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. Many people see dressage as like ballet for horses. This may be because in dressage both the horse and its rider demonstrate the power, suppleness and joy related to ballet.
At its best dressage is a sport of beauty and is only possible when there is a true partnership with the horse and rider. In fact dressage can be seen as the "ultimate team sport", with horse and rider competing together in harmony. 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. Dressage became noticed in Western Europe as a very useful training of horses in the renaissance period. It was during the renaissance in Western Europe that the most important horse trainers implemented a training regime that moved from stage to stage for classical dressage that almost unchanged today is utilised for modern dressage training.
Dressage as a very formal event and normally this is recognised by tack being black or sometimes very dark brown. An English-style saddle is required for riding dressage, specifically a "dressage saddle" which is modelled exclusively for the discipline. It is designed with a long and straight saddle flap, mirroring the leg of the dressage rider, which is long with a slight bend in the knee, a deep seat and usually a pronounced knee block.
Dressage is practised in many countries and an element of competitiveness is satisfied with competitions being held in many of the countries. Once dressage was in the Olympics, at Stockholm in 1912, there was a sharp improvement in standards of all aspects of the event. Within the Olympics today dressage is included with eventing and jumping, all three going together for the three day event.
Letters, A-K-V-E-S-H-C-M-R-B-P-F, are used to specify points with the 20 meter by 60 meter dressage arena. When specific moves are required the position to complete the move can be shown by reference to the letters, riders can make use of the letters to help them when judging space or size. A horse at the height of their gymnastic capabilities can readily adapt to a rider's urging and complete required actions without seeming stressed.
Riders taking part in competitive dressage realise they need to concentrate on the piaffe, passage, half-pass, extended trot, and tempi changes. This differs from the movements completed in classic dressage, specifically with respect to the aires above ground that horses no matter how well trained struggle to perfect. For many the focus of any dressage competition is the Musical Freestyle, this is when the rider needs to build a routine taking into account certain required movements and figures; the routine must also be set to music. The requirements within dressage exclude "tricks" to be learned by rote; the point of training in dressage is for the horse to develop both in body and mind, at one with the natural development, and these tests are "pointers" to exhibit the achievement of stability, endurance and attentiveness his training has allowed him to reach.
This article is written to encourage further study on dressage and it is a wide and varied subject that can not be properly covered in such a short space.
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Source: http://www.rightarticle.com/Article/Dressage---A-Brief-Introduction/53934
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