her music for the ones but Poppy was perfect. Nailed the canter to piaffe transition. That was the best performance of that freestyle she has ever done. Yeehaw!
