Creative Choreography for your First Level Dressage Musical Freestyle

Douwe competing a First level Freestyle. photo credit: spotted vision photography

Are you putting together a First Level dressage freestyle? Congratulations! In this article I will share choreography tips specifically meant for First Level. I have broken them down by each required movement.

This is a sampling of what is included in my First Level Choreography E-Book and my book FREESTYLE: The Ultimate Guide to Riding, Training, and Competing to Music.

Overall Tips to Keep in Mind

• In regards to degree of difficulty, keep in mind that you want your freestyle routine to be easy for the judge to follow along. Don’t make it so complicated that the judge is confused or they cannot tell what movement you are riding.
  

• Choose variations of each movement so that your horse can perform to the best of their ability. Do not overface your horse and lose technical points.

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Trot Lengthening

At First Level you are required to show one trot lengthening on a straight line. Typically riders will include more than one.

• Use your quarterlines and centerline to highlight your horse’s straightness and balance.
  

• Angle your lengthening on a diagonal line from the centerline to the rail so that your diagonal line is less test-like. (shown in diagram)
  

• Incorporate walk or canter transitions close to your trot lenghthening to demonstrate ride-ability.

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10 meter Trot Circles

At First Level you are required to show a 10 meter trot circle in both directions.

• Approach your circles from the quarterline, centerline, or parallel to the short sides so that it is placed differently than a dressage test.

• Ride your circle immediately before/after other movements like leg-yield and lengthened trot to showcase ride-ability.

• Ride a figure-eight with your two trot circles to demonstrate suppleness.

• Place your circle before/after a canter transition to showcase your horse’s ability to maintain his/her balance.

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Medium & Free Walk

At First Level you are required to show a minimum of 20 meters of medium walk and free walk. You are allowed to ride them on curved lines.

• Going from the the trot directly into the free walk is more difficult than using the medium walk for the transition.

• Highlight an amazing walk by using diagonal lines, half circles, or bending lines where the judge can clearly see the overstep and rhythm.

• If your horse has poor rhythm you can showcase straightness by riding your medium or free walk on the centerline/quarterline or suppleness with a unique bending line to challenge your horse’s ability to relax and focus.

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Trot Leg-Yield

At First Level you are required to show a leg-yield in both directions with a minimum of 12 meters.

• Incorporate a leg-yield zig-zag if your horse can stay straight and steady. Keep in mind that you want to choose movements that your horse can perform well consistently.
  

• Ride canter transitions or lengthened trot before/after leg-yield to showcase ride-ability.

• Place your trot circles before/after to help setup the bend and balance your horse.

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15 meter Canter Circles

At First Level you are required to show a 15 meter canter circle in both directions.

• Use your quarterlines to begin your circle, this helps with your accuracy and improves degree of difficulty riding off the track.
  

• Place your lengthened canter directly before/after your circle to highlight good impulsion.

• Include counter canter before/after your circles to showcase balance and obedience.

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Changes of Lead Through Trot

At First Level you are required to show a change of lead through trot (canter - trot - canter) in both directions.

• Use your centerline and quarterlines to demonstrate straightness and ride-ability. This can also save on time and help you flow into your next movement.
  

• Incorporate counter canter before/after if your horse has reliable changes of lead.
  

• Include additional changes of lead in case you mess up on one of them. You will typically see riders include two in each directions.

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Canter Lengthening

At First Level you are required to show one canter lengthening on a straight line. Typically, riders will include at two canter lengthenings.

• Use your centerlines and quarterlines if you horse is well balanced and straight.
  
  

• Include counter canter before/after your lengthening to showcase balance and obedience.

• Angle your lengthening on a diagonal line from the centerline to the rail so that you can stay on the same lead. (shown in diagram)

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I hope this article helps you with some ideas for your First Level freestyle! Click here if you want to take a closer look at my choreography e-books where these particular diagrams come from. If you have any questions or comments don’t hesitate to leave one down below or send me an email at beginthedance@gmail.com.

Download My Free Resources

Stay organized with my Musical Freestyle Checklist and begin sketching choreography with my Blank Arena Diagram Page.

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Browse my Freestyle Book Store

Learn how to create a musical freestyle from start to finish or choose an e-Book with choreography ideas just for your level.
Click here to view all Freestyle Books & e-Books.

FIRST LEVEL Choreography Ebook for Dressage Musical Freestyle

$29.00

SECOND LEVEL Choreography eBook for Dressage Musical Freestyle

$29.00

The Ultimate Guide to Riding, Training, and Competing to Music - Signed by Author

$34.95

Related Articles

Sandra Beaulieu & Friesian Douwe - "Outlander"-Inspired First Level Musical Freestyle

We dance for laughter,
we dance for tears,
we dance for madness,
we dance for fears,
we dance for hopes,
we dance for screams,
we are the dancers,
we create the dreams.
                  -Albert Einstein

After a long hiatus from the dressage competition arena, I decided it would be fun to work on my USDF Freestyle Bronze Bar with Douwe and Rovandio. To earn this award, the rider needs two freestyle scores (above 65%) at First level, two scores at Second level, and two scores at Third level from recognized shows. Douwe earned both of our First Level scores and Rovandio earned both of our Second Level scores in one weekend! I am so proud of them, they seemed to enjoy themselves and I did too! If you watch the TV series Outlander you will recognize the music, the tempo and drama of the music really go with Douwe's stride. Enjoy!

Are you inspired to start working on your First Level musical freestyle?

FIRST LEVEL Choreography Ebook for Dressage Musical Freestyle

$29.00

My "how-to" e-book will take you through the creation process of your very own freestyle. 

• 10 Fully Choreographed Test Patterns! Just Add Music!

• 37 pages of choreography!  

• 7 Online Resources to help you find freestyle music.

• Creative freestyle questionnaire to help get your creative juices flowing!

• Freestyle checklist to help you stay on track.

• Blank arena diagram pages for you to take notes and draw your own choreography.

• Rules to remember, arena & sound requirements, copyright laws and more!

I also offer CUSTOM FREESTYLE design and FREESTYLE WORKSHOPS. Click here to learn more. 

Developing a Musical Freestyle for the 2015 Pan Am Games with EquiChord and Julio Mendoza

I came across an interesting video on YouTube of Julio Mendoza practicing his Pan Am Games freestyle with a GoPro camera. I contacted his freestyle designer, Equichord, to learn more and ended up having a wonderful chat with Cece Maddlone.... She is very knowledgeable and passionate about designing musical freestyles. She took the time to write an article, giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the creation process for Julio's freestyle. Thank you so much CeCe! Enjoy the article!

Developing a Musical Freestyle for the 2015 Pan Am Games with EquiChord
by Frank and CeCe Maddlone

INTRODUCTION
It is always exciting when we get the opportunity to work with dedicated and talented professionals who take the freestyle process seriously. Julio Mendoza is one of those professionals. Our overall goal is to create premium quality freestyles. This means creating a design that demands the highest in technical accuracy, musicality, and appeal; not only from the riding side, but the artistic side as well. There is as high a level of technical demands for the rider on the artistic side as there is on the riding side. We have developed our own intensive and hands-on process that is designed to help the rider achieve that goal. Once a rider has established a solid foundation in the technique, they are then free to add the dynamics of emotion and performance to the ride. In the end, that is what we want to create, and audiences want to see. Ultimately, achieving this takes a commitment of time and attention on the part of the rider. The best way to show how we approach this undertaking is to run through the entire process. Julio’s freestyle journey to the 2015 Pan Am Games with Chardonnay is a  perfect example of how we work.

FALL 2014
Julio and Jessica Mendoza called upon EquiChord, as they were excited to have several new horses for whom they wanted to develop freestyles - seven, to be exact. All the horses were of very high quality, ranging from First Level to Intermediare 1. They were also a wonderful array of breeds and personalities ranging from Friesians toOldenburgs. One in particular was a huge focus of our attention - a 2005 Oldenburg chestnut gelding named Chardonnay. Julio had set a goal of qualifying for the 2015 Pan Am Games. In order to achieve this, he had to compile his qualifying scores by the end of May - to include a freestyle score. For us, this was a definite challenge. Since we strongly believe in having plenty of time to practice and perfect each freestyle, regardless of the level, our time was already rapidly ticking away.

DECEMBER 2014
When we first met with Julio and Jessica to discuss their horse, they brought us a video from a recent clinic. Chardonnay (or Chardy, as he is known by his family and fans) was a new acquisition for Julio, and he was just starting to work with him. Chardy was beautiful, and you could certainly see that he was extremely talented and expressive. However, he was very uneven - so much so that his trot was extremely difficult to match to a steady BPM. There was no consistent rhythm, and there was lack of flexion to the right due to a former shoulder injury. Needless to say, we were a bit worried. Without rhythm, you cannot have the fundamentals of dressage or music. The Mendoza’s expressed that they wanted to use music that was more contemporary and easily recognizable. This always makes things even more challenging for us, because even though contemporary music is fun, much of it can be pretty uneventful since it is mostly a collection of loops with a vocal track. And, since we are limited to using only a few vocals throughout the course of a freestyle, contemporary music minus the underlying vocal tracks can sound more like muzak, or just a collection of never-ending loops. We put together a couple of samples for them, based on what we saw as possible fits, and passed along our recommendations. In our mind, once Chardy became more even and correct, he was going to develop into a lighter horse with a good staccato movement. Therefore, overly heavy or driving music would certainly overwhelm him. Chardy is also a very sensitive horse, so we wanted to ensure that he didn’t overreact to the music and become tense. Certain tonalities do not resonate well with some horses, so these considerations are always a part of the selection process. Jessica and Julio liked two of the roughs we put together, and together we ultimately decided on one. However, our choice was only a part of the selection process; we had to see if Chardy would respond positively to it.

JANUARY - 6.5 MONTHS TO THE PAN AM GAMES
We went to Julio’s farm to work with Chardy, and to get some insights on a few other horses. As we played the different pieces of music, we were looking for selections that would help Chardy find his rhythm. Julio had already made progress with him, and his cadence (i.e. how each footfall evenly matches the music’s rhythm) was improving. One of the selections we had on hand was a medley of U2’s music. We were all very excited to see how Chardy found his rhythm when we played the track! It was settled; that would be his music.

OUR TO DO LIST:
1. Finish the music and choreographic design
2. Run through it again in person to ensure the moves worked
3. Give Julio the music, the choreographic counts, and a voiceover so he may
practice the freestyle when off the horse.

FEBRUARY - 5.5 MONTHS TO THE PAN AM GAMES
Due to the scarcity of approved CDIs in our area, Julio needed to travel to Florida to get his qualifying scores. This gave us under a month to pull everything together. With his attention focused on acquiring the scores needed for qualifying, the freestyle fell into a lower priority level on the practice list. To make matters more challenging, Julio’s facilities back home did not have a regulation size indoor arena. So this made practicing the freestyle that much more difficult once he returned home. To help alleviate these challenges, Julio transported Chardy to a friend’s farm to use their indoor arena to practice. At this stage of the process, we still had not run through the entire test. It was truly amazing to see the progress Chardy was making. His gaits were stronger, and far more supple and rhythmic. However, he still was unable to consistently run through the freestyle. For us, this meant that we were not quite certain if the freestyle needed to be modified, or even worked. Since Chardy was still having problems rhythmical matching the steps, we couldn’t accurately count out the movements to the music. Based on what we had initially recorded, Chardy would need more counts than average to complete the movements. We had to go back to the studio and find a musically correct way to accommodate his odd sets of beats. As a result, we felt that it wouldn’t be prudent for Julio to try and show the freestyle while in Florida. Instead, we suggested that he afford Chardy more time to find himself. Once Julio had him where he needed him to be, we could introduce the freestyle again. However, time was a component that we had little of.

MARCH - 4.5 MONTHS TO THE PAN AM GAMES
During this month, Julio competed Chardonnay to Florida. In the meantime, we took this opportunity to work on the music and anticipate the changes that may need to happen in the choreography. We devised several plans to help support Chardy through the music, while ensuring that Julio had what he needed to perform the movements technically correct.

APRIL - 3.5 MONTHS TO THE PAN AM GAMES
Practice #1
The weather was nice enough to practice outside in the beautiful regulation-sized arena. Chardy was also getting better and better during this time. However, he seemed to be developing some tension during the freestyle. Frank and I were worried that the music may be causing the tension, and suggested that we might want to try something different since time was running out. Julio wanted to work through the music, so he began playing the music for Chardy in the barn every night. Julio also noted that he might be causing the tension himself, as he had not had enough time to listen to the music and voiceover files in earnest, or really focus on learning the test. There was just so much time in each day, and Julio and Jessica were extremely careful not to overwork Chardy. We asked Julio to ride through the test without the music; to perform the movements in a way that he felt was the most comfortable, and to do them as technically perfect as possible. We filmed the ride and took the tape back to the studio to score the music underneath it.

OUR TO DO LIST:
1. We make some more tweaks to the choreography and the music.
2. We sent Julio a new count sheet and the video with adjusted music so he could see (as well as hear) the cues and where each should fall matching his ride. We were happily surprised to see that it fit almost perfectly - and Julio needed to see that. All that was needed was enough practice time so that both horse and rider could feel confident in what they were doing. At this stage, they needed to trust each other and the music.

Practice #2
BEST EVER!!! Almost perfect. We ran through it once and stopped.
1. We mastered and EQ’ed the music with the new adjustments, then formatted it and sent them the digital copies so they could generate the CDs.

MAY - 2.5 MONTHS TO THE PAN AM GAMES
During this time, Julio had to go to Canada to do two sets of shows in order to get his scores. Time was running out. This was it. He had to perform his freestyle.

FIRST SHOW:
Chardy’s freestyle came in 5th in an international field of riders!! The highest artistic score was a 77% and Chardy received a 75%!!!! Riders and officials complimented the Mendozas on their music.

SECOND SHOW:
RESERVE CHAMPION!! This is what we needed to see. Julio was going to the Games.

JUNE - 1.5 MONTHS TO THE PAN AM GAMES
Julio had a very busy and tight show, clinic, and training schedule this month. They booked a practice session for one of Julio’s rare open slots. Although the Canadian trip was very successful, there were still some sections of the freestyle where we needed to work on the timing. During the next practice session, we worked solely on nailing the timing with the cues. It was hard to believe that this was the same horse we saw in January. Now, he was happy, strong, supple, and right on in every movement. His technique was getting solid, and we could now begin working in earnest on the nuances and performance components of the freestyle so it will shine.

LOCAL SHOW
CHAMPION!!!!

JULY - 10 DAYS BEFORE THEY LEAVE FOR CANADA
Because Chardy had come so far, his movements, timing, and rhythm had changed dramatically. Once again, we had to adjust the music. He was able to enter and exit compulsory movements more quickly, cleaner, and with greater precision. This meant that we had to edit out the additional music we had inserted earlier in the process. He no longer needed it, as it was causing Julio to hold him back in order to stay with the cues. That simply could not happen. He needed to flow fluidly from one movement to the next without having to alter the horse’s rhythm or frame.

FINAL PRACTICE BEFORE PAN AM’s
We couldn’t practice with Chardy because something wasn’t right. We were all very worried. It seemed to be just a bit of tightness, so the chiropractor came out to confirm the observation. This meant that Julio would not be able to ride to the new music before
he showed it at the Pan Am Games. This was truly nerve-racking. Instead, we sat down with Julio to count through the entire test over and over again. Frank recorded another voiceover for Julio; this time in Spanish, so that Julio could have both English and Spanish versions to listen to. Julio said he was going to listen to it in the truck all the way up to Canada.

THE GAMES
Chardy did the best all-around test of his life. In a field of international competitors, during the first year when the Pan Am Games were now brought up to Olympic standards, Julio ended up 17th in the freestyles. That was amazing!!!

IN CONCLUSION
Anky van Grunsven was, undoubtedly, the best at putting together winning freestyles. She once said that she would never show her freestyle until it had been practiced at least 200 times. In the grand scheme of things, that amounted to a year’s worth of work that she would tuck away under her belt before showing. We only had the opportunity to work with Julio a handful of times, and with a horse that was just coming into his own. The music and choreography were constantly changing to adjust to the developing horse, and all within time and space limitations. Despite it all, Julio and Chardy worked extremely hard, listened to our input and, in the end, rode a performance that was truly
the stuff of dreams.

What an awesome article and interview, it really shows the dedication and time commitment that goes into a freestyle of that level. I encourage you to connect with Equichord and the Mendozas on Facebook and visit their websites. The links are down below. Please let me know your thoughts by posting a comment and/or question here on the blog or you can email me at beginthedance@gmail.com.

Equichord Music on Facebook
Equichord News on Facebook
Equichord Website
Mendoza Dressage on Facebook
Mendoza Dressage Website

FIRST LEVEL Choreography Ebook for Dressage Musical Freestyle

$29.00

TRAINING LEVEL Choreography E-Book for Dressage Musical Freestyle

$24.00

Looking for music for your dressage freestyle? Check out AudioJungle!

I have spent quite a few hours browsing through Audio Jungle's library. I LOVE IT! It is easy to use and the quality of the audio files is top notch.

PROS:

• The music is copyright free so you can also use it for YouTube videos without having ads displayed.
• You can search by your horse's Beats Per Minute [To learn how to find your horse' BPM, CLICK HERE].
• They have a huge collection of songs (over 150,000) to choose from!
• They have an amazing list of categories and search options. My personal favorites are Cinematic and Folk/Acoustic, but they also have Classical, Rock, Pop, Jazz and Country.
• They have special sound effects (horse sounds, fairytale effects, horns)  if you want to get creative with your freestyle, such as emphasizing your halt/salute.
• Most songs are 2-3 minutes long, which is just about the right amount of time to match a particular gait in your freestyle.
• You can save songs that you like in a folder. You just click on the little heart underneath the audio file image. That way, you don't have to worry about writing down all the different songs you liked.
• Reasonable prices! Some of my favorites range anywhere between $6-$18 per audio file. Sound effects are $1-$4. 

Click here to visit the AudioJungle website and start browsing their music library!

If you have any questions about AudioJungle or creating a musical freestyle please leave a comment below or email me at beginthedance@gmail.com.

Want to take all of the guess work out of creating your own freestyle? CLICK HERE.

Musical Freestyles

Learn how to create a dressage musical freestyle from USDF Medalist Sandra Beaulieu. She has created blog posts, e-books, and a guide book to help you through the process.

FIRST LEVEL Choreography Ebook for Dressage Musical Freestyle

$29.00

TRAINING LEVEL Choreography E-Book for Dressage Musical Freestyle

$24.00