New York, NY – October 18, 2004 – The Northeast Friesian Horse Club Drill Team will perform at Pier 94 and the Show Piers on the Hudson during the November 5 evening session of The Metropolitan National Horse Show. Scheduled for November 3-7, 2004, in New York City, the Metropolitan National Horse Show presents five days and five nights of competition with more than 80 hunter and jumper events and a total purse of $310,000.

The eight-horse drill team of black Friesians with their trademark flowing manes and tails and ‘feathered’ fetlocks will perform during the intermission between the evening’s two featured competitions – the second round of the $50,000 Junior/Amateur-Owner Jumper Liberty Cup and the second round of the $100,000 Open Jumper Metropolitan Cup. The evening session of the horse show on November 5 begins at 7:30 PM. Tickets can be reserved by calling 866-NHS-SHOW or on the web at www.nhs.org

“We’re delighted to be coming to The Metropolitan National Horse Show,” said Marti Aman, Drill Team Manager. “We’re very excited to be performing in New York City. It’s certainly a big performance for us.”

The Northeast Friesian Horse Club Drill Team has been together for four years and performed at such prestigious venues as Downeast Congress Horse Show, Classical Breed Show, Newport Polo Club, New England Dressage Association's Fall Festival, and Fidelity Jumper Classic.

Team Captain Debbie Hinds and Team Coach Jenny Wells revise the music and choreography annually and include newly created drill team movements. For the November 5 performance in New York, The Northeast Friesian Horse Club Drill Team will perform synchronized patterns with intriguing names such as The Leap Frog, The Snake, The Pinwheel, and Thread The Needle. “The Leap Frog is one of the new movements we put in this year,” notes Ms. Aman. “The horses start up the middle of the ring in single file but then begin halting and weaving around each other. It’s intricate work and comes early in the program, so it really grabs the audience’s attention.”

The Snake is one of the most difficult maneuvers. It requires the team to line up in the middle of the ring facing the same direction, pivot 180 degrees, and then pivot the other direction 180 degrees. “It’s very challenging because the inside horses must go very slow and then all of a sudden when they get to the middle of the ring they become the outside horses and they have to go faster and the inside horses have to go very slow,” explained Ms. Aman. “The changes of speed in doing The Snake are a challenge.”

The eight riders that compose the drill team are amateurs from different disciplines who live in various parts of New England. “We’re not a dressage team,” Ms. Aman points out. “I’m a dressage rider and my horse also jumps, but in the group there are horses that compete in different types of shows. Some of our horses do driving, saddle seat, and trail competitions, as well as dressage.” The drill team meets monthly to practice the patterns together in mounted sessions. “That’s the difficulty of running a team like this,” noted Ms. Aman. “It’s 2-1/2 hours for the farthest three or four riders to trailer their horses to a practice. It takes real dedication on the part of these riders.”

It also takes a special temperament of horse to perform the maneuvers. Not only must these Friesians be able to handle the distractions of crowds and clapping, but also the challenge of working nose to tail, and stirrup to stirrup, as well as in patterns that require them to move towards each other head on. The drills require a fit horse that can make tight turns and respond to the rider with precision when asked to change direction and speed.

“Friesians are cool. Their temperaments just amaze me,” states Ms. Aman. “We bring new horses into this group regularly and to put a horse in close quarters like that where there is bumping on both sides is a lot to ask, but they do it. We rarely ever have a problem with these horses. One of our two lead horses is a four-year-old mare that’s been under saddle less than a year. That’s quite remarkable.”

The look of the Friesian horse also makes a dynamic impression on crowds. With streaming manes and tails, they seam to float across the ring in the trot, but they can also raise goosebumps when they charge in unison at the canter. Several horses on the team have been awarded the ‘ster’ (Dutch for ‘star’) award given to approximately the top 30% of horses judged for the Friesian studbook.

Complementing the matched black ensemble of horses, the riders are attired in costumes of black top hats, blue and silver vests, and a ruffled shirt, designed by two of the group’s members – the fashion design team of Arnaldo Silva and Eugene Sweeney. “It’s a Renaissance look,” explains Ms. Aman. “When we pick our costumes, the emphasis is always on the horses. We want the horses to stand out, not us. The horses are the real stars. There’s something about eight Friesians together – they’re so matched and impressive. That’s what we want people to see.”

The Northeast Friesian Horse Club Drill Team members and horses performing at The Metropolitan National Horse Show are: