Monday, March 6, 2006

Leslie Morse Launches Her Quest for The World Cup At The Palm Beach Dressage Derby

The Derby was Morse’s first show with both of her stallions, Kingston and Tip Top, since she represented the U.S. in Aachen, Germany, seven months ago. “Over the two days and four tests, I’ve learned a lot and I started to get the feeling back again by the time we went into the freestyle,” she said. “The second we started with the small eight-meter circle in the passage I just thought ‘that felt good’. I just love the music so much, it’s just so fun.”

Morse’s soundtrack is a medley of danceable swing music. “It’s like real dance music that people dance to,” she said, noting that she particularly wanted to illustrate the concept of dancing with her partner in her freestyle. “The overall freestyle really shows the elasticity of Tip Top and the fact that he just leads me along – it’s all about lightness and ease and really fun music.”

Morse assessed that Tip Top’s best execution of a movement was in the two-tempi changes on a 20-meter circle. “I’m really proud of those.” She also was pleased with Tip Top’s double-canter pirouette. “It’s a hard freestyle,” Morse stated pointing out how rapidly the movements follow each other in the performance. Morse also noted that she got ahead of her music in the canter coming into the one tempis and described how she got back in time. “I had to sit there on the half halt and wait four steps while the music was playing,” she explained. “What I love about Tip Top is that he’s so on the aids that I could push him in and out of the four steps and make him wait on a half halt until the music changed. Again that shows the elasticity and the suppleness of him.”

Overall, Morse’s impression of her musical freestyle was very positive from several perspectives. “I’m elated! I’m very excited about it,” she enthused. “I’m so glad that it got such a rave review. All of the spectators loved it. I just felt that excitement and it was a blast. I felt everyone having fun with it and that’s what we want to do with freestyle. That’s the point of freestyle – to show the fun side of what we do.”

Related Links
HorsesDaily Horsemarket Stallion Listing
Tip Top
Kingston
Galant Du Serien
Karen Robinson - applausedressage.com Freestyle Design