How to choose Dressage Music

 

Choosing the right music is a lot more important than you may think. Suitable music should be the correct tempo for the horse/pony, the rider should not try and ride to music which is too fast or too slow, as all this will achieve is lack of impulsion, or the horse/pony will be too fast, ie, running and on the forehand. Every horse/pony will have it's own tempo, with walk, trot and canter all being very different. As an example, someone choosing trot music might feel that any of Lady Gaga's songs would be great to ride to. The music has loads of energy, s good strong beat, current, however, the standard speed for a dance track is 127 beats per minute. This is too slow for trot, which can vary dependant on the horse/pony, the size, elevation and experience, and will be between 140 and 160 beats per minute. Canter on the other hand, varies between 101 to 116 beats per minute, walk being similar. Advanced horses drop as low as 96 beats per minute. Canter is a 3 beat pace with a beat of suspension, thus musically, this becomes within 6/8, dum de dum de dum. Many people attempt to ride to a waltz, which is 3/4, it can work if the tempo is correct, but very rarely do you find a waltz as slow as even 110 beats per minute. So, much attention is needed to find the correct temp and rhythm for you to ride to.

As an experienced rider with her own Grand Prix and novice horses, not to mention her 13.3hh Norwegian Fjord, and as a musician with a fully equipped 32 track recording studio, Gaynor has the ideal experience to produce Schooling to Music CDs, and Competition CDs. The Schooling CDs available range from Pony to Advanced, with every CD having walk, trot, canter laid out in a sensible order for a good schooling session. All the music is played at the correct tempo for schooling at whatever Level CD you choose. The Advanced CD has canter changes, piaffe and passage music as well as walk, trot and canter. The CDs all have a range of contemporary music, which will enance and aid your schooling sessions.