AUGUST 2006 • VOLUME 12 • © Copyright HORSES For LIFE™ Publications

hat is Dressage?

I think it is truly tragic that, today, I find this amazing dichotomy between the realities of dressage within the horse community. On the one hand, dressage is quickly becoming the fastest growing equestrian sport, on the other hand….

I hear about riders who try dressage and quit.  I hear about riders who see it and turn away in disgust, never to return to the sport of dressage. I hear from riders who say that, while they themselves might practice dressage, they will never, ever compete again.

Are they all talking about the same thing? When all of those people above talk about  “dressage,”  what are they talking about?

And is it dressage just  because we put a dressage saddle on the horse's back?

We often hear about “competition” dressage and “classical” dressage. So what, if any, are the differences between the two?

If you were to ask a “classical” dressage rider what made them better than the “competition” rider, I am sure that you would hear that “competition” riders have forgotten about the classical principles, and that they rush the training so much that their horses are not correctly working.  We see little or almost no real collection in the dressage competition arena today. Horses are forced into a frame that refutes the ability to bend or to collect.  We see parodies of piaffe that look more like a mountain goat trying to stand precariously on a rock peak, rather than the sit-down power of a piaffe preparing for a levade, as it should.

To the “competition” rider, “classical” dressage riders look like a bunch of incompetents who are far busier with their mouths than actually doing anything with their horses. Quick to criticize, but slow to put their money where their mouths are. The feeling is, perhaps not too incorrectly, that often these “classical” dressage riders don’t compete because, in reality, they have nothing to compete with. They spend years and years stuck at "the beginning."  At least they, the “competition” riders, get the job done.  What good does “classical” riding do if the horse can’t do the job, if they can’t get in the arena and do a square halt, an extended trot, half-pass, passage, and piaffe?  How can lightness, balance and collection do them any good if they can’t take it into the arena??

And the reality?