We always think of the history of dressage as being so classical. Classical somehow coming to mean good in our minds. When we think about the schools and the masters of the past, when we think about the airs above the ground, all of these mean classical. Don't they?  Classical movements that take our breath away. The power of the sit down of the levade, the breathtaking leap of the capriole, the explosive power of the croupade.

But perhaps not everything is as it appears.

Perhaps we are too quick to think that everything that is done in the name of the past is classical. Let us take the croupade for one example.

The croupade is an air that is seen more in France than say in Vienna. One of the airs where the horse either ridden or not, balances on his front end and kicks up high into the air with this hind legs. This is the croupade that you will see at Saumur. The power of this movement, of the two hind legs, with the full power of the bunching of the muscles of the haunches behind them, kicking out powerfully into the air makes us catch our breath.

[Editors Note: Alternate meaning in the classical literature of a croupade. - a leap in which the horse pulls up his hind legs toward his belly as seen in the title of this article.]

A movement that can look artistic and special. Another movement that we can add to the list of classical airs above the ground.

But how classical is it?

To train the croupade we begin...

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