Sisters trainer teaches freestyle dressage

It's an elegant equestrian moment when the tempo of a horse's hoofbeats matches the music he's being ridden to and the fluid movements of the horse mirror the transitions within the music. The magic of freestyle dressage is in being there when those moments occur.

Sisters dressage trainer Koby Robson experienced this recently with Piloto Do Top, a Lusitano stallion owned by Stan and Linda Stenstadvold. The pair won the Region 6 Championship in 4th Level Freestyle and the NW Dressage Championship, also in 4th Level Freestyle. The horse is in contention for several national dressage awards as well.

Piloto performed to music with strong Latin themes, just right for the ancient Portuguese breed that he is.

Last weekend, Robson and the Stenstadvolds hosted a clinic at the Piloto Ranch on Holmes Road. Canadian freestyle dressage clinician Karen Robinson shared her expertise in choosing music and choreographing suitable dressage movements for participants with a range of experience. Robinson worked with Robson and the Stenstadvolds in developing Piloto's winning routine. Several of Robson's students participated in the clinic, bearing broad smiles as they discovered the joy of performing to music.

The clinician worked individually with participants, first establishing tempo ratings for their horses at the walk, trot and canter. Then she delved into a formidable collection of music.

"I'm an iTunes junkie," said Robinson as she found a selection of perky music for a long-legged thoroughbred. Participants worked to the music chosen for each gait on the first day, then began the task of choreography the second day. Each one went home with a video of their work, enabling them to review their lessons and either develop a routine on their own or continue to work with Robinson.

The path to a winning freestyle wasn't one Robson would have gone down by choice. "It's out of my comfort zone," she said. But the Stenstadvolds, who'd seen their horse perform to music with a previous trainer, insisted she give it a go. They met Robinson at a clinic last year and since then Robson has worked with Piloto, getting him accustomed to the distraction of the music and the larger crowds that the freestyle draws.

"It's fun to do, but it's also surprisingly difficult," said Robson of riding a freestyle routine. "You have to manage the horse in a test, and then you have to manage him to the music."

Horses have always been a part of Robson's life, which began near the rainforest of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. She rode Western pleasure horses in the early years and began teaching others when she was in high school. Robson began riding English then, showing hunter-jumpers and learning the intricacies of dressage.

Studies at Oregon State University and teaching lessons at the horse center there brought Robson more than experience. She met her future husband, Justin, while at OSU. A year working at a hunter-jumper barn in Spokane was followed by a three-year stint as head of the riding school program at Lake Oswego Hunt Club in Oregon.

The Robsons were married by then, and Justin had joined the National Guard. He was assigned to Ft. Benning, in Columbus, Georgia. Justin was reassigned three years ago to a full-time National Guard job based in Bend. He is deployed with his unit to a base near Baghdad, where he'll be for many more long months. Months that Koby will fill with training, lessons and music.