‘BRINGING DRESSAGE INTO THE 21ST CENTURY’

A PACKED freestyle which featured vocals throughout earned Sofie Butchart and Jessica Oakes’ 10-year-old Oldenburg mare Royalty III (Samba Hit x Royal Dance) the advanced medium gold title.

“Kim Ratcliffe helped me with my floorplan, and I put together all my own music. I’m pleased I managed to get all my timings on point with my music as I had an extremely technical floorplan — enhanced by the music, I gained eights from all three judges.

“I’m proud to be bringing dressage into the 21st century with my modern music and look, which the judges are enjoying as well,” added Sofie, who is based at her family’s Woodredon EC in Epping Forest and trains with Daniel Sherriff.

Her choreography included medium canters on curved lines, straight into canter half-pass zigzags, back into medium canter, as well as trot “split diagonals” — two consecutive short diagonals in medium trot. Her music included new versions of club anthems Show Me Love, Ain’t Nobody and Solo Dance. The walk was to the

R&B song Me & U by Cassie, and she concluded with

Alicia Keys’ Girl On Fire.

Sofie added: “It was fun to ride. It’s music everyone knows and hears on the radio. No one said you have to be boring.”