alonewiththemoon | prancing horses

Freestyle dressage is truly an odd sport. I just watched a horse gallivant around an arena perfectly in time to a medley which included an insturmental version of Karma Chameleon.

I wonder if horses really hear the rhythm of the music and match their movements to it, or how much is the rider's cueing, or if it's some combination. Horses hear their own hoofbeats all the time, they must have some instinctive awareness of rhythm. And of course if you can train a horse to respond to audible commands, surely you can train a horse to respond to things like changes in the music, if you drill it over and over (or perhaps I am projecting my own dance choreography process here). If anybody knows of any research about this, I'd love to hear about it. The horses seem too much in time and too engaged in what they are doing to be oblivious--if I'm not anthropomorphizing the equines. But still, the idea that once you show a horse how to do it, it could understand and perhaps even on some level enjoy dancing, if only to please their dance partner, is madly intriguing.

One really wants to sneak into the Olympic stables at night, let the horses out of their stalls and play music for them, just to see...