• VOLUME 49 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

Klassiche Dressur

Nature did not actually create horses in order for them to carry human beings. Accordingly, we riders have an obligation to treat our horses with the appropriate respect and to take over the responsibility which is required. It is up to us to enable them to preserve their pleasure in movement under the saddle – and there is only one way in which to do this: within the scope of classical dressage training.

Thus anyone who ever imposes their weight on a horse’s back should involve themselves with dressage and reflect seriously on its principles, which are:

- Dressage helps the horse and is useful to it. It brings the horse into balance and consequently enables it to move well and remain healthy under the saddle for a long time.

- If a horse suffers detrimental effects as a result of dressage, this is contrary to the meaning of dressage and reflects a fault in the interpretation of dressage.

- Dressage is not a special discipline which only bears reference to horses bred specifically for the purpose. Classical dressage has nothing to do with magnificent, ground-covering gaits and it is not restricted either to particular breeds or particular disciplines.

- The more innate physical or mental deficits a horse has, the better its dressage training has to be. The ultimate aim of classical dressage is not the performance of high school movements but rather the refinement of communication between rider and horse through to the absolute minimisation of the aids. The movements are not the aim but rather the means of classical training.

But what, quite precisely, does “classical dressage” mean? Classical dressage follows a horse’s natural talents. It is the ability to train a horse in such a way, through kindness and logically structured exercises which are based on the natural laws of balance and harmony, that it complies - contentedly and self-confidently – with the rider’s will, without its natural sequence of movement suffering as a result.

Its very definition already implies that classical dressage is not an academic-theoretical construction, but rather it has developed from the involvement with and observation of the natural abilities and talents of the horse. The fascinating aspect of its historical development is that all the great masters of equestrianism throughout the millennia – commencing with the Greek General Xenophon (426 B.C. – 355 B.C.), who bequeathed the first riding theory in history to us and continuing to the formative riders of our times, for example my great role model Nuno Oliveira (1925-1989) – always came back to the same principles and always orientated themselves according to those who had existed before them.

Xenophon’s reports indicate that a form of school riding had existed even before 1500 B.C. It was for a specific purpose – the horses were prepared for battle. This training involved loosening up and collecting exercises on voltes, circles and half circles with change of rein, in order to make the horse supple on both reins. The aim of the exercise was to bring the horse into balance and make it responsive to the seat aids, because in battle the rider would need his hands for his shield and weapons.

In this context, however, Xenophon was not only interested in the training of the horse but also of the rider. For him a deep, well-balanced seat – at that time still without stirrups – represented the basis. “I will not put up with a seat which is like that of a man sitting on a chair”, he wrote in “Peri Hippikes”, his principal work on the art of equestrianism.

The second great master of classical dressage was the French rider François Robichon de la Guérinière (1688 – 1751). His book “Ecole de Cavalerie“ still remains a standard work for the dressage world today.

One of the most important principles of La Guérinière was what he called the “Descente de Main et des Jambes” (i.e. “the descent of the hand and the legs”). As soon as a horse is collected, the leg and rein aids are suspended, the horse is left free and thus induced to perform to an even higher level. The mouth activity is important here -- under no circumstances should the jaw become stiff, it must continue to move in the same flexion and collection, without forfeiting any of its rhythm and impulsion, relieved of any visible control.

With the “descente de main” La Guérinière achieves the great aim of classical dressage: minimisation of the aids to such an extent that they are virtually invisible. The rider has close contact with the horse through the seat and, on account of the fact that it can nevertheless move freely, can accompany it to a superb level of brilliance.

Another great master of horsemanship