When I was asked to write about my travels with Apassionata, I never imagined I would be writing the things I have to say now. For those of you that are not aware, “Apassionata: The Beginning” was to be an 18 month, 66 city tour with 5 different teams of 45 horses and riders of different disciplines. It was a surreal show of the Equestrian Arts, with incredible choreography, music and lighting. I have never experienced a horse related production of this quality before and I have been to and participated in many horse performance shows. I can only pray that we will see it’s rebirth in this country again someday with better funding and planning.
So many things happened in such a short time. What we thought was the beginning of something grand would quickly be snuffed out due to lack of funds. It‘s been difficult to move on, almost like a parental divorce or a seperation of family. The friendships we made were strong and everlasting. The connections to other professionals in the horse business as well as the tour industry and media were priceless, so I cannot say it was all for nothing. I was looking forward to writing of our many adventures on the road, as I promised I would, but alas, the show was cancelled. The time we had will never be forgotten and I am so happy to have had this opportunity.
Pretty much all I have to give you are a few random thoughts I scribbled along the way, thinking I had much more time to tell stories. I also have a collection of photographs, t.v. interviews and links to some amazing photography of the show. So here it is, I hope one day we will have another tour to write about.
May 28, 2012
I arrived in Kentucky on Monday to begin practice with my team. My first priority,was of course to see Stjarni, who came out a few weeks before me to get trained with the lights and fire that we use in the show (He was apparently not phased by any of it from day one..). I also got a chance to say hello and hang out with my filly, Lolíta and took a ride on Nett, who I trained at Hólar in Iceland. It was so good to see her again.
During the day, my team mates, Caeli, Leó and Aníta taught me our drill pattern. First on foot and then on horseback. It was pretty easy to get the hang of, I just have to get used to riding it with the sparklers.
After a full day at the barn we went home to eat some dinner and then headed back to practice with the sparklers in the dark around 10 at night. When we pulled up to the barn there was a thin layer of mist covering the fields and the fireflies were blinking in full force. It was a very dramatic setting for the practice session. As Leó put Stjarni´s sparkler boots on, Stjarni was not in the least bit tense, but seemed really excited to get the ball rolling. He really loves the fire! He was perfectly calm underneath me, with ears pricked forward and jaw relaxed. We walked around the arena first, the sparklers crackling beneath us and then quickly moved into tölt. He glided along like we were just out for a normal trail ride, not paying attention to anything going on around his feet. We rode amidst the fireflies and the fog for about 4 minutes until the sparklers fizzled out. Stjarni seemed disappointed when it was all done with, I swear he´s a pyromaniac!
We practiced again on Tuesday night with Stjarni and Pegasus who are the two new additions to the show and then on Wednesday it was time to hit the road. One of the 4 giant trucks that hauls all 45 horses around for Apassionata came to pick us up at the farm and take us to Ohio where we would meet up with the rest of the crew and then depart for our first show in New Jersey the following day.
TRAVEL to NJ
On the tour, each Équipe or team has a mini van with a GPS to travel between shows and also to use in our down time at the hub in Ohio. Our GPS decided not to work on the way to Jersey, and when it did, it spoke in French. Thank God my phone has a good GPS in it. I had a mild panic attack in downtown New Jersey with the vans’ GPS yelling at me in French!
So here is how the weekly schedule works: Our shows are generally Friday-Sunday with 2 performances on Saturday. We usually leave for a venue on Thursday morning around 6 am. We first have to load up all 45 horses on 4 different semi´s as well as a semi for all of our tack and horse gear. Then we caravan to the venue. On this particular trip, our destination is East Rutherford, NJ. It´s about a 10-11 hour drive. Leó and I tend to do the majority of the driving and have a lot of fun being silly to keep each other awake. The trick rider´s are definitely the fastest van (Big surprise there!!) and like to try and race most of the way. We had some pretty epic roadway battles. I will miss this part of the tour so much. It seems like a silly thing, but we make the hours pass by very quickly, goofing around with the other teams in our caravan. Upon arrival we must make sure all the temporary stables for the weekend are set up and ready to go for the horses with hay, bedding and water. In NJ, the horses were stabled underground in the backstage of the IZOD center. Offloading the horses from the trailers down the long concrete ramp underground was definitely an experience!
Once the horses are settled in and all the gear offloaded, we head to catering for some much needed food. This is 5 star catering we are talking about, an endless variety of food for every meal, complete with dessert and cappucino machine. Even apples and carrots for the horses (They give us bread for the Icelandics)! We get to decompress a bit and then it´s back to the hotel to try and get a bit of sleep. Of course we end up in the bar for a bit beforehand and relax, have a beer or two. Usually someone from every team is there, the crew members, even the truck drivers. This is always a nice time to get to know people. Even though we are tired from our journey, it´s a good way to unwind and open up to other members of the tour.
Friday morning, we are usually up early and doing t.v. interviews (sometimes at 5 am!) and then each of the 5 teams have a practice time if they desire, and then a dress rehearsal usually around 3 or 4. In between, it´s make-up and warddrobe, whenever Cathy Ratcliffe, our extraordinary make-up artiste, can fit us in. We also have to prepare the sparklers (Well, Leó prepares them mostly and we try to help but mostly we just get in his way!) and eat and have lots of time to make cappucino´s throughout the day(Leó is also the cappucino man! I don´t know what I would do without him!). Saturday We have 2 shows, a matinee and an evening show. So it gets a bit tiring, but we still make it fun. Sunday we have a matinee and then it´s tear down and load up all the equipment, leaving only the horses to load onto the trailer´s on Monday morning. Sunday night, we generally all try and go out and do something fun if we have the energy (Which we always muster up, you sleep when you´re dead, right?).
Monday morning, it´s time to load up horses and drive home on very little sleep, if any. Leó generally takes the first leg, and I dose in and out while making sure he stays awake. We get home somehow, unload the horses and then back to our hub, maybe get a bite to eat with everyone. We have Tuesday and Wednesday „off“ but this is spent taking care of horses, doing laundry, cleaning tack and training. Wednesday night we load everything up and prepare for early am departure onto the next hub. This is the life of the road and I love every minute of it.
Backstage the ‘Black box’ and The Show
The backstage area of this show is a site to be seen. We have approximately a 20-25 meter circle of sand that is brought in and we use as a ‘warm-up’ area. Now, imagine at any given time, sometimes all at once, 8 Lusitanos doing canter pirouettes and passage and spanish walk, another in hand practicing his piaffe and levade, 6 horses being longed at once (by the same person!!), 4 Icelandics racing around, possibly a giant Breton trotting in and out of this chaos with a crazy French man playing practical jokes on everyone, a Friesian Quadrille thundering around in trot and trick riders standing in a pyramid on two horses! This is all happening on that circle! The truly unbelievable part is that it´s all done without any collisions. This dance is harmonious in all it´s chaos and it will forever be a mystery to me how it all just seems to work. We also have people changing in and out of costumes, crew people running around like mad, dancer´s warming up and miscellaneous riders who aren´t currently occupied holding horses for someone else. The excitement backstage is always an exhilarating high. The horses know the music well and begin to anticipate their act. We play lots of practical jokes and laugh with each other, encourage each other for our performances, console each other when things don´t go well. It is filled with energy, nerves, pride and passion for the show we put on. Because we only have 1 act, Team Iceland helps out quite a bit. Aníta, Caeli and I are the ‘Pony wranglers’ for Laurent, who has 3 miniature horses in his act. My pony is a little black 2 year old stallion with a punk rock mane that stands straight up named ‘Hokus Pocus’. Now you would think that handling these little guys would be an easy job, but these 3 little stallions are terrors!! They bite, kick, spin, scream, rear and try to challenge the large horses. We definitely have our hands full. I love Hokey P. because whenever I take him out of his stall, he collects himself up and literally trots in passage beside me as if he were a high school dressage horse. Leó is in charge of handling Naer, the giant Breton and Basile the donkey for Laurent since all his acts are so close together. We also help Team Valença from Portugal hold their Lusitano´s during costume and horse changes.
Beyond the ‘warm up ring’ is a curtain and a small area behind the main backdrop known as ‘The Blackbox’. This is where we prepare to enter the stage. There is an atomic clock that counts us down for when the doors will open. When we enter here, we have already rigged the protective boots and sparklers on the horses legs and warmed up. We are now ready to be lit on fire!! We usually have about 4 people that light us up, it has to be done very quickly and at the same time so that our sparklers last the entirety of our act. Nazari, the Ukrainian trick rider is the best at lighting us up. He never misses a show, even though he has his own acts to think about, and he can light two horses at once! The horses dance with anticipation, ears pricked and nostrils aflare. They are not scared. They are excited. The difference is clear. The clock counts down, the music cues up, I look at my teammates, we all nod in agreement, we are ready! The doors slide open. A bed of fog covers the ground with thousands of shining lights reflecting across it´s billowing momentum. As we enter, the crowd always gasps. I don´t think they ever expect to see horses with fire attached to their legs, ridden so slow and calmly. The setting really is ethereal. The music, the lights, the fire, the fog and amidst it all, 4 little viking horses rhythmically tölting in unison as if it were any other day on the job. They are excited, just as we are, but they are calm. Unfortunately, 4 minutes goes by very quickly and it is over too soon. But there will be another show and another chance to show our wonderful horses to the world. We come out of the black box quickly to make room for the next act, remove our horses boots and put them to relax in their stalls before the grand finale and curtain call. In the Finale each team takes one introduction lap around the arena with their name up on the big screen and then we all parade in together, circling around each other and finally lining up to face the audience. We usually make lots of faces at each other. Every time I ride in, Gary, who is head crew and in charge of my door, pretends to conduct the final orchestral music for me which I personally am not a fan of because it sounds like the end of a Disney movie. He of course, decided to name it ‘Laura´s Song’ since I ‘love’ it so much. Haha. Every show he says ‘Get ready for Laura´s Song everyone’ and begins to swing his arms like a conductor. And every show I flip him off as I ride into the arena. :) As we all ride out, the crew is usually lined up and high fives us all. These guys are so incredible. They really bust their asses to make the show run smoothly.
Baltimore show, June 08
We arrived in Baltimore at 530pm yesterday, and the 1stMariner Arena where we will perform is right in the heart of downtown. There is absolutely NO parking, so it was really interesting getting 45 horses unloaded off of 4 semi trucks! The horses arrived around 730pm and by that time we had gotten 40 stalls set up in the Arena’s tiny parking lot and 5 stalls for our Icelandics….wait for it…Backstage in the kitchen! We are literally inside between the production office and catering, right next to the kitchen! It’s pretty funny. The Icelandics enjoy all the attention from the staff and we are close to the food and out of the heat so it is kind of nice. The best part was that Leó had to do an emergency shoeing job on Stjarni upon arrival so we just whipped out the farriers kit right there and Leó shod both his front feet. Everyone got a kick out of it.
The Hotel is about a 2 block walk from the arena which is a good thing because this morning we had to be there for 3 different t.v. interviews at 6.30 am!! They all went pretty well, aside from one live feed interview where I couldn´t here the news casters questions through my earpiece. I ended up just making up answers to what I thought he was saying and it was fine. Way to wing it!! The last interview I had Leó and Caeli riding Stjarni and Glaeta in the background while I talked with Pegasus beside me. At the end they asked if I would get on and do some riding with my team. I didn´t have a saddle, but I know Pegasus well, so I just went for it bareback! Pegasus was so good and it was really fun and impromptu.
…This was the last thing that I wrote while on the tour. Baltimore ended up being the craziest and best weekend I have ever had. Our performances were very tight, the crowds were good and the practical jokes were wild and out of control! If we had only known it would be our last performance. But maybe it´s good we didn´t… Sunday night we went out in downtown Baltimore and I think I maybe got 30 minutes of sleep before we got up to load the horses for the drive home. EVERYONE went out that night. Cast and crew. It was a night to remember. The next day upon arrival at our hub in Blue Diamond Stables in Ohio, after our horses were put away and cared for, we were rounded up on the front porch for a meeting. We were exhausted from travel and sleeplessness from the night before. The words that we heard fell heavy upon our hearts. The tour would no longer go on. The company lost funding and was bankrupt. Blurred eyes tried to hide the shock, maybe we were just exhausted and hearing things. How could this be true? The family that had grown so close over the last weeks would now be dispersed and sent their separate ways. As tired as we were, we had a party late into the night in the hotel courtyard. Laughing with each other all together one last time. Some would leave the next morning, some would leave in a few days, others with their horses in a few weeks. I had the opportunity to stay on for a while with my horse and some of the other riders who had to wait with their horses before they could be shipped home. These days we spent trail riding, trying out each others horses, learning from each other, having water fights, BBQ´s and really just hanging around the farm together (Blue Diamond is the most beautiful and fully equipped facility I have ever seen, it was not a bad place to be!) finding any way we could to ease the pain and mental blow of what had happened. In this time also, Sylvie Willms, the amazing liberty trainer and Nazari, the trick rider were married at the farm on their Friesians. It was a beautiful and simple wedding that we were very lucky to be a part of.
Going home was bittersweet. I was very happy to see my loved ones, but knowing and accepting that this truly was the end was a bitter pill to swallow. Knowing that some of us might never see each other again. Still I go through moments of grief over what was, but I try and focus on the fact that I was lucky to do it at all. I still dream one day we can ride together again. Who knows, maybe we will..
The Valkyrie Chronicles 
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