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Frédéric Pignon: Equestrian Director

Since his childhood Frederic tries to understand horses and to communicate with them in mutual respect and willingness to cooperate. After doing trick riding and Voltige , he has gradually drawn its own way, the work in liberty/freedom, to the ground, with its standards. An approach shared with the public through performances and workshops he gives alongside Magali , all over the world.

 

Magali Delgado: Equestrian Director

Raised by a family of horsemen and breeders , Magali rides and competes in horse shows from a young age. She specialised in dressage high school and has made high-level competition . For over twenty years on the stages around the world , she has practiced dressage, highlighting the importance of the horse's freedom and pleasure to participate.

 

If you wish to know more...

Frédéric and Magali have both grown up among the horses. 

From an early age, accompanying his parents Magali, show riders and breeders, on the slopes where they occur with their magnificent Lusitano. 

Frederick's parents settled in the Drôme, offer horse rides and inculcate him the taste and respect for the horse. Frédéric is passionate very quickly for the observation and understanding of animals, in order to communicate with them. 

Magali, passionate dressage forms under the watchful eye of his parents. At 18, she moved to Portugal to perfect with great riders and passes supervised work that led him to teach his favorite discipline at an equestrian center Apt. 

After going to the Fine Arts, and training and stunt flyer in Paris with George Branch School, Frederick took the road south of France to perfect in dressage and give classes in a riding school ... in Apt, the very one in which Magali works. 

Soon, over their activities (trick riding, dressage, freedom ...), they realize they share a passion for horses and the show. A few months later they inaugurated their first joint team where they offer lessons and pensions, and also prepare equestrian numbers in which they develop their sense of creativity and originality. 

They Templado with them, their first horse show, one that will make them known, but also one that guided them in their search for a better understanding and communication with horses, respect and mutual desire for cooperation.

 

 


The freedom to gallop...


We are in the early 90. During 2 years, they travel all villages in France, solo or incorporating their numbers to varied and original performances and organized by Chaps, great stunt and showman. A meeting that was decisive in their infancy. 

One evening Pierre Lapouge, producer of Passion Horse, Horse of the large living room of Avignon, just see in their facilities in Tavel. Magali and Frederick offered him a specially designed number for his show "The Golden Manes". It is night and they rented projectors and a sound system for the atmosphere. 

Templado emerged: the projected light in his yellow mane let loose in the wind, giving it the appearance of a mythical horse. Pierre Lapouge, eager for novelty, is packed. Nobody before has seen Templado: he absolutely wants for his show. 

Cheval Passion is a success; great organizers and Frederic contact Magali for shows, all over Europe. The small team is growing: they then 8 horse show. 

In 1996, always changing and eager for creation, they meet Vidrié Don Manuel, through their friend Julia Calviere. It is one of the riders behind the Royal Andalusian School of Spain. At the request of Jose Miguel Moreno, owner of an ecological park in Santo Domingo, Don Manuel Vidrié has a mandate to mount a horse show, and proposes to Magali and Frederick to be part of the team. 

A month later, packed their cases and placed horse owners, they take the road of Spain, with their seven horses, a pony and Bulle, their dog. They work three months between repetitions, discoveries and encounters - like that of Don Alvaro Domecq, a great character - and then sailed for the Caribbean with 30 horses ready for show purposes. 

They will remain two years and continue to improve their work with the help of Don Manuel gives them its know no limits. 

Meanwhile numerous proposals reach them. They are back in France in 1999 in the arenas of Nimes, at the invitation of Maurice Galle, organizer of many horse shows. The horse world awaits them curiously. That night, they linked together aerobatics, 8 horse carousel in high school, reins in his belt, not two ("The Mirror", with Magali and her younger sister, Estelle) and Frédéric presents his three white stallions at liberty. Horses have evolved in their work and home in their stage presence. The audience is standing. It is a success. 

A few days later, they flew to the US They were hired by the largest dinner show in the US, "Arabian Nights," to lead his horsemen and his 60 horses. They'll get there four times a year, along with their shows in France. 

Between 2000 and 2003, Frédéric and Magali occur on larger tracks of shows in France (Paris Bercy, Lyon, Cannes, Avignon, the Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, ...) and Europe (Equitana in Germany - 4 successive years - Sweden, Spain, Holland, Italy, Monaco, ...). 

Meanwhile, Magali and her horse Dao participate in several dressage competitions, during which their services are printing with the judges. They also regularly rank at the top of the charts. 

Frédéric and Magali have always had the desire to work their horse shows to get them at the best level dressage. The participation of such horses in competitions is unprecedented and recognition of professionals, a real first.

Strength of relationship ...

Yet, after some six years of touring, Frederic and Magali decided to leave the adventure. The time has come for them to return to their stables their horses to recharge and think about new issues. They also want to accompany their "old" show horses in a well-deserved retirement. 

After only a few months break, they still return to the path of the tracks and performances occur in the largest equestrian events everywhere across Europe: Equitana and Hanoverian Elite Auction, Germany, Horse of the Year Show, UK, Cavalli a Milano, Italy, Horse Passion, Equita, the Paris Horse Show and The Grand Carousel Royal de Versailles, France, Belgium Wallonie Equestre Event Parada Jeździecka Poland, Dansk Varmblods gallashow Denmark, Horse Event and Concert Equine, the Netherlands, Mercedes-Benz CSI Zurich and the Gala of the Iberian Horse, Switzerland, the Horse Fair in El Jadida in Morocco, the International Horse Show (SICAB) in Spain, … 

Meanwhile, they give courses open to the public. The opportunity for them to share their passion, but also to highlight what has become a real philosophy of life: respect and understanding, patience and trust as the basis of the relationship to the horse. 

These courses are very successful: more and more horse lovers dream indeed to live one day the relationship that both artists and trainers have with their mounts. Each participant wants to understand, too, how to develop in his horse's ability to control himself, to think, to excel, to trust, how to evolve the pleasure to communicate and cooperate with it. 

Today, Magali and Frederic create a show that combines still the horse, music, dance and multimedia. Through this project, they want to invite the public to a new journey full of poetry, sensitivity, energy and humor. A quest for harmony between humans and animals, between man and earth. A dream in which horses freely express their talents and become artists in their own right.

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