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An Introduction to Dressage
03/30/2009
Dressage is a type of horse riding that involves getting the horse to move in certain dancer-like ways.
Dressage is a type of horse riding that involves getting the horse to move in certain dancer-like ways. Dressage can be done as a training exercise, or it can be practiced competitively. For those of you who are new to the world of dressage (rhymes with corsage), here is GoEquine’s introduction:
History
Classical dressage evolved from battlefield training in order to teach riders to be in harmony with their horses’ movements. The first examples of dressage can be traced back to the Greek scientist-philosopher Xenophon’s writing On Horsemanship. Just like today’s dressage, Xenophon emphasized training through kind rewards rather than brutal punishment.
The decline in armored battles in the 15th century created a rising interest among Europe’s nobility for artistic riding, or more refined horsemanship. This led to dressage becoming an increasingly ballet-like practiced with certain forms of prancing, steps, turns, and jumps. The golden age of dressage was the baroque period, though the Victorians were extremely taken with it as well.
Philosophy
Those who practice dressage, especially classical (non-competitive) dressage, adhere to certain philosophical ideas about the importance of equine training. Dressage isn’t about controlling the horse, it’s about the rider humbling himself enough so that he can understand the language and the emotions of his horse in order to communicate with it. It’s about strengthening every muscle in the horse with gymnastic training in order to protect the horse, keeping it healthy and sound well into old age. At the same time, dressage is about aesthetics—celebrating the beauty of a horse’s movements, the intelligence of the creature itself.
Training
Today, classical dressage is a way in which a horse can gain a great drgree of strength and flexibility in order to improve a crooked gait, an injured limb, or prime a horse for competition. Depending on what you are training your horse for, a rider may choose to concentrate his dressage training at the bottom, middle, or top of the scale. However, usually in training a new horse, the dressage training scale is performed as follows:
1. Takt ( Rhythm and Regularity)
2. Losgelassenheit (Relaxation)
3. Anlehnung (Contact)
4. Schwung (Impulsion)
5. Geraderichtung (Straightness)
6. Versammlung (Collection)
Dressage also employs a number of “airs,” or jumps, where the horse leaves the ground. These dressage airs include the levade, the capriole, the croupade, the ballotade, and the courbette. These moves are taught in the Spanish Riding School and the Cadre Noir, both famous academies for classical dressage. Dressage airs can be extremely dangerous, and don’t often don’t make the competitive circuit because of the amount of strength the horse must have to perform them. It is a worry that many competitive dressage performers would push untrained horses to perform these moves, thus risking permanent injury. But to those with the classical dressage training to execute an air properly, the dressage airs are a spectacular sight.
