Music4Dressage

You will be aware that a horse’s walk, trot and canter have 4,2 or 3 beats respectively.

Should you count how many times your horse’s inside hind leg comes to the ground in one minute, then you will have the bpm (beats per minute) timing that is also used to determine the speed of music.

Your horse will have one bpm for each gait and there should be a correlation between them.

For example, if Walk is 50, Trot should be about 75, and Canter around 100

This should give you some idea about your accuracy when timing bpms.

Remember: short or long back, level of training (rider and horse), temperament etc. will all have an effect on the figures)

Matching horse and music should be a case of simple mathematics, and it is, provided bpms match AND there are the correct number of beats per bar.

All too often people have their canter music at the correct speed, but with the wrong number of beats per bar, and this can imitate an undesirable musical effect called Hemiola

Hemiola, Hemiolia, Hemiole,

This rhythmic device consists of superimposing two beats in the time of three, or three in the time of four etc  The device was used frequently by ancient church composers, but it survives in the music of Handel and latterly in the cross rhythms of Haydn and Brahms etc.