Dressage-sport or riding discipline. Which is it? As I see posts with pictures of horses asking if you would keep them in your barn, I started thinking what does dressage mean to me. I always felt is was a riding discipline. A method of training a horse to its highest potential. I hear people say of certain horses that they can only get to second level, or third. That some will never even achieve first. It got me thinking because I feel all horses can reach for higher levels. It may take time. They may not win at shows. But is that why we do the discipline? To only win? Or should it be to take a test to see where we need to improve. Not all horses will do each movement to perfection, but all horses can do the moves. Dressage is using a horses natural movements and refining the movement. Some will reach a higher refinement, but all can do the basic moves. Why limit yourself to only the horses by which the moves come easily? Maybe the error was trying to make it a sport, rather than a riding discipline. It reminds me of dog shows. Have you seen the German Shepards of old? They originally were built on a square. Then some smart person thought we should lengthen the back. We should drop the hips, have them stand sloping to the ground. Now hip dysphasia is a problem. They don’t have the same stamina nor movement. Look in our dressage rings. In the past the horses were ridden by soldiers. Dressage aided the soldier on the battlefield. Now the horses are so contorted they do not look where they are going. The dressage horse of the 1930s would lose today in the ring. The horses of today would fail in the battlefield. So we can choose the best horse to win a sport. Or choose to ride a discipline.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 04:21:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015