Dressage
- the word dressage comes from the French dresser, to train, to adjust, to straighten out
- while all riding to some degree incorporates dressage, the term usually is used to refer to the separate sport in which the horse and rider complete a specific test within a lettered arena
- The small arena measures 20m x 40m
- The small dressage arena letters: A K E H C M B F
- One of the phrases used to remember these letters is: All King Edward's Horses Call Me Blessed Fool; another is A Kind Elephant Has Chomped My Best Friend
- The rider enters at A
- The judge sits at C
- The rider salutes at X, an imaginary letter in the center of the ring
- if you are helping set up an arena and someone hands you an 'x' be afraid, be very afraid
- The large Olympic size arena measure 20m x 60m
- The large dressage arena adds the letters: V S R P
- Try "Very Soon, Really, Please!"
- The additional letters are found on the sides, before and after E and B, making the sequence : A K V E S H K M R B P F
- a dressage test set to music is a kur
- test difficulties begin with training level, test one
- the shoulder in involves riding with the front end on a track to the inside of the hind end, all while traveling in a staight line
- the half pass involves moving forward and to the side at the same time, without bending
- the passage is an extremely collected trot
- the piaffe is a trot in place
- dressage is usually the first part of a three day event or horse trial
- high school, or haute ecole, is a highly advanced form seperate from Grand Prix or Olympic level dressage
- high school movements include:
- levade: the collected horse lowers his quarters with his hind feet under his body and raises his forelegs off the ground
- courbette: the horse assumes the position of almost a full rear, and then jumps forward off his hocks to land in the same position
- capriole: from the position of the levade, the horse leaps into the air and kicks out with his hind legs, then lands on all fours
- ballotade: the horse is almost parallel to the ground at the summit of his leap, the forelegs are bent at the knee, and the hindlegs are showing their shoes
- croupade: a variation of the ballotade
- The Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria, is famous for its High School dressage featuring the Lippizan
- For real information on the great sport of dressage, please look for related books in our bookstore. 4-H knowledge competitions are somewhat obsessed with the letters, and seem to have very little interest in the sport itself, probably due to the texts used for question writing.
- I specifically recommend Barry Marshall's book Dressage From All Angles
