This message is from: Starfirefarm <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Thanks, Pamela, for posting your friend's critique of our quadrille.
We returned home yesterday morning after spending an exhausting, yet
invigorating, week at the Stock Show. Words can't describe how proud I
am of our horses and riders (I still get teary eyed thinking of it.) It
takes a lot of dedication, determination, and teamwork, as well as a
healthy dose of good humor, to ride with precision in such a charged
atmosphere. This is the sixth year that the fjords have been part of
the program and they have definitely attracted a following. In fact, in
the stabling area this year, I overheard more visitors telling their
friends what kind of horses they were, and "That the stripe in the mane
is all natural," than us having to answer those questions. Quite a
difference from six years ago! It seems that I answered more questions
this year about the fact that we body clipped them and why we left their
leg hair long.
Our week started last Saturday (Jan. 18th) when we set up our stable
area for the horses. We moved the horses into the Events Center on
Sunday. Our fjords were invited to be the honor guard for the opening
ceremonies for the freestyle reining, so I, Jeanne and Samantha Poirier,
Cheryl Gioia and Taffy Plaisted readily agreed. We rode through a
practice session Sunday evening at about 10:00. The actual opening
ceremony was at 1:30 Monday afternoon. Samantha and I carried the
American and Canadian flags while flanked by Jeanne and Cheryl. Taffy
followed the colors in her carriage with the singers. Our horses,
Hanne, Haylee (aka Trudie) Troika, Maerta and Solveig II stood almost
stock still while both anthems were sung. We were very proud of how our
horses behaved, especially after seeing the Denver Mounted Patrol's
horses having some difficulty standing still during their opening
ceremonies.
We had started developing our quadrille in late September. The Evening
of Dancing Horses is a two night performance. To be in the show, we had
to audition during a one week time period in December. We "made the
cut" with two acts, the Quadrille (which was called "The Real Horses and
Girls that Won the West") and a "what if" number with Sam and me. Dress
rehearsal with the live band began Tuesday evening before the actual
performances. They let us know at the beginning that if any of our
horses couldn't "cut it" that night, they would be excluded from the
show. We didn't worry about our fjord horses, of course, but you never
know! It began at around 7:30 p.m. and went until about 3:00 a.m. the
next morning. Our quadrille's rehearsal went through three go-rounds to
get the music timing right (giving ample opportunity to work out some
horse jitters.) We were in and done with that by 10:30 p.m., however,
Sami and I didn't get to our rehearsal until 2:00 a.m.. We called our
act ("Ride Like an Eagle") and after two "run throughs" with our
routine, we were able to put the horses to bed and we were back at the
motel by 3:00 a.m.!
Every year we try to offer something interesting, exciting and
different. Our quadrille patterns are usually based upon dressage
training gymnastics, so include full and half 10 meter circles, crossing
the diagonal, 20 meter canter circles, riding down the centerline, plus
a couple of "drill team" moves; a "flank" and a double pinwheel; and
anything else that helps make a pattern sequence that is interesting and
flows well. The addition of the carriage just makes it that much more
challenging and fun. We "revived" a routine that we had performed with
6 ridden horses and one carriage, with a few changes to the pattern.
This year, we had an impressive 8 horse/rider combinations combined with
a single horse/carriage. The horses/riders were: Cheryl Gioia and
Troika; Sami Poirier and Haylee; Jeanne Poirier and Hanne; Sandy North
and Maerta; Kathie Hibbard and BDF Magnum; Diane Krause and Snowy's
Melody; Laurie Prindle and BDF John Arthur and myself and BDF Obelisk.
Taffy Plaisted drove Solveig II with her friend Sally Peterson as
groom. Several of our team had performed in previous years. Cheryl
Gioia was new to the team this year. She had an extremely high
learning curve, as she was neither familiar with the patterns or
dimensions of the gymnastics of dressage at all. Both she and Jeanne
Poirier had done very little cantering prior to riding this pattern.
Neither had ever ridden the canter in a dressage saddle! A challenge
to both, but they lived up to it. By performance night, you wouldn't
know that they had started cantering only a few months prior! We wore
"buckskin" riding skirts, black shirts, black cowgirl hats and red
sequined vests. Our music was a medley of "The Old Chisolm Trail, "The
Yellow Rose of Texas" and "San Antonio Rose" played by Michael Martin
Murphey and the Rio Grande Band.
In our second act, Sami was Roman Riding her two mares while I rode our
stallion and drove our pair in front of him. While we called it "Ride
Like an Eagle", the organizers dubbed it "SmorgasFjord." Both were
mentioned by the announcer. Too funny. We had a great time thinking it
up, developing and riding the pattern, which we rode to the music "Rain"
and "Homeland" from the animated movie "Spirit." We were dressed in
black turtlenecks with feathers sewn down the arms and across our
backs. I don't know how Sami does it (except that she's a young
daredevil!) I've stood up on those mares for about 10 seconds and said
"enough"! She stood up on them for at least 5 minutes each night (15
more, if you count the dress rehearsal.) Not to mention all of the
times we practiced together, plus warm-ups before. What a kid. She
must have really strong knees.
Both performances went without a hitch and ended up being spectacular.
Many audience members told us that the fjords were the best part of the
show. I think this was the the absolute best of six years of our
participation in this event. We had a lot of help from family members
(thanks Tom and Steve!) and Howard and Sophie Fiedler came all the way
from Illinois to help out and see the show.
As for video tape, we do have some footage of our performances shot by
our friends from the audience. If you are interested in having a copy
of this footage, we can send it to you. You just have to keep in mind
that it's not professional footage and we're limited with how we can
shoot it (lighting, etc.) But, you can still get a great feel of the
performance and how much fun we had. We'll ask a small fee to reimburse
our cost of materials, shipping and handling. There is a possibility
that we will have professional footage of our acts available in a couple
of months, but not the entire show. If you are interested, e-mail us
privately.
We'll have photos up on our website as soon as we can get them. By the
way, Michael Martin Murphey told me that our fjords made it onto a
promotional piece for the show that was shown on our local Channel 7.
If anyone saw it, please let me know!
In the meantime, if you live anywhere near Denver, and want to be
included, start thinking of joining us next year! We have a great time,
it's great for the horses to all work together, and is just plain fun.
Now, it's time to get some rest.
Beth
--
Starfire Farm
Beth Beymer and Sandy North
http://www.starfirefarm.com
