Since those earliest days thousands of years ago, riders have competed with each other in how well they can control a horse. However, dressage does not appear to have been an event at the ancient Olympics. It first appeared in the modern Olympics in , and back then it was the exclusive preserve of men, predominantly cavalrymen.
But the mechanization of warfare led to the end of mounted soldiers. The training must have been good if a knight would trust his life to a senior horse. The Renaissance gives us the largest number of antique works on training horses, starting with Dom Duarte of Portugal. His work, which he never finished before his passing, is more focused on horses than previous works. During that time, more royals and nobles decided to support the arts.
It was a status symbol to have a riding school filled with Spanish horses, and the nobles and royals sponsored riders to train these horses. They still used the training for themselves and high-ranking officers in battle. It was during this time that the Hapsburgs created the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, which is still in existence and uses horses very much like those of that time and displays those feats of agility. The Spanish Riding School is the oldest surviving school from that period.
The Princely Riding School of Bueckeburg also survived from that period, though it is much less-known than the school in Vienna, and it suffered a hiatus of 50 years. Some of these suffer from poor translations and political barbs from other writers. This includes 16th century horseman Frederico Grisone. Other horsemen describe riding to music, such as Cesare Fiaschi. But, when he trusts you, he will ask you what to do when he is afraid.
One can say that this is the period when classical dressage came about and flourished. That is probably accurate. We have the problem that many writings from before that time were lost and forgotten. Indeed, only recently have we discovered how wrong we were about times before. Most modern authors give homage to Francois Robichon de la Gueriniere, master horseman of the riding school of Versailles during the 18th century.
Indeed, Gueriniere is a treasure trove of knowledge. However, he did not invent the shoulder-in, nor did he pretend to. Other writings also appear to be harsh in one phrase and kind in another while his is consistently kind. There might be a good reason for that. Others say those are in there for horses that are particularly naughty, not for the average horse.
However, the scientific thought of the time stated that horses could not feel pain. We may never know the true answer. However, we cannot ignore all the other works. Dressage dates back to classical Greek horsemanship and the military who trained their horses to perform movements intended to evade or attack the enemy whilst in battle.
Dressage continued to be developed by the military who studied horsemanship as part of their military training and during the Renaissance European aristocrats displayed highly trained horses in equestrian pageants. The great European riding masters of the time developed a training system and the Imperial Spanish Riding School of Vienna was established in and all dressage training today is based around their principles.
Dressage become an Olympic Sport in the Olympic Games in Stockholm with only commissioned military officers eligible to compete until when the rules changed to allow both civilian men and women to compete. Like many, Politz believes that music and the captivating choreography has given new life to the sport. The numbers show that freestyles are where most of the spectators go.
Though it's not the first time that music has been used to capture the interest of spectators, as the royal courts were dancing on horseback to the delight of visitors long before modern day dressage enthusiasts. Many nobles prided themselves on their horsemanship skills and owned and trained horses to participate in the quadrilles.
It goes without saying that roots of dressage run deep, and the foundations that we've come to rely upon to educate our horses have endured longer than many of the civilizations that practiced them.
Even with each progression of the sport we often find ourselves revisiting some aspect of the past whether it be dressage ridden to rousing music, or judging systems, in a evolution that comes full circle. When I asked Politz how the classical dressage honed and refined by cavalrymen so many years ago has impacted the modern-day dressage we practice today, his answer was simple - we never stopped practicing classical dressage.
Every time we swing our foot in the stirrup with the goal to create harmony in horse through suppleness, relaxation, and a through connection we are channeling the ancestry of classical dressage. That in a nut shell is how we define classical dressage.
Clearly, some things never change. No tags yet. Tall Horse Problems?
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