Posts Tagged ‘transition’

Tips to help your dressage horse (or any horse!) enjoy the benefits of riding a musical freestyle or just riding to music.

So whether you want to ride competitively or just want to enjoy riding to music at home, here are some free tips.

6 Tips for Picking Out Awesome Freestyle Music for Your Horse

1. Know your horse’s ideal BPM (beats per minute)

2. The average horse has the following BPM:

o Walk 90-106 BPM
o Trot 138-160 BPM
o Canter 96-108 BPM

3. Pick music that matches your horse’s BPM within 4-6 BPM range.

(For example if your dressage horse has a canter of 104 BPM, choose music that is between 100 BPM and 108 BPM)

4. Choose music that has a very clear downbeat. (You’d tap your toe to the downbeat.)

5. If you CAN’T tap your toe or clap your hands easily to the beat of the music, it’s not great freestyle music!

6. Choose freestyle music that will help you achieve your horse’s ideal tempo.
For example: If your horse is a bit on the lazy side, choose an upbeat and energetic piece of music that will help YOU ask for more energy. If your horse is hot or nervous, choose freestyle music that will help you feel calm and steady as well as help your horse with rhythm and relaxation.

7.Choose music that has dynamic changes. Dynamic changes are audible changes within the music (either volume or intensity) where you can make transitions. (for example, the music should FEEL or SOUND like there is a transition to an extended trot) When you are riding a freestyle for competition, the dynamic changes of the music need to match your transitions both within the gate and from gait to gait. Meaning, when you begin and end a half-pass, the observer should see and hear the transition and hear the change in the music occurring together. When riding a transition from gait to gait, such as the canter to walk for example, the observer should hear and see the transition to the walk occur with the change in the music.

8. Choose music that has appropriate back ground music. Even when a selection of music has the correct BPM for a trot; for example, the music that is in the back ground has an impact on the FEEL of the music. If you have a hot nervous horse, a high pitched frantic violin in the back ground will NOT help you or your horse maintain rhythm and relaxation. On the other hand, if your horse is always lacking impulsion or is lazy, more upbeat and forward moving back ground music will help you increase his energy level. For example, a soft and slower piece of jazz music might be appropriate for a nervous horse, but would allow the quiet or lazy horse to have even less energy.

Ruth Hogan Poulsen
http://www.Ruthhoganpoulsen.com
Ruth@Ruthhoganpoulsen.com

Author: Ruth Hogan Poulsen
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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I am getting a horse soon, and bare foot horses are hard to find. How would you transition a horse from shoes to barefoot? The horse would, eventually be ridden 6 days a week, if that helps.
Also, how much does a farrier cost with and without shoes per month?

Please do not comment on how much you hate barefoot, and I need shoes, I think barefoot is best. Keep your arguments to yourself, please!
Thanks!

Do you saw left and right on your dressage horse’s mouth or wiggle the bit with both hands to get him “on the bit”.

If you “saw” on your dressage horse’s mouth by alternating squeezing and releasing with your hands, you’re riding your horse from front to back. He might look like he’s “on the bit” because his head is down and his nose is on the vertical, but you don’t have an honest connection from back to front.

The only part of your horse’s body that you can affect by “sawing” is his jaw. Moving the bit in his mouth encourages him to chew. When he chews, he flexes in the jaw.

So, if all you do is saw on the bit, all you have control over is a flexed jaw. And your horse has a whole lot more body left over that you have no influence over.

That’s why you might think your horse is on the bit, but you wonder why he comes off the bit when you ask him to do something like a transition.

The reality is that he was never on the bit to begin with. All you had was a flexed jaw.

To put your horse honestly on the bit, use your “connecting aids”. Close both legs to add power from behind as if you’re doing a lengthening. When your horse “arrives” at your outside hand, close that hand in a fist to capture, contain, and recycle the power back to the hind legs. Do this for 3 full seconds.

THEN, lastly you can vibrate or squeeze on the inside rein for two reasons:

1. To keep his neck straight. Your goal is to keep him form bending his neck to the outside in response to your closed outside hand. This means that when you ride with his soft (hollow) side on the inside, chances are you won’t need any inside rein because he won’t try to look to the outside when you close your outside hand.
2. To move the bit, encourage him to chew so he flexes in the jaw.

Remember, you’re riding your dressage horse from front to back if you wiggle both sides of the bit. So never do with two hands what you can do with one hand (move the bit). And you have the other hand left over for the more important job of recycling power back to the hind legs.

Author: Jane Savoie
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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