Eurodressage F.O.C.U.S.

The Making of "Il Passeggiato"

Three weeks later, an email dropped into my mailbox, mentioning that the click track -- a single track with a click for every footfall of the horse which metronomically indicates the rhythm of the movement -- and the first layers of music were finished and that there will be a first try out session on May 13. Can Eurodressage come and watch? Sure!

May 13, 2005

Today we go to Belgium to do the first fitting. The place where Wayne boards his horses is beautiful. We have to do the demo ride outside because the indoor school is not big enough. We get a warm welcome, meet both grooms that work for Wayne and Debra brings us coffee while Wayne is warming up Lorenzo.

It is the best improvisation we have ever done! Debra's car is parked in front of the long side of the arena and the CD-player in her car is the source for music. We put a small microphone in the car and Wayne has an ear piece to ride with and can hear the music directly.

We have to measure exactly where to start in the music and when we worked that out, Wayne rode his kur. I'm filming, while Vic is counting the strides. Some bits match but others need serious adaptation. We decide to redo some small bits and then video tape the entire freestyle once more. Everything works, even though it's very cold. I'm wearing Wayne's jacket because I'm freezing. I already had the flu three times this year and I'm still deaf. Not good when you work with music!

Astrid Appels of Eurodressage called me and asked me if she can write a piece on the making of the freestyle. She asked Wayne and Debra as well and they didn't object to it. We met Astrid before at the Freestyle Forum in Ankum. So she was there today, making pictures and questioning us about the kur.

After wrapping up, we were invited for lunch. No need to ask us that twice!! We have to drive one hour and half and have worked the entire morning so we are very hungry. Wayne, Debra and their kids Jay and Francesca, as well as Astrid, join us. In Belgium you can always eat well, at very nice places!

Cees was extremely surprised and satisfied after the first demo ride. "Wayne knows perfectly well what he wants and for us that's great to work with. Even our conversations during lunch were good, so we went home full of ideas," Slings commented.

With a large list of revisions at hand, Slings and Kerkhof headed back home to redo the click track and add new layers of music to the composition. They returned to Belgium 11 days later with the second trial version.

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