BRC Quadrille - Addington Manor, Buckinghamshire
2nd October 2004

Julia Kerr wrote the following report:

“A quadrille is dressage to music performed by four immaculately turned-out horses, it should tell a story and be a delight to watch”.

That was what we had to go on when we began planning out latest foray to the south.
Mrs Montgomerie, Fiona Rawson, Allison Morrisey, Gillian Beatie (our choreographer) and I had our first meeting last January in preparation for this competition, as none of us had ever done anything like it, we read and re-read the rules trying to imagine exactly what the judges would be awarding points for.
As we all have grey horses and we were keen to have a Scottish theme and our first brainstorming session produced our team name- Amazing Greys!

We met regularly and it wasn’t long before Gillian had a provisional floor plan for us to follow.
The bright idea of trying to do this side-saddle was abandoned after the third mounted session when we realised that it was all we could do to stay on, much less perform intricate patterns sideways!!
We then got a bit caught up with the notion of telling a story, and whilst Amazing Greys might raise a smile it has no real story, so we adapted our tartan costumes and brilliant “Piper Active” music to tell the story of Tam O’Shanter
Then disaster struck as Fiona’s horse, Skye, went lame.
Amanda Fergusson came to the rescue with Hobnob and raised the standard of our dressage alarmingly – as we know!!
“There are no straight strides on a circle”

After an incredible amount of rehearsal and planning our horses finally arrived in Buckinghamshire on Thursday night.
Friday was spent washing and polishing before the excitement began on Saturday morning. We had been allocated a rehearsal slot at 10 am, followed be turnout judging at 2.30 and an evening performance at 5.30.

Our costumes were all homemade. Allison was a rather up-market Tam, Mugs and Amanda were the best witches you have every seen (complete with green faces, false noses and black teeth) and I was dolled up to the nines as the very glamorous Cutty Sark- What a joke!!
Although we were pleased with what we had achieved when we saw some of the costumes produced we realised that some teams had indeed done this before!!

During our performance the large crowd were obviously appreciative of our music and clapped and stamped their feet in time – this ensured our performance was spooky in every sense. Mainly sideways! But overall we were delighted. The standard was very high, but we were delighted to be a part of this competition and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

The four teams selected to go to Olympia had stunning costumes and stirring music and we will be watching with interest to see who lifts the trophy. Well done to Saffron Walden (the Cavalry) Kings Leaze (The Teddy bear’s Picnic) South Oxfordshire (Cool Britannia) and Faversham and District’s Red Arrows
We would love to see Ayr sending a team next year, so come on, put your thinking caps on and come up with a great idea – and make sure your boots are clean!

JK