Few dare to introduce themselves - and their opinions - through a harshly worded fax. Even fewer take the criticism, telephone the sender and say: put your money where your mouth is.
But one of the most successful freestyle dressage partnerships began 14 years ago, exactly like that.
The sender was Cees Slings, a television music composer who first saw Dutch dressage rider Anky van Grunsven when he went to get a cup of coffee and walked by a television showing a Grand Prix final. His initial reaction was not entirely flattering. He thought: good horse, good girl, horrible music.
Personal mutterings did not suffice and he faxed his observations to Van Grunsven, who quickly challenged him to see if he could do better. Two days later, Slings produced a drum track that fit exactly to the choreography of the horse's movements. Along with Van Grunsven's husband and trainer Sjef Janssen, they formed a partnership that lasted 10 years and helped net Van Grunsven the world number one in dressage plus Olympic gold medals in 2000 and 2004.
Dressage, one of the Olympic equestrian disciplines, is often vaguely - and to non-horse people, confusingly - described as 'horse ballet', in part because the horses are asked to perform a series of technical movements intended to exemplify the extent of their training. In competition, freestyle dressage better resembles figure skating, as the sport's finale gives equal weight to both technical and artistic accomplishments and the routines translate to television in much the same way.'[Freestyle] can be our shop window to the world,' says British dressage rider Wayne Channon, who has worked with Slings. 'In 2003 at the European Championships, there were cameras panning different aspects of the arena. It was on Eurosport, millions of people watched it, I had people ringing me up and saying: 'My God, it was you on TV, what is this?' It's like a hidden treasure.'
But freestyle has not always been this way. It has always been technically challenging - medals are awarded after the grand prix freestyle and in the case of the Olympics, the kur as it is also known, will take place on August 19 - but the increased attention to the musical side is relatively recent.