What is dressage?
A horse is trained only when the horse has been broken in and can be ridden without any problems. It should be noted that the training stage is important for practicing any discipline with your horse. What is dressage?
What is training?
Dressage is a discipline that consists of making your horse evolve in order to show the elegance of their movements. Thus, the rider's action suddenly becomes subtle and imperceptible. The training of your horse is done according to certain principles.
What are the principles of horse training?
The first step in training a horse is the presentation. It takes place in three gaits, including the walk, the trot or the gallop . Indeed, the realization of these three gaits is generally taken into account during a competition or a dressage test. For this, first of all, the horse must maintain a correct rhythm. The three gaits must respect the principles of regularity such as symmetry, amplitude and cadence.
There are also other criteria that are taken into account during a dressage competition such as commitment, the thrust of the hindquarters, the freedom of the shoulders as well as the presence of harmony between the horse and its rider. As for the horse, the latter must be supple, frank and move forward in a natural way.
The second stage, that of the gait transition, will consist of the horse making transitions in a certain gait by varying the amplitude of its strides. We distinguish between intra-gait transitions, inter-gait transitions, rising gaits and descending gaits.
What are the figures that the horse performs during its dressage?
During dressage, there are several figures that the horse can perform with or without changing hands. Some figures are much more complex than others. For example, there is the volte, which is a sort of execution of a circle of about 6 to 10 meters in diameter.
To perform a volte , it is important to make an opening rein in order to cause the horse to curve. In this type of volte, there is no change of hand. There is also the half-volte which is a riding school figure corresponding to a sort of half-circle followed by a diagonal. Unlike the volte, we change hands here.
The circle is also a riding school figure that consists of making a diameter larger than the volte. This allows the horse to be worked at different paces. The circle allows for a supple and curved horse. To train on a circle, it is important to grow taller and rotate your torso with a rotating movement of the pelvis. Then, you must place your head in line with the torso and turn it.
There is also another figure of style called the serpentine . This figure is much more complex because it requires several half-voltes of the same size. One starts in the middle of the short side of the arena while the last ends in the middle of the opposite short side. To equip yourself sufficiently to succeed in your dressage, many professionals get their supplies from our La Sellerie Française platform.