Developing a Musical Freestyle

April 29th-30th, 2023

Our annual symposium was a huge success this year! We were very fortunate to have Terry Cioto Gallo of Klassic Kur come to Santa Fe and teach us how to put together a musical freestyle. Terry has found major success developing freestyles for some of the best riders in the world, including Adrienne Lyle, Laura Graves, Steffen Peters, and perhaps most notably, Debbie McDonald and her famous freestyle ride on Brentina at the 2005 World Cup Finals in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The beautiful Terra Nova Training Center donated the use of their facility for our use, which proved to be perfect for the first section of the clinic in which Terry gave a presentation on finding the beats per minute for a horse, the importance of finding the right style of music to match the horse, and how to organize choreography. All auditors and riders came away with all the tools to make their own freestyle- an amazing gift!

Eight riders and ten horses (with every level represented) rode for Terry, who found their beats per minute, experimented with musical options, and created choreography for each! Wow!

We can’t wait to see everyone’s freestyles this year!