I have been Trail Riding on Horses, for 3 yrs now riding Western and i’m going to go English.
I have been doing jumping while on the trails, and then later on i hear people talk about dressage..What is it ?
Ah, dressage. The word means training in french. And thats basically what it is. It is a discipline, just like reining, cutting, show jumping, or anything else. Anyone can do it, and every horses should have basic dressage training, as it improves the horse, no matter what they do. As a show discipline, there are different levels. Each level has certain "tests". The rider will memorize a test and will perform it. There are different movements. Each movement is scored on a scale from 0 (not executed) to 10 (perfect). At the end, the points are totaled, and you get a percentage out of 100. The highest percent wins. At the lowest level, the horse only needs to be able to walk, trot, canter, stay on the bit all the time, free walk, stand square, and I think do a flying leads change. More movements, and more difficult movements are added as the horse and rider progress. Some movements are piaffe, passage, and pirouete, half pass, and you also will learn to do different variations of each gait. There is a free walk, medium walk, collected walk, and extended walk. For trotting and cantering, there is medium, working, collected, and extended.
Its kind of hard to explain without any visuals, but you can look on youtube and google at the movements. You should definately learn some dressage. I absolutely love it. I work on a lot of dressage movements for barrel racing. It helps your horse in any discipline, or you can focus only on dressage. I would so be a dressage rider, except I hate memorizing and I have to compete, I’m competitive.
January 21st, 2010 at 7:46 am
It’s all flat-work…kind of like a "dance".
Look it up on YouTube to find some good examples of showing.
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January 21st, 2010 at 7:57 am
It is basically ballet on horseback. Very focused on control of the horse. It is based on training from ancient times when horses were used for war. Now it is an art. It is a very precise and demanding way of riding, but it can be a lot of fun for the right person. Look it up on youtube, there are some great examples of how awesome it can be.
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January 21st, 2010 at 8:13 am
it trying to be the very best at the walk trot and cantor its like who elegant u look and that kind of stuff if you are intrested in dressage there is a mag called DRESSAGE and it really helped me figure out wether i wanted to do dressage or not
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January 21st, 2010 at 9:02 am
It’s kind of hard to explain but you have to ride to certain letters ad co certain commands. When you enter the ring you have to stop in the middle and salute the judges and for example you have to trott to a and cater to b look it up on youtube!
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January 21st, 2010 at 9:47 am
It is the foundation of all correct riding. Any well trained jumper or hunter, etc has a solid dressage background because before you start jumping around you have to learn the basics. It’s like learning to crawl before you can walk.
Dressage’s fundamental purpose is to develop, through standardized progressive training methods, a horse’s natural athletic ability and willingness to perform, thereby maximizing its potential as a riding horse. At the peak of a dressage horse’s gymnastic development, it can smoothly respond to a skilled rider’s minimal aids by performing the requested movement while remaining relaxed and appearing effortless.
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wiki
January 21st, 2010 at 9:59 am
Ah, dressage. The word means training in french. And thats basically what it is. It is a discipline, just like reining, cutting, show jumping, or anything else. Anyone can do it, and every horses should have basic dressage training, as it improves the horse, no matter what they do. As a show discipline, there are different levels. Each level has certain "tests". The rider will memorize a test and will perform it. There are different movements. Each movement is scored on a scale from 0 (not executed) to 10 (perfect). At the end, the points are totaled, and you get a percentage out of 100. The highest percent wins. At the lowest level, the horse only needs to be able to walk, trot, canter, stay on the bit all the time, free walk, stand square, and I think do a flying leads change. More movements, and more difficult movements are added as the horse and rider progress. Some movements are piaffe, passage, and pirouete, half pass, and you also will learn to do different variations of each gait. There is a free walk, medium walk, collected walk, and extended walk. For trotting and cantering, there is medium, working, collected, and extended.
Its kind of hard to explain without any visuals, but you can look on youtube and google at the movements. You should definately learn some dressage. I absolutely love it. I work on a lot of dressage movements for barrel racing. It helps your horse in any discipline, or you can focus only on dressage. I would so be a dressage rider, except I hate memorizing and I have to compete, I’m competitive.
References :
Riding 13 years.
January 21st, 2010 at 10:21 am
The correct definition is:
Training between the horse and rider
But it is just a style of english riding, that is very elegant and beautiful. I would say the most difficult to learn, but in the end very rewarding.
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January 21st, 2010 at 10:30 am
It is an english riding style, there is no jumping in it. It is performed in a rectangle shaped arena/ring, there are 12 letters in this ring, and you memorize patters to do in a show for it. In beginning dressage it is mostly focused on the test memorization, but as you advance you start to make your horse move in a certain way, and the tests get harder. There really is quite a lot to it, I suggest you watch some videos of it, and study it a bit. It is extremely challenging, even in the novice levels, how ever it is also fun. Hope I helped!
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January 21st, 2010 at 10:49 am
Dressage originated with war. It literally means training. Every movement you find in dressage is something a horse does naturally refined to a perfect movement. Dressage can fine tune any horse, even a trail horse as it requires the horse to be light, meaning it is sensitive to all your aids and reacts quickly and correctly to them.
Here’s some links that you can read,
http://www.usdf.org/about/about-dressage/
http://www.fei.org/Disciplines/Dressage/About_Dressage/Pages/What_Is_Dressage.aspx
http://www.equiworld.net/uk/sports/dressage/dressage.htm
Here are the advanced movements in dressage, as well as some high school movements that aren’t performed in modern dressage. If you spend a lot of time around horses you may very well be able to pick out what natural movement started the modern one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY3wmWT-sb8&feature=related
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