Posted March 12, 2006

2006 Cadillac Challenge of the Americas - Page 8

Veteran Patrick Burssens Knows What it Takes

Patrick Burssens, who has ridden in all five freestyle fundraisers for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), was a member of Team International this year. “We worked very hard at it,” he said of the team’s winning quadrille. The group stepped up their once-a-week practice sessions and rehearsed four times this week. Burssens noted some of the technical difficulties of his team’s six-horse quadrille, “Most of the time we were riding in two groups of three, so we had to pay attention to the music and the other three at the same time so that when we all got back together, it was not just at the right spot but also with the music. That took the most training to get it right, but it was beautiful. Everybody worked really, really hard at it. It was a wonderful group.”

Burssens, Steiner and Lynda Alicki were the original three riders in the first musical freestyle exhibition ride and he is pleased at how the event has evolved. “It’s growing and it’s wonderful. It’s exactly the way it should be. It’s turned into something fantastic. I’m very, very proud that I’m still invited to ride.”

Beth Zimski, who has choreographed rides for the BCRF fundraiser all five years, was the choreographer this year for the Team Quadrille for both Team International and Team Purina Mills USA. “When you judge a quadrille you don’t judge it like you do an individual freestyle,” she explained. “It has to be synchronized, which means that if the rider crosses at A and the other rider is supposed to cross at C – they’ve got to be doing that. They’ve got to make the mark. And Team International did. They were so careful. They executed everything so beautifully and none of it was easy. The quadrille the international team did was very difficult. They were all so into it, every rider. They were wonderful to work with and it just got better every time they did it.”