Rhythm and Tempo

The terms “rhythm” and “tempo” describe two totally different things, yet they’re commonly confused. In dressage, it’s very important to understand how they differ, learn how to evaluate your own horse’s rhythm and tempo and correct them when necessary.

Rhythm describes the footfalls, or beats, of a gait. The walk is four beats, the trot is two, canter is three and gallop is four. The rein back is also a two-beat gait: It’s just trotting backward, but more slowly and without the moment of suspension between beats. Whenever a horse’s gait does not clearly have the correct number of beats, it’s considered impure and is heavily penalized. Rhythm is one of the primary factors that judges consider when scoring the regularity of the gaits in the collective marks.

Tempo is basically the speed of a gait’s beats—how slowly or quickly the hooves are striking the ground. Ideally, your horse should maintain the same tempo throughout each movement of a test, without speeding up or slowing down significantly. His tempo may change slightly from movement to movement. For example, an extended trot usually has a quicker tempo than a collected trot. However, with really talented, well-trained horses, the tempo variation between collected trot, passage, piaffe and extended trot is minimal.

As your dressage education progresses, you will hear other terms, such as cadence and suspension, which further define the quality of the gaits. These will make more