How to Use the Database:

The key to using the database is determining the beats per minute (bpm) of your horse at the walk, trot, and canter. This is easy to do. Place a colored polo wrap around one of your horse’s front legs. Every time that front leg touches the ground at the walk or trot, you count it as one “beat”. At the canter, you count the leading foreleg as one “beat” when it strikes the ground. By having a ground person count the beats for one minute while you are riding, you will obtain your bpm for each gait. Even easier is to buy a hand-held electronic metronome and have your ground person adjust it up or down until the “beep” sound of the metronome matches the footfall of the wrapped leg.

Now that you have the bpm at the walk, trot, and canter, you can search the database for music that matches your horse’s bpm. The bpm for each piece of music in the database is based on the dominant downbeat for that selection. You can also search the database by song title or album if you wish to see if either shows up for your horse’s bpm at a particular gait. Clicking on the album name will take you to a display of the CD cover which when clicked will take you to sample sound clips.

Once you have found music that matches the bpm of your horse, you will need to ride to it to see if it “fits” your horse. As an example, you may find 10 music selections that have the same bpm as your horse’s trot. The selections may include new age, rock, and big band music. By playing all of the music, you will find your horse is suited to a particular style of music, e.g., your horse is a big band type of mover and not a rock-and-roller. You will know when the music “fits” your horse because both of you will “feel” it and people watching will say, “You're dancing!”