Composing with a twist

There are many types of composing that exist in on this planet we inhabit and to some individuals it can be considered writing and to others it can be considered whatever the common name that is given to that particular activity. For example composing could be considered writing, poetry, painting, drawing, dancing, music, texting, twittering, facebook comments, post etc. and so many more. What people might not consider composing is a anything to do with horses. But what non equestrian individuals consider composing us equestrians consider boring, we take the composing aspect and give it a twist.
Equestrians have many types of composing, reining, dressage, jumping (cross country and stadium), cow penning, horse vaulting, and carriage driving just to name a few. Almost every aspect of the mentioned equestrian involved activities involves some sort of pattern that is executed by the team of rider and horse. Reining, jumping (cross country and stadium) and dressage involves a specific pattern that is judged on the riders use of leg aids, memory to remember the pattern, posture, seat, and overall appearance and execution of the pattern. Dressage is one of the sports that can qualify under many categories I believe that the horse is absolutely dancing when executing a correct dressage pattern. Cow penning and horse vaulting are the dancing type of the equestrian world I am sure many equestrians could argue with me but, for cow penning the cow and the horse are basically dancing with each other, and in vaulting there are many humans involved doing the “dancing”.
As an equestrian myself there are certain things that are involved in creating any pattern that involves the equine counterpart. The amount of space the rider has to work with, agility of the equine, and in the case of dressage where the letters on the rail are placed. Being so involved in the equestrian world for many years of my life the things that I do while in the saddle I do not even begin to realize I do automatically until someone asks for a pattern of some sort. Now all these normal functions that take no thought what so ever now have to be brought into the conscious part of the brain to be put to work. For some this takes a pen an paper and for others this just takes a few minutes to think up a pattern in their head and then perform it with the upmost accurate precision possible.
I submitted two pieces of composing; they were both videos of me and my equine counterpart My Spartans Heir, Sparky for all intense purposes. As a team we go about six or so years back. This is one of the benefits and being able to make up a pattern on the spot knowing the ins and outs of your partner. But as any equestrian should know that they are animals and are unpredictable as seen in the video he does break the canter in a few instances, this I was not expecting, it was the last class of the day a long one in his defense. In video one, this is the real class that I was actually judged on, one important aspect of the class that is not videoed was the courtesy circle, this is something I was taught to do before beginning a jumping course. It is like a nod in a dressage test or a bow in dancing, it is just polite. This also helps with the straight in the middle approach to jump one. My jump one was very well executed due to this technique, now because of the size of the heated indoor arena there was no way that if I took jump two in the middle I would have been able to make the turn, so I chose to take the jump way to the left to avoid the issue of a hoof slipping. Jumps three and four is a very easy four stride line combination along the long side, to finish up with jump five is jump one only coming from the opposite side. I would have attempted a courtesy circle at a canter but again the space was small so I opted to bring Sparky down to a trot and then a flat footed walk to complete my circle.
I also submitted a second piece of composing; this was one that was written by me in my head, in all of a few minutes. I walked around the course thinking of how I could make the transitions smoother and not so choppy. My answer came by approaching jump one from the other way just like jump five on the previous course. The video starts in the middle or tail end of my courtesy circle and then my jump one to two goes a lot smoother than before. I decide to take the outer jumps one time around; the X jump’s and then taking jump one again to make it jump three. I decide to change it up a few and take the first of the X combination and then go to the other rail and do lead change take the diagonal vertical in the middle, then do the X combination again to end the course. Also I did not do a courtesy circle to end my course because I was not being judged, lazy out I know.
But all in my entire composed jumping course and my jumping class are just one of the many types of equestrian composing out there. I personally think that one could gather much inspiration from just watching any of the listed equestrian sports, reining, dressage, jumping (cross country and stadium), cow penning, horse vaulting, and carriage driving. I hope everyone enjoyed the rendition of composing by a equestrian with a twist.