Polish rider Michal Rapcewicz has competed around the globe at World Equestrian Games, World Cup Finals and Olympic Games. But the Rolex FEI World Cup Final in Las Vegas will be his first trip to the United States, and he’ll be marking the occasion with a brand new freestyle.

Rapcewicz, of Warsaw, and his Polish-bred gelding Randon debuted their new test this spring, just weeks before leaving for Las Vegas.

“I premiered this kur at the [FEI Central European League] Final in Poland so that everyone could see it,” Rapcewicz said. “I want people to feel that it’s not just a kur but something like art. I hope people have a physical feeling as they hear the music—for me it is so special. I want them to be excited as they listen and watch. I think there’s a lot of emotion in it.”

The freestyle Rapcewicz and Randon performed at last year’s FEI World Cup Final in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, included a broad range of musical genres, from their jaunty piaffe-passage track to the epic theme from The Man In The Iron Mask, and even boasted turkey gobble sound effects at the end of the test. But this year’s freestyle will have a very different feel.

“That kur was odd and didn’t really fit Randon, but I didn’t have time to change it because we were competing and traveling all the time,” Rapcewicz said. “It wasn’t so good, but now we’ve had time to make a new one.

“My music before was mostly French, and this kur has some international music, but I’m also using some by Polish composers,” he continued. “It sounds like the same song the whole time, but it’s not. It’s difficult to put a name to this music, but it’s like a mix of classical with trance.”

The soundtrack will include bits from the classic aria “Ave Maria” and Russian opera-influenced pop-rocker Mika but will be mixed together with stronger flow than the pair’s previous freestyle. Rapcewicz thinks this test is a much better portrait of his longtime partner Randon, whom he owns himself and brought up the levels.

“He’s really hot and really dynamic in the piaffe and passage, and he has really good pirouettes,” he said. “I think this really fits him. He really dances in this kur. He was ready for more difficulty, so we now have a harder piaffe-passage combination and a difficult line for the flying changes, and there are lots of pirouettes. It’s not so easy anymore, but I know more now and we can aim higher.”

Rapcewicz and Randon, who have trained in the Netherlands with Belgian rider Peter Spahn, earned their bid to Las Vegas by topping the Central European League standings. While Poland may not seem like a dressage powerhouse, Rapcewicz, 27, is making his own mark on the international stage.

“This music is really new,” he said “I wanted something original, because now it seems like everybody in Europe has almost the same music. But I’ve never heard other riders have this kind of music. I want people to stop talking when they hear it and really concentrate and follow along. I hope that happens in Las Vegas!”