Dressage For All - Dressage

Anyone who is truly interested in riding has the potential to be a Dressage Rider, whether they have the necessary application and perhaps the financial backing (personal or sponsorship) is another matter.

If you are new to the art then there is a requirement at least at the outset to get yourself a trainer who knows the basic minimum to guide you in what you propose setting out to achieve.

Dressage consists of a sequence of manoeuvres on horseback around and across an arena, the 40m x 20m standard arena is shown below:

There are a number of basic qualities desirable in the rider – PATIENCE, calm, determination, a reasonable memory for the course you are supposed to be following, and last but not least a good seat when mounted on your horse.

One of the more tiring exercises to obtain this ‘good’ seat is to ride walk, trot and rising trot without stirrups, apart from leaving a tired backside, it does settle the rider well-down into the saddle, and the muscles that develop in the leg stand one in very good stead later as more control is required.

Every experienced rider has their own ‘take’ on how to proceed, it is not a bad idea to start a novice rider with an ‘experienced’ horse in the sense that it is able and willing without too much exertion to undertake basic manoeuvres of walk, trot, rising trot and canter and perhaps circle in half the school (20m) anything more advanced is going to require definite rider input.

As the rider develops musculature and experience, if the existing animal is unsuitable to proceed any further, two possibilities exist – a more experienced horse which WILL require ‘driving’ to undertake the more advanced manoeuvres and so the rider gains experience, or a new horse and rider combination training together to achieve ultimate success as a shared experience, this requires a greater degree of skill and knowledge of the trainer, but can be immensely rewarding for all concerned.

The Ultimate of course is the fully qualified senior level rider who could, if chosen, compete for his or her country, many years of hard work, enormous expense and training later.
The second ‘option’ is someone who still may dream of representing their country but in the three-day event category where Dressage is one of the three disciplines, the others being the Cross-Country and Show-Jumping where the quality of the horse in dressage is very often the secret to a successful performance in the other two disciplines.
The third ‘option’ is someone who wishes to help their horse become more flexible in the show jumping arena; an ability to ‘turn’ on a circle can seriously shorten course times.
A fourth ‘option’ is actually to improve a rider’s flexibility and performance, since their control and working with the horse will provide for more satisfactory riding for both the rider and horse, and if show-jumping for example will give better control in pacing the course around the arena.

Dressage and riding in general is one of those sports which is tremendously demanding on both horse and rider to be truly satisfying if the desired levels are achieved, but it should be emphasised again this is to provide a taster of the expectancy rather than an instruction manual of do’s and don’ts.