Cavalli Connections » The lifelong pursuit of classical riding.

Riding To Music

FYI – I have added a new page about the Horses in my life. Enjoy!

So, do you ride to music? We do – always. Well, unless the power is out, the CD won’t stop skipping…or there are others that would prefer to have it quiet. But in general, music is always playing. If you haven’t ever tried this, I highly suggest it! With few exceptions, most horses will pick up the beat quite easily and since Rhythm is right there at the bottom of the training scale, this is a huge help. Zac will pick up the beat to almost anything. Wilt loves big, bold beats. Trixie’s favorite song is “That Don’t Impress Me Much” by Shania Twain. She does it with attitude lol. With Trixie, I have found it incredibly helpful to make her a personalized CD. If the beat is too fast she will go too fast and get tense. So I pick songs that are as close as possible to a good rhythm for her and her little legs. Most medium paced Shania Twain songs fit the bill and she really seems to enjoy them. In fact, when I use a certain CD for a long time with Trixie and then change it…she gets the funniest look on her face – “Hey…where’s my music??”.

My Mom runs a weekly drill team and makes CDs especially for that. Usually they start out and end with slower songs for the warm-up and cool down, and have faster songs in the middle. When a bunch of people of varying abilities and horses try to go at the same pace, sometimes you need all the help you can get!

Another benefit to having music playing is that singing along can really help riders relax. When I’m riding a horse that is nervous or just makes me nervous, singing or even humming along really helps take my mind off of things and in turn helps my body relax and send a much better message to the horse about the general state of things. You will probably find that the horse keeps an ear on you as well, wondering what on earth you are muttering about back there.