I’m working on establishing and maintaining regular rythem at the working trot. What are some good songs to trot to? I thought about “Born this way” by Lady Gaga but the beat is too fast for my little mare to keep up with.
You need to know the beats per minute of the trot you want to establish, then choose songs with the correct number.
1 Like
Take a video of your horse at the trot (at your ideal tempo), then play various pieces while watching the video. It will save you a lot of time. You can get the beats per minute of your horse’s trot from the video too.
Also, generally speaking, rythem is now used to describe the sequence of footfall within a gait. Tempo is the word you are looking for.
Do horses respond to the tempo of music they hear while moving?
[QUOTE=Sparrowette;7583630]
Do horses respond to the tempo of music they hear while moving?[/QUOTE]
Mine do! I try to pick music that is a ‘touch’ faster and ‘ride them up’ to it.
I like the ‘hooked on classics’ series. Lots of drums in a steady thump thump thump to help keep the rhythm .
1 Like
you can also get a free metronome app for your phone and check your tempo real-time 
1 Like
If you find the BPM, you can use this site to find matching songs. I then create a playlist on spotify of those songs, which you can get on your phone.
You guys are so creative. Thanks for the info!
Most reggae songs have a very clear steady beat to follow.
1 Like
I was going to suggest the phone app as well.
Useful info about figuring out your horse’s BPM in the trot:
http://www.music4dressage2music.com/howtomeasureyourbpm.htm
But in general, it’s going to be 75-90 bpm. You can use the site Big Grey Hunter recommended, but I’m also a big fan of Run Hundred. Jog.fm tends to be songs I’ve never heard of, which is perfect when I’m doing a really tough workout and just want noise. Run Hundred tends to have songs that I know, or that I end up liking enough to learn all the words to.
http://www.runhundred.com/sort-by-tempo/
I trotted to “Tail lights” by Clint Black the other day…it was fun but way too fast; we had to do the dreaded “pony trot” to keep up with it. My barn always plays cheezy Country music so this wasn’t my choice.
Just researched the BPM on that song and it’s around 150 so no wonder her little legs had to do double time :eek:
[QUOTE=paulaedwina;7584858]
Hey Mickey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFrmapGCuhs
Paula[/QUOTE]
Oh man…now that song is stuck in my head!
Mwahahaha my work here is done! :lol:
[QUOTE=Scandias;7585666]
I trotted to “Tail lights” by Clint Black the other day…it was fun but way too fast; we had to do the dreaded “pony trot” to keep up with it. My barn always plays cheezy Country music so this wasn’t my choice.
Just researched the BPM on that song and it’s around 150 so no wonder her little legs had to do double time :eek:[/QUOTE]
The BPM doesn’t need to be an exact match, but it does need to be a multiple of the BMP. For example, my horse has a canter BPM of around 100. His canter songs are mostly around 100 or 200 BPM. His trot is 80, and we use songs with 80, 160, and 240 BPM.
[QUOTE=Scandias;7585666]
I trotted to “Tail lights” by Clint Black the other day…it was fun but way too fast; we had to do the dreaded “pony trot” to keep up with it. My barn always plays cheezy Country music so this wasn’t my choice.
Just researched the BPM on that song and it’s around 150 so no wonder her little legs had to do double time :eek:[/QUOTE]
I would be surprised if your pony’s trot is slower than this song. You can measure the bpm for every time one front leg steps, or when each front leg steps. This will give you two different numbers, like 75 and 150. 150 is a pretty average trot bpm for a 16H horse. Our pony was definitely faster than 150 bpm.
If you can’t get a video of you and your pony, try running two videos on YouTube at once. Play the “Tail Lights” video with the volume up, and find a video of a dressage horse trotting and mute the volume (just to the right of the play button).
dressage horse (I don’t know the horse, just the videographer.)
About one minute into the dressage horse video, they are doing some trot work at regular speed. I think this horse’s bpm are a little slower than the song, but not by much.
Fairtheewell just posted this video on another thread showing Painted Black…
I have mentioned using the Hooked on Classics music series before but you can see for yourself on this video at about 4:22 to the end when the audience starts clapping to the beat.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A4PokvoR61Y
[QUOTE=Ticker;7592878]
Fairtheewell just posted this video on another thread showing Painted Black…
I have mentioned using the Hooked on Classics music series before but you can see for yourself on this video at about 4:22 to the end when the audience starts clapping to the beat.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A4PokvoR61Y[/QUOTE]
Wow, that is really cool. What a hot, hot, stallion. You gotta have nerves of steel to ride such a horse.
Posted by Sparrowette:
Do horses respond to the tempo of music they hear while moving?
All the horses I’ve ridden do.
Put on something that works well with your tempo. Then put on something really weird and watch them fall apart and get annoyed.
1 Like
