Behind the Scenes at COTA
The Challenge of the Americas (COTA) is an annual charity event that raises money for breast cancer research through the Play for P.I.N.K® organization and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Staged at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival (also known as 
“Global”) showgrounds in Wellington, Florida, COTA features a showjumping quadrille, dressage Pas de Deux, and five Grand Prix dressage quadrille teams. The quadrilles, each consisting of six horse-and-riders combinations, are judged by a panel of international dressage judges. It is the biggest night of dressage during the overarching Winter Equestrian Festival show season.
For the past eight years, I have been deeply involved with COTA as a volunteer, exhibition organizer, and quadrille coach/choreographer. Like all the other volunteers, I wear many hats, and this has given me experience and insight into what it takes to put on an event of this magnitude.
I am proud to say that BioStar is one of COTA’s many sponsors and has been for several years. I believe companies in the equine industry should pay it forward by giving back to the greater equestrian community and supporting important causes.
Team BioStar rehearsing for the 2024 COTA. Photo courtesy of Mane Source Media for Phelps Media Group
Rehearsals: evidence of commitment to the cause
It is a privilege to coach and choreograph the Team BioStar quadrille each year, but of course, these intricate performances aren’t mastered overnight.
Tigger Montague coaching the 2020 COTA rehearsals. Photo courtesy of Phelps Media Group
Rehearsals for the five teams begin in January. Every week each team meets at varying locations to learn and practice the quadrille performance’s choreography and music. Most often, the team members are well-established riders and trainers who donate their time for the cause.
As the time ticks down to the actual performance, increasing efforts to two practices or more a week is not unusual.
To quantify the magnitude of dedication these riders give to COTA, I did some quick math: When adding up the average number of rehearsals and multiplying that sum by an average of a $100 per hour dressage lesson rate, I discovered that each quadrille rider donated roughly $1,000 to COTA in time spent practicing. With 30 riders competing, that equals $30,000 in total.
Herding cats
As a choreographer for the Team BioStar quadrille, some rehearsals feel a bit like herding cats. Part of this is because not every rider learns the same way; some are visual learners, some are spatially oriented, some learn from reading the choreography, and some learn best by repetition.
In the early stages of rehearsals, the choreography often resembles bumper cars, a scene from a Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote cartoon, or a feature on America’s Funniest Home Videos.
Let’s face it: other than in warm-up rings at show, most dressage riders aren’t riding in groups on a day-to-day basis. Put six highly trained horses learning a new pattern in a covered arena, we often get blooper reel material.
In my experience (and my good fortune), the riders I work with on the Team BioStar quadrille have an immaculate sense of humor. When things go a bit awry, they can laugh at themselves, at each other, and at me.
When things don’t go as planned
Hiccups, roadblocks, and unforeseen forces are inevitable when planning a high caliber performance like the quadrille: a horse is sold, a horse injures itself in the paddock, a horse doesn’t like quadrille, a rider gets a bad case of the flu, a rider is out of town during a rehearsal…
I must say, it is daunting when an ill rider ends up too sick to ride and a new rider and horse is brought in one week before the big performance. Can you say, “Where’s the sage?!”
Quadrille riding is no easy feat
Riding in a Grand Prix quadrille requires multi-tasking. There are the technical elements that are required, just like in an individual Grand Prix test. Then there’s the addition of a musical element, akin to a dressage freestyle. And to top it all off, the spacing, alignment, and synchrony elements that are unique to quadrille are meticulously thrown into the mix.
Team BioStar performing the quadrille at the 2022 COTA. Photo courtesy of Phelps Media Group
A good quadrille rider will execute a pirouette in line with a specific musical beat while maintaining awareness of whether he or she is spaced correctly with the other horses, is performing the pirouette at the same time as the other horses, and is doing so in the same number of steps as the other horses. A good quadrille rider makes adjustments quickly to maintain the spacing, alignment, and synchrony of the original choreography.
Experienced quadrille riders can do all of the above and make it look effortless. It takes a uniquely special skillset to achieve this level of harmony with the other horses and riders on the team.
2020 COTA jumping quadrille exhibition. Photo courtesy of Phelps Media Group
Opening acts: the exhibition performers
Before the highly anticipated quadrilles trot down centerline on COTA night, various exhibition riders perform for the audience. This year a four-horse (plus one dressage horse) jumping quadrille, a solo performance by 2024 US Olympic team rider Marcus Orlob, and three different Pas de Deux were featured.
I was honored to provide music for all of the pre-quadrille exhibitions, as well as choreography for both the jumping quadrille and for Marcus’ freestyle.
The jumper riders are pretty unflappable, even when given the task of trotting two 10-meter circles in unison (which is not something they normally school) before heading out of the dressage arena to jump the jumps on the long sides of the stadium.
The 2025 COTA Flying Soleau, LLC jumping quadrille horses circling the dressage horse. Photo courtesy of Mane Source Media for Phelps Media Group
This year we added a dressage horse and rider combination to the jumping quadrille, performing piaffe and passage and pirouettes while the jumpers galloped and jumped. The highlight of the exhibition was the jumpers coming back into the arena boundaries to ride a 20-meter circle while the dressage horse pirouetted in the center.
Pre-event planning or Mission: Impossible?
Tigger Montague and 2025 COTA organizing committee member, Sue Weakley. Photo courtesy of Mane Source Media for Phelps Media Group
One of my COTA-designated jobs involves obtaining information from the riders (names of their horses, ages, breeds, owners, etc.) and a photograph for the show’s program and website. One might think this would be an easy task to complete; after all, I meet with the riders in for the Team BioStar quadrille rehearsals every Tuesday… But it is not as simple as it would seem. These riders are bombarded on the daily with a quadrillion texts and calls, and their days are stacked to the brim. Some quadrille riders finish practice at 5:30pm and then go right into teaching a lesson. Their calendars are planned to the minute, and the pressure in Wellington is immense.
I generally resort to begging.
As you can imagine, the planning process for hosting a 1,500-person audience (many sitting in the V.I.P. section) is no small responsibility. Add an online auction, the organizational element of ticket sales, and a curated social media strategy to the pre-event details, too. The COTA team must execute these tasks while also putting out fires and keeping the sponsors happy.
Thankfully, I am only on the perimeter of all these details, and the organizer, Mary Ross, keeps her core volunteers apprised of everything that is going on. Nonetheless, there are days it seems like Mission: Impossible… with a need for alcohol.
The hustle and bustle of backstage
When the night of COTA finally arrives, all the exhibition and quadrille horses are in Global’s temporary stabling tent (with each quadrille team having its own row of stalls) by 4pm. It is a flurry of activity, nerves, and laughter.
A walk down one of these aisles includes sights of riders braiding and putting glitter on their horses. Some are looking for safety pins for their costumes, and others are getting snacks and water from the Purina-sponsored hospitality tent. The excitement and tension grows by the minute; each team wants to win.
After spending nearly three months practicing, the quadrille team horses are comfortable and relieved to be in the tent with their “herd” members.
One year, one of the lead Team BioStar horses greeted and called out to each horse on his team as they came into the tent. He was like a welcoming committee.
Glitz, glitter, and braids from the 2024 COTA. Photo courtesy of Phelps Media Group
Meanwhile…
Up at the main arena, the stage manager is hung up in traffic because of a truck overturning, and another volunteer (who already was in charge of stabling, social media, and marketing) has to jump in. She and I decide there are only two words to use in this situation: “Bite me.”
We get reports that one of the main roads to the Global venue has been closed down temporarily because of this accident, affecting the usual, rushed cadence of people getting to their general admission seats.
The announcer is grumpy, because one of the quadrille choreographers had a music change.
There are technical issues with the online auction.
The Flying Soleau mini horses at the 2025 COTA. Photo courtesy of Mane Source Media for Phelps Media Group
The jumping quadrille is warming up. Their performance’s theme is Wicked, and they are in full Oz character costumes: Glinda, Fiyero, Madame Morrible, and an Emerald City guard. The dressage rider, dressed as the Wicked Witch, is warming up back by the stabling, because the miniature horses (the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion) drive the dressage horse into a twirling frenzy; when he was a stallion in Europe, minis were used to tease him before breeding.
In the pre-event jumping exhibition, the minis have a quick entrance, followed by a race to leave the competition area in order to evade the eyes of the dressage horse. So much can go wrong with the timing that all I can think of is, “Bite me.”
Before the jumping quadrille even begins, we are already behind schedule. Luckily, the stage manager arrives and takes control.
In a magical turn of events, the night unfolds, and music drifts across the stadium, filling the air with rock music, pop music, and soundtracks. The energy, full of hope, positivity, unity, and joy, rises.
The crowd cheers and claps for each performance and riders grin as they leave the arena; this kind of event makes dressage fun.
Marcus Orlob and JJ Glory Day for the 2025 COTA freestyle exhibition. Photo courtesy of Mane Source Media for Phelps Media Group
The three Pas de Deux pairs each compete in a “dance-off,” which are accompanied by an ecstatic enthusiasm from the crowd. The music theme is rock’n’roll, and the Grand Prix riders, normally in shadbellies and stark white breeches, come into the arena in sporting elaborate costumes and (a few) wigs.
Marcus Orlob and JJ Glory Day, a nine-year-old Danish stallion, ride an individual freestyle, designed specifically for their performance at COTA. His ride is a reminder of what we are all here for on this Friday night in March. It is dedicated to those battling breast cancer, those that have survived breast cancer, and those we have lost. There isn’t a dry eye in the house after his performance, including my own, and those around me are wiping away tears.
The Team BioStar 2023 COTA Quadrille. Photo courtesy of Phelps Media Group
The excitement of the quadrilles
The five quadrille teams each enter and perform, receiving critique from the judges and cheers from the audience.
There is no other place in the US where a spectator can watch 30 Grand Prix horses in five different quadrilles at one venue on one special night.
Every quadrille team becomes a uniting force, sending the message of “One for all, and all for one.” It’s a true display of tremendous team spirit and sportsmanship: something that would be great to see at every horse show. Rather than constant critique, why don’t we lean into the support and goodwill exhibited at COTA? To put it into perspective: even the quadrille teams that don’t score as high as the winning team are given rousing applause, because everyone is there for the same purpose of supporting a cause greater than our own.
Wrapping up the 2025 COTA
After ribbons are awarded to the winning quadrille, and before I go home to let out a big sigh of relief, I head to the VIP tent to catch up with friends and colleagues. Texts pour in from Team BioStar riders and friends who watched on the live stream, and I genuinely wonder if it is possible that my phone will blow up.
At 11:30pm, still riding high from the night’s energy, I get a text from the organizer. We end up chatting on the phone for an hour, debriefing, sharing our observations, and identifying what we can improve for next year.
I am already conjuring up fresh ideas for next year’s COTA exhibitions, as well as possible quadrille music themes. After all, January 2026 rehearsals are only nine months away.
An afterward from Team BioStar
Team BioStar’s quadrille horses were supported by Alixir EQ™ and Remedium Nadi EQ™: whole food supplements by BioStar US, formulated to help horses perform at their best and seamlessly recover.
Alixir EQ™ provides whole-horse hydration support for performance horses, as well as mitochondrial support from purified shilajit extract. The paste utilizes the oral transmucosal pathway, providing fast delivery to the systemic circulatory system.
Remedium Nadi EQ™ supports the normal inflammatory response and recovery process during and after training and competition. Both the paste and powder formulas include a blend of Holy Basil, reishi mushrooms, and four different patented extracts.
Readers can learn more about COTA and BioStar’s continued legacy in the March 2025 issue of Wellington the Magazine: COTA Is a Canvas of Expression for Tigger Montague.
About the Author: With over 30 years experience in the equine and human supplement industry, Tigger Montague knows nutrition from the synthetic side as well as the whole food side. She started BioStar US in 2006 with formulas she created in her kitchen. Before she started the company, she was an avid rider and competitor with eventing and show jumping, until she got hooked on dressage in the late 1980’s. She has competed on horses she’s owned and trained all the way from training level to Grand Prix.
