The word „dressage"comes from the french verb dresser. The discipline has its roots in the Renaissance period, a term meaning „rebirth"and falling roughly between the 15th and 16th centuries. Riding in the school arena or manège was a necessary part of the education of the Renaissance gentleman. It was no longer practiced a training for war, but as an art from demanding great dedication.
The dressage reached its apotheosis in the 18th century under the influence of Francois Rubichon de la Guérinière. As equerry to Louis XIV from 1730 to 1751, Guérinière was royal riding master and director of the royal manège of the Tuileries. He used exercises to increase suppleness and balance in a progression of systematic schooling, introducing the two-track movement „shoulder-in", the flying change of leading leg at canter, and so on. He also defined and taught a classical riding position that in its essential still remains valid. His stated objectives, to make the horse calm, light and obedient remain inviolate. Guérinière´s book, Ecole de Cavalerie, published in 1733, quickly became the bible of equitation and was embraced as holy writ by the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Guérinière´s work is responsible for the streams of classical equitation exemplified by both the Spanish Riding School in Vienna and France´s Saumur and its famous Cadre Noir.
The forerunners of competitive dressage were the cavalry „best-trained charger" tests, and the sport made its first appearance at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.
Germany won the first Olympic team dressage competition when it was inaugurated in its present form in 1928. From 1956, Germany developed an awesome superiority in the dressage discipline, dominating the sport and exerting a powerful influence on the type of horse employed, as well as on the criteria of judgement.
The individual competition incorporates, of course, the demanding Grand Prix test, which includes the advanced movements of passage, piaffe, canter pirouettes, and the precise execution of the one-time changes at canter. In addition, riders contest a second leg of the contest, the Grand Prix Special, and finally, the visually attractive Kur, the freestyle competition to music. These tests are ridden in the international-size arena measuring 20m x 60m. Lower-grade tests, from preliminary standard upwards, are ridden in a small arena measuring 20m x 40m.
Dressage
