​The World of Dressage
Classical Dressage
A Military Inspired Sport
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Created as an advanced training system for horses in the cavalry, dressage enhanced horses natural abilities as swift and powerful movers.
In the wild, horses demonstrate great agility by quick shifts of weight and leaping in the air.
A horse naturally collects himself (shifts his weight to his hind end) when playing, courting, and fighting. This shift of weight allows the neck to rise and shoulders to open resulting in a more impressive gait. These changes cause the animal to look larger. In extreme cases, a horse can shift all of his weight to his hind legs, essentially standing on his two hind legs; the forelegs are free to strike forward if necessary.
A horse's means of protection comes from his strength and his ability to out maneuver his enemy to reach an advantageous position. For example: from above. By leaping above a predator and striking with either his rear or forlegs, a horse can inflict mass amounts of damage. Such maneuvers include kicking, striking and bucking.
Classical dressage channels the horses natural ability for these movements into ridable military manuevers known as the Airs Above Ground.
The Levade:
The horse raises the forequarters, brings the hindquarters under him, and balances with haunches deeply bent and forelegs drawn up to create a 30-35 degree angle. This allowed the rider to evade a sabor with ease, but not retreating so far that he is unable to advance and attack his enemy. The levade is considered to be the transition between normal work on the ground into more difficult Airs Above Ground.
The Courbette:
The horse raises its forehand off the ground, tucks up forelegs evenly, and then jumps forward, never allowing the forelegs to touch down, in a series of "hops." This allowed the rider to remain far away from the enemies weapons but still advance forward into advancing lines.
The Capriole:
The horse jumps from a raised position of the forehand straight up into the air, kicks out with the hind legs, and lands more or less on all four legs at the same time. The Capriole acts as both an advancing maneuver, but also as an offensive movement. The horse is able to rise off his forehand to remove his rider from harm, leap above enemy lines, then kickout striking the enemies below. The Capriole is considered to be the most difficult of the Airs Above Ground.
The Airs Above Ground can only be taught to a horse that has an exceptional amount of trust in his rider. To maximize the trust between horse and rider, per Xenophon's philosophy, a rider must never punish his horse for his mistakes but rather reward him for good behavior. Without complete trust, the Airs Above Ground can quickly become extremely dangerous for both horse and rider.
These movements descirbed above required incredible strength and balance required from the horse. Only horses with proper physique could perform such movements. As described in Xenophon's On Horsemanship, the ideal war horse is comprised of such attributes as:
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Thick cannon bones
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Thick and muscular forearms
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Broad chest because the legs will be less likely to interfere
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A neck that is high-set and carried upward for better visibility and less leverage against the rider
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Large nostrils, for good respiration and a fiercer appearance
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Double "loins" are more comfortable to sit on, as well as prettier
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A deep, rounded side, which allows the rider to stay on more easily
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Broad, short loins, allowing the horse to raise the forehand and engage the hindend
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The hindquarters should be muscular and firm, for speed
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The gaskins and buttocks should be well separated, so the horse stands wide behind, allowing him to be more balanced
With the training philosophy of Xenophon, coupled with the optimum conformation for a war horse, Classical Dressage became a huge success throughout Europe and eventually traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to North America.
Although the application of Classical Dressage is obsolete, the training methods are still used around the world within Modern Dressage. There are, however, still several schools in Europe that practice the trainings and movements of Classical Dressage. The most famous of those schools is the Spanische Hofreitschule in Vienna, Austria.
The most famous place to view the teachings of Classical Dressage is the Spaniche Hofreitschule in Vienna, Austria
