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Ariel and I are starting at the bottom on the training pyramid, so it's rhythm. What exactly is rhythm? I can ride only at the walk for now, so yesterday I counted as we walked. 1-2-3-4. I worked on keeping the same beat, so to speak. No speeding up as we near the door, no lagging back going away from home. Is that rhythm, or tempo?

The bottom of the training scale is a triad upon which the balance of the horse rests: rhythm is pure gaits (1234walk, 12trot, 123 canter); sustaining a STEADY (appropriate) tempo which is the rate of repetition; and that tempo is what allows for relaxation (a swinging back). Tempo is affected by the length of stride, ideally it the horse is swinging through with a nice stride length (not short fast like a pony), and definitely not chasing the horse over tempo to try and get a longer stride (which causes the horse to push out behind).

With walk, because it is a lateral progression (i.e. lh,lf,rh, rf), it is important not to hurry the horse's tempo or it easily can become lateral.

Rhythm is the beat or count, the gait should have. So the walk is a 4-beat gait, the trot is a 2-beat gait and the canter is a 3-beat gait. Rhythm is first on the pyramid because it is critical that the gait be ridden in the correct count. In other words, you can't waltz (a 3-beat dance) to music that is written in 4/4. When you are counting the 4 beats in the walk, make sure they are evenly spaced, i. e. 1..2..3..4, and not 1.2..3.4

Tempo is beats/minute. Tempo is what one sets on the metronome and what we use to help the horse develop impulsion. So when you were trying to keep your walk count to the same number of counts per minute, that was tempo.

Hope that helps. great question btw.

eta: galopp posted while I was writing.