A Brief Overview - Dressage

By: Simon Hurst

Dressage, from the French for training, pronounced to rhyme with massage, educates horses in being keen, biddable, agile and alive. Dressage, when done well, is seen as like a ballet for horses. This is because many people compare the requirements of dressage and ballet, poise, pliability and force.

At its best dressage is a sport of beauty and is only possible when there is a true partnership with the horse and rider. Thus dressage is the perfect team sport with rider and horse needing to be in perfect balance. Dressage, from beginner to master, betters stability, flexibility, and pliancy this ensures the horse can perform standard requirements to a higher level.

Dressage as a discipline has its roots in classical Greek horsemanship, mainly through the influence of Xenophon. It was not until the renaissance that Western Europe identified the usefulness of dressage. The major European equestrian masters of the renaissance produced an ordered training plan that remains basically unchanged since and classical dressage is thought to be the fundamental of modern dressage.

Dressage as a very formal event and normally this is recognised by tack being black or sometimes very dark brown. Riders of dressage use a specific dressage saddle which is an English-style saddle. Nowadays the saddle has lengthy and straight saddle flap, which as far as possible follows the contours of the rider's legs.

Dressage is practised in many countries and an element of competitiveness is satisfied with competitions being held in many of the countries. With dressage being elevated to an Olympic event at Stockholm in 1912, previous levels of training and riding were left behind. The Olympics nowadays has three classes of riding with dressage, eventing and jumping.

Dressage is performed in a 20 x 60 meter arena with a set of letters, A-K-V-E-S-H-C-M-R-B-P-F. Certain movements are to take place in the vicinity of specific letters. A horse at the height of their gymnastic capabilities can readily adapt to a rider's urging and complete required actions without seeming stressed.

Competitive dressage concentrates on including the following, the piaffe, the passage, the half-pass, the extended trot, the pirouette, and tempi changes. The aires above ground are not undertaken in competitive dressage, unlike classic dressage, due to the physical problems horses have in completing them. The highlight of a dressage competition is the Musical Freestyle in which the rider creates and choreographs to music an original ride of compulsory figures and movements. The requirements within dressage exclude "tricks" to be learned by rote; the point of training in dressage is for the horse to develop both in body and mind, at one with the natural development, and these tests are "pointers" to exhibit the achievement of stability, endurance and attentiveness his training has allowed him to reach.

I trust your knowledge of dressage has been increased with this article and that your interest has been piqued to learn more.

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Jermaine Lloyd is a superb writer with lots of helpful and interesting articles about dressage and eventing these can be found at myhorsenews.com/dressage

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