In everything we do, we have to accept a certain law, which I would like to call the tree symbol. But before we embark upon this historical excursion, which will give us a feel for the cultural stream we are standing in and bring us to the present practices, let us consider our problem from the most distant ring that formed in the water when we threw our pebble into it – the ring that represents the philosophy behind everything. Though one could go back even further, Xenophon is a perfect point of departure for the study of the history of riding. When discussing riding to music, we must backtrack a lot, actually to the times of Xenophon. This all leads to a certain philosophy – a philosophy about riding, and about riding to music, in particular. To formulate a concept of it, one must not only study its present development, but also trace its roots in order to find a key to its future development. In other words, as soon as one finds the answer to a question, new questions appear. Whenever one starts to think about something, it’s like throwing a pebble in water, which makes a lot of rings. Gabriela Grillo was a member of the gold medal winning German Olympic team at Montreal – and her performance in the Freestyle at Lausanne on Ultimo, is a video treasure, replayed countless times, and every time the walk pirouette flows effortlessly into canter pirouette, it takes the breath away. With Freestyle to Music now a Championship – and an Olympic event, we are proud to publish an essay by Gabriela Grillo, the rider-cum-musicologist, who through her own entrancing Freestyle performances, did so much to create an audience for the new equestrian art. Gabriela played a key rôle in the development of the Kür, as a rider, but also as a theorist, as a trained musician who worked to combine the classical principles of dressage with music that was appropriate and sympathetic…Īn essay by Gabriela Grillo (this article originally appeared in the American journal – Dressage & CT) Back in 1991, THM was privileged to publish this piece by Gabriela Grillo.

Kur finally happened