ABSTRACT This article explores how Western music aesthetics and the construction of a human-nonhuman boundary are interrelated in freestyle dressage – a form of horse riding to music. Using UK-based pianist, producer and rider Gaynor Colbourn’s production of freestyle tracks as a case study, I examine music’s potential to either uphold or disrupt the belief that horses are innately pliant partners. I argue that the notion of dressage as a ‘natural’ relation between horses and humans is invoked by riders so as to protect themselves from the unpredictable effects of reimagining horse-human relations beyond the saddle. For Gaynor, a freestyle track must complement this understanding of riding as a natural relation in order to sound ‘original’; the originality of a track relies on Gaynor’s honouring of the apparently natural musical preferences of an individual horse, which in turn activates that horse’s compliance and ensures the quality of the sport as a form of entertaining spectacle.

中文翻译：

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来自马口：自由式盛装舞步中的音乐“独创性”

摘要 本文探讨了西方音乐美学和人与非人边界的构建如何在自由式盛装舞步中相互关联——一种骑马音乐的形式。我以英国钢琴家、制作人兼骑手 Gaynor Colbourn 创作的自由式曲目作为案例研究，研究音乐在维护或破坏马是天生柔顺的伙伴这一信念方面的潜力。我认为盛装舞步的概念是马和人类之间的“自然”关系，是骑手为了保护自己免受马鞍之外重新想象马与人类关系的不可预测的影响而引用的。对于 Gaynor 来说，自由式赛道必须补充这种将骑行视为一种自然关系的理解，以便听起来“原创”；