A freestyle isn’t a freestyle without music and for that reason riders go all out making sure they’ve got the best mix of music. At this year’s Rolex FEI World Cup Dressage competition, Dutch rider Imke Schellekens-Bartels went a step further than most and commissioned a composer to create something unique.

The extra musical effort paid off, because Schellekens-Bartels finished second in the world championship competition with a score of 77.95 percent. And her scores for music and interpretation certainly played a role in her second-place finish. Points for this portion of her test ranged from 8 to a 9 from the judge at B – Francis Verbeek-van-Rooy. Only Isabell Werth and Warum Nicht were able to beat out Schellekens-Bartels. They finished with a final score of 84.25 percent.

In the World Cup competition, Schellekens-Bartels rode the 12-year-old Hannoverian mare Sunrise (Singular Joter x Werther) to a classical-style of piano music that one could describe as “bold.” If the music led spectators to view Sunrise as confident and strong, then it achieved what composer Wibi Soerjadi wanted it to.

Soerjadi, a concert pianist who travels the world performing, and himself a rider, spent much time watching Schellekens-Bartels and Sunrise during their training sessions in order to create a music that was a perfect fit. “I needed to watch the horse because it’s important for me to be inspired by the horse – by its movement and character.”

Soerjadi has created music for horses before, but never a piece meant to be used in competition, and especially at a competition such as the World Cup. “Normally, in dressage competition, the choice of music is made by focusing on finding the right rhythm for a horse. But I wanted to create something unique – music that does more by showing the intensity and character of the horse.”

And the key character of Sunrise that Soerjadi sought to capture is her energy. “The energy was most important and I wanted to combine it with drama and intensity and her elegance.” In composing the music, he sought to convey different features depending on the movement being performed. “With the piaffe, I wanted to express the elegance. With the passage, I wanted to express the force and energy.”

The benefit of designing music for a specific horse is that Soerjadi was able to accentuate whatever he chose. “For example, with the passage, I wanted to emphasize the space between the legs. So, I put into the music a special rhythm that accentuates that space. For the flying changes, I created a dramatic climax,” Soerjadi said. “Also in the canter, I express the movement of the legs and also the control and the flow of the rider. I want the music to convey the feeling the rider has in making contact with the horse. I want to make the synthesis between horse and rider and music.”