How To Use Music To Find Unity With Your Horse

Everyone loves music. It soothes the mind and lifts the soul. While we are surrounded by music, the riding arena is often quiet. Here are 3 tips to use music to improve your connection with your horse.

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After a particularly challenging ride, I realized the antics of Wik were making me tense. He seemed bored with what I was asking. We are both dominant by nature, and I started a battle to get my way. (I have learned much since then). Confrontations make everybody tense. My tension reflected back on Wik, making him even more tense, and things spiraled down from there. When I told a friend about my struggle, she mentioned his previous owner sang to him. The singing seemed to soothe his mind and kept him focused. 'That's silly!', was my first thought. "But I can't sing!", was my second.  I thought I just had to ride through it, and we'd be fine. 

The next ride, things got tense again. Whatever I tried, it didn't get better. Despite my initial rejection of the singing idea, I decided to give it a shot. On a whim I chose a Dutch children's song with a quiet beat. And it worked. Singing  soothed my mind and regulated my breathing. My body relaxed and I released the tension in my jaw, my shoulders and my hands. Wik took a big breath in response. The music seemed to be soothing to the both of us and we danced more and more to the same tune. As I got more relaxed, so did Wik and we both took steps forward to  compromise and find harmony.

Here are a few ideas on how you can incorporate music to your riding too. 

Preparation

1. Stick a metronome app on your smart phone, or go here to find one online. 
   
2. Set the metronome to 95 to 97 beat for a walk. 
   
3. Go through your music collection to find music matching the BPM for walk. Or go here to find songs by BPM. If you have a hot horse, find soothing music. If you have a slow horse, find something that energizes you, and it in turn, it will energize your horse. 
   
4. Select 5 walk songs and transfer to your iPod or any other portable MP3 player.
   
5. Repeat step 2 through 4, for trot (150-155 bpm) and canter (95-99 bpm)
   

Here is a quick overview of the BPM's per gait:

• Walk 95-97 BPM
  
• Trot 150-155 BPM
  
• Canter 95-99 BPM

During Your Next Ride

1. Next ride, bring your MP3 player and portable speakers
2. Select a Walk song. Mount or stay on the ground, and start walking or riding exactly to the beat of the walk. If your horse is too slow, visualize more energy and bring more energy in your body to ask him to go a little more forward. Tell him he is a rock star when he does, either by relaxation, a click and a treat or a scratch on his wither, anything that translates to him 'well done'. If he is too fast, sit or stand up tall, breath deep and slow, and ensure your body is relaxed.
3. Repeat step 2 for trot and then move on to the canter songs. 
4. Find a few that you think you and your horse will really like, and something you can easily sing along to. After about 5 times of riding to the MP3 player music, see if you can sing your songs quietly from memory and use it to connect to your horse.
   

Here are a few options to give you an idea of what the Beats Per Minute sound like. 

Walk     95 BPM   Evanescence Bring me To Life
Walk     96 BPM   3 Doors Down - Be Like That
Trot     150 BPM   Avril Lavigne - Sk8er Boy 
Trot     150 BPM   The Beatles - She Loves You
Trot     152 BPM   Neil Young - Heart Of Gold
Trot     154 BPM   Talk Talk - Today
Trot     155 BPM   David Cook Time of My Life
Canter  97 BPM   Michelle Branch - Everywhere
Canter  99 BPM   Dixie Chicks - Ready To Run

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