Dressage, which comes from the French word meaning training, and is pronounced to rhyme with visage, trains horses to be active, obliging, flexible and receptive. Often described as "Horse Ballet" Perhaps, this is so because ballet asks the same, flexibility, smoothness and vitality of its performers as does dressage of its horse and riders.
Dressage at the highest level represents sport at its most graceful can only be produced when horse and rider are completely in sync. Both the horse and rider must be fully in touch with each other and as such it can be seen as the pinnacle of team sport. Dressage at all levels improves balance, suppleness, and obedience with the purpose of improving and facilitating the horse's performance of normal tasks.
The impact made by Xenophon on the equine skills of Ancient Greece show through in the present dressage. It was first recognized as an important equestrian pursuit during the Renaissance in Western Europe. 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.
With the degree of ritual black is the predominant colour for tack in dressage. An English-style saddle is required for riding dressage, specifically a "dressage saddle" which is modelled exclusively for the discipline. The saddle is tailored with a lengthy and straight flap, fitting the rider's leg, with a gentle curve in the knee, a low seat and usually a prominent knee block.
Dressage is practised in many countries and an element of competitiveness is satisfied with competitions being held in many of the countries. The biggest addition to dressage competitions was its entry into the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, this galvanised the levels of training and hence riding. Dressage now takes it place alongside the other two riding disciplines, jumping and eventing.
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. Dressage horses when they are at the top level of development can be endlessly adaptable to a rider's persuasion and accomplish whatever is required with a minimum of fuss or apparent effort.
Competitive dressage focuses on movements such as the piaffe, half-pass, extended trot, 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 highpoint of any dressage competition is when the rider develops a routine to music that includes certain pre-determined movements and figures; this is called the Musical Freestyle. The tests within dressage are not composed of "tricks" to be learned automatically; the object of dressage training is to develop the horse physically and mentally, in harmony with his own natural ways of moving and thinking, and these tests are "checkpoints" to display the level of balance, strength and obedience he has reached in his training.
Dressage is a large subject, of which I have only been able to touch the surface.
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