Dressage a French word for "training," describes the process of schooling a horse to respond obediently and effortlessly to its rider's commands. Competitive dressage is judged on how well entrants perform certain movements, (much as a figure skater is scored on compulsory movements) while exhibition dressage is the spectacle of the ultimate communication between horse and rider.
A horse moving free is in natural balance and cadence. A goal of dressage is to restore this naturalness under a rider, and to create an alert, supple and responsive animal. Collection and extension (shortening and lengthening stride), even bends, and smooth transitions between gaits are the foundation for any type of riding activity.
Like figure skating's compulsory figures, dressage tests
require movements and gaits to be performed in certain sequences.
The exhibition of "haute ecole" (High School)
dressage has been made famous by the Spanish Riding School, whose
Lippizzaners perform spectacular "airs above the
ground" leaps and bounds. Horses from Spain went to Vienna,
Austria in the sixteenth century and founded the Spanish Riding School,
world renowned for its spectacular dressage presentations.
For more information about dressage, visit the United States Dressage Foundation home page.