Stray Cat Strut - I listen to that song and plot all the movements… 
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Beautiful shot! 
Nicely done. Your mare is a cutie!
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I love this!
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I’m working on choreographing a Second Level one to “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” 
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I do my own choreography and music editing, the less editing I have to do the better so if I can choreograph to just one song it’s very helpful.
I love that it’s kind of an irreverent and unexpected song to do this to, I did a First Level to it for fun once last year and the response was so good, people loved it!
We will see how it goes… 
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That sounds like great fun!
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I really want to use “Dreams” by Beck someday, but I visualize it as at least a PSG test, and we’re around first level right now, so we’ve got a ways to go.
Fun song. Bear in mind that ideally judges are looking for musical phrases to coordinate with the timing of each movement. So for example one section of music = shoulder in right. Repeated or new section or phrase, same length = shoulder in left. Another section or phrase = half pass left. And so on.
That makes it tricky to choreograph well with few edits. Of course just because that is what they are looking for doesn’t mean we all have to comply. It’s just the ideal.
And even if riders don’t break up the phrasing as much as that, it’s really not a good idea to use the same music or song for the walk, trot, and canter. Each of those gaits should have its own tune that meets or comes close to the footfalls of each gait. And at FEI the piaffe & passage get yet another.
I scribed recently for a judge who was astonished when the rider kept the same song rolling through her entry, the trot work, and even still after she had picked up her canter. The judge wondered aloud if it was a mistake and then we both decided it was intentional based on the movements the pair was doing. It was clearly just a song she liked and she had started it at the beginning and let it play as she rode to it.
The judge turned to me and said, “Whatever music you pick, don’t ever do that!”
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Lol I do appreciate that! I did my last First Level freestyle to the instrumental version of Alexander Hamilton (yes, there is a Lin-Manuel theme here!) and it worked out great.
I did get a good comment from a judge to Bruno last year that the music suited the horse well and the music changes enough to be able to change gaits and movements with the phrasing of the song. No, it’s not “on the beat” in every gait but it suits it.
I had to respond to this. When I did my ride to the Beethoven mentioned above, I did use a single piece of music. However, it has different tempos for walk, trot, canter. It had a beginning, and an end. I picked that piece because of the different tempos, and it would never have occurred to me to edit Ludwig Von’s music. As I was only barely riding 1st level, I was not polished, and I am sure we did movements not ascribed to 1st level, but I am pretty sure it was only a demonstration ride. All that considered, I think it went well. I never had to occasion to ride it again, but the judge was Hilda Gurney. And she wrote that it was an excellent choice of music.
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This is honestly one of the reasons my (again, totally unreasonable, no chance in heck it will happen) dream is to write my own music for a freestyle. I find it very rare for a freestyle to have different pieces of music fit together well. I find the change jarring almost always and don’t actually enjoy freestyles most of the time because of this. Things have been better in recent years and we have come a long way from the 90s/early 00s when “everyone” used the same trilling noise for pirouettes, but i think there is room for improvement still artistically. Sharp changes in music should be more deliberate and correspond to something the choreography is deliberately trying to demonstrate. Otherwise we should be aiming for flowing changes as imo it makes the ride look more harmonious as well.
Disclaimer that this is a relatively uneducated opinion. I know nothing about music. Lots of dressage, but have not bothered with doing any freestyles, though i have done Quadrille with music (demos only). I am glad so many people have fun with them though!
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I agree wholeheartedly with this and it’s why I’ve used one song for both of the freestyles I’ve done so far. Also since I choreograph them myself I feel like I have more freedom than if I had someone else do it for me.
I do a little bit of editing which I’ve taught myself, such as I dropped some of the lyrics in the middle of Bruno so there is only instrumental there, I think it’s a nice break, but my editing skills are limited so I do as little as possible.
I love the thought of writing your own!
My current freestyle is Fatboy Slim’s Weapon of Choice for canter, Dance Monkey instrumental for walk, and Aha’s Take on Me for trot. It was so fun at 2nd level I think I’m going to just retool it for 3rd! I also have a Billy Joel one I did at 1st. Piano Man hit just right for our trot tempo and was super fun to ride to.
Funny story- When I was in Pony Club and a wanna-be rebellious teenager, I put together a string quartet ACDC freestyle for dressage rally. Afterwards, my dad (who hadn’t heard it before) came up to me and goes “Guess what? Some of those song are actually from a classic rock band called ACDC.” He was so proud of himself for identifying the music and was stunned when I told him that I picked them because I liked the band!!
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I’d like to see someone do a Pentatonix or Voiceplay acapella mash up.
Love this one… Not sure how I’d use it… but it’s cool.
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I recall someone doing an acapella freestyle a few years ago. Shelley Francis maybe after vocals we’re allowed? Personally, I’m not an acapella fan, but it’s your freestyle and self expression!
Probably it’d have to be Golden Years (by David Bowie) now…I’ve gone off the deep end into David Bowie the past few months. Plus i ride a Palomino
But for years i’ve been daydreaming/plotting to riding to Hold On (by Alabama Shakes). I even have some mockups on printed arena grid paper to that one.
