Other than my passion for both, on the surface there seems to be no connection between dressage, a riding discipline and frame drums. Life is like that in many ways and if you are willing to look a little deeper, you will discover the unexpected. Learning dressage has been one of the more challenging things I have asked of my body and my mind. Any riding discipline requires practice and more practice, corrections, refinements, criticisms and the will to keep going. The hardest work of dressage is what is barely visible. You might detect the subtle leg and seat cues from rider to horse but never the rider’s mind at work. So what does any of that have to do with my frame drums and the Circles that I hold?

Dressage was an ancient war horse training. The drum could awaken the energy of the warrior, not to strengthen the fight but the mind to do so. To be the best rider or warrior there must be control of breath, impulse and thought.

Those beautiful dressage riders that hold the viewer in awe as they glide in oneness with their horse are in their zone, they know their center and ride from that place. The drum’s destination is that very same place, our center where our spirit dwells, where there is absolute calm and tranquility, where we can connect with unconscious and conscious awareness.

My frame drum collection grows, each one has a different voice to teach a different lesson, just like every ride, every horse has done for me. As my ride has improved so has my drumming… knowing without questioning, led more by instinct and less by intellect seems to be the same road that leads to the art of the ride, the art of the drum and the art of being our true selves.