How To Improve Your Dressage Ride With Music

Riding, as important as it is, needs to fit in between family, work and all the other pieces that make up my life. To keep chasing my goals, I have to make each ride count. The  Musical Ride Company offers a creative solution: improve your dressage ride with music.

Hannah, owner of the Musical Ride Company, creates specially designed musical compilations to help you and your horse make the most of your ride. I invited Hannah to hop over here and explain how it works!

Move On To The Next Level

I get quite frustrated when I see people trying to “persuade” themselves and their horses to ride a worthwhile dressage schooling session but with no plan or idea of how they will improve. Fluid transitions, perfect circles, effortless transitions, light aids and a responsive horse – I could go on. These are things that riders like you and me strive for and, in many cases, dream of. Especially when we see professional dressage riders perform all of the above and more with complete perfection!

No doubt, you realize that professional instruction is great. It is also usually expensive, only helps for a limited time and can make you feel like it is harder than ever to reach your goals, whatever they are. You may have wondered if there could be a simpler way. Sticking lots of different plans and systems together is fine, but you end up with no real objective and so therefore no real improvement. And that is very frustrating – procrastination is inevitable!

A solid plan ditches all of this messing about, puts everything into perspective and gives you total control over the way you train your horse. Instead, engage a new approach, without the doubt and uncertainty. So many people are looking for new ways to make dressage schooling more effective and worthwhile.

I have found that riding to music can significantly improve your horse’s way of going, making a stressed horse calmer and a sluggish horse more active and interested.

Add focus and inspiration to your dressage schooling

Teaching your horse new things, encouraging him to move better, listening to your aids with ease and improving your own skills as a rider – this is where you spend a lot of your time and energy. With dressage schooling, you have high expectations of getting the results you want! Whether you are a competitive rider or a happy hacker or anywhere in between, getting your horse to be willing, cooperative and feel like you have a true partnership has to be one of the the ultimate goals for your dressage training. This how you offer your horse the opportunity to engage with you and enjoy your time together.

Our Musical Ride Workouts aim to make it as simple as possible to achieve your dressage training goals and make sure that your schooling sessions leave you with a of feeling satisfaction and pride in you achievements.

Save a BAG of Time

Are you sometimes pushed for time? Trying to fit in all your chores and everything else that life throws at you as well as horses and riding? Our busy schedules leave us precious little time for riding, so we need to use that time as efficiently as possible.

The Musical Ride Workout are great for timing schooling sessions – no more “too short/too long” or checking your watch. You can choose from the pack which session you have time for. Each workout includes a warm up – a work session – and cool down at the end to ensure a complete workout. For example, the first workout in each pack is walk and trot only for a short but effective session.

A good exercise plan gives results. Dedication + ambition = Success! By having a set time frame for your ride with all the elements timed for you, its easier to fit in a worthwhile dressage schooling session before work or after work. If you have a plan then its easier to get it done and enjoy it too!

Win MORE ribbons

Keeping your horse fit is a challenge, especially when the weather is not always kind. Fitness is very important especially if our horse is stabled. When turn out is at a premium, a good fitness regime is going to make the world of difference.

The fitter your horse is the better he will look and perform. With a simple, intuitive training system to follow you will enjoy your horse more, as you know exactly how you want your horse to go, what you want your horse to do – and how you want them to do it!

A Musical Ride Workout is like a guide for a well structured dressage schooling session. They offer a clever intuitive way you can maximize your time spent riding, making the most of every single session and making a LIFETIME difference in the long run!

Build trust and rapport

Your time with your horse needs to be a relaxed and happy time. Tension and stress is not a good recipe for a balanced harmonious ride. Using music to aid your dressage schooling session helps you to relax and be in harmony with your horse. Vocal instructions in each workout tell you when to execute transitions, simplifying your ride.

Learning ‘feel’ is something that instructors and trainer cannot teach, instead guiding you in the general direction. When schooling to music you will find yourself working with a deeper level of concentration. This will help you to develop the finest of movements and adjustments that will directly improve your horse’s way of going. In turn, this will give your horse a greater respect for you as your aids and instructions are light.

You simply download your mp3 files to your computer and/or a portable device such as a smart phone directly. Then use either ear phones or use a portable music player or even a car stereo.

Teach kids to warm up their ponies THE RIGHT WAY!

Its great to see a confident child riding. Its a whole collection of life skills that are being learnt, as well as a lot of fun! Kids often don’t see the need for a good warm up. They just want to be zooming around and having fun. But it is worthwhile to teach kids about the right way to start and finish their riding sessions with a good warm up and cool down at the end by making it fun. Without a proper warm up at the start of every session, you run the risk of injury and that’s no fun for any one!

Work Smarter / Not HARDER

“Working smarter” is a phrase we hear thrown about all the time, but how many riders/owners apply this in their own dressage riding? One thing is for sure though, a well thought out plan for your horse’s dressage training and overall fitness is certainly smart way to work horses. Having worked other peoples horses for many years during my time as a groom, I would have loved a product like this to give me some structure and inspiration. Now I want to help people like you! It is a revolutionary way to improve how you school your horse!

Perfect rhythm

Without a carefully maintained rhythm you’ll be throwing away points in front of a judge. Riding to music helps to maintain an even tempo using our carefully selected beats per minute (bpm) to tell whether your session is effective or not. That’s why our MP3 downloads have one’Workout’ session of just walk + trot (2 sessions in pony workouts). Fitness levels allow progression to increasing work and variation of length using walk, trot and canter. It’s not just the horse which needs to get fit enough to complete a fast 30 minute schooling session, but you do too!

The recording contains instructions telling you when the tempo is about to change and you need to make a transition. Riding transitions to music will teach you how to make a perfect “on cue” transition sure to wow the crowd. With a fun score for 3 different sizes of horse (and contact us if you’re not sure!), we’ve got something to put a spring in your step! All workout sessions are carefully timed to include a “cool down” period so you and your best friend can catch your breath and you can rest assured you’ve made the most of your schooling session.

A fitter and healthier horse

The bottom line is, the fitter a horse and rider are the better they perform as a team. Many horses spend far too long cooped up in their stables so having a good plan in mind is essential. Get out in the arena and dance! Seriously, its lots of fun!

Thank you, Hannah, for sharing your work with us! 

Do you ever ride to music & does it make a difference?

Meet Hannah: