Dancing is one of the most joyful acts we can experience here on Earth. Even animals enjoy dancing. We’ve heard of dancing bears, but there is also an entire sport devoted to dancing horses.
We’ve heard of dancing bears, but there is also an entire sport devoted to dancing horses. It’s called dressage.
Dressage is the highly skilled equestrian art of riding in a competition that has mastered certain moves.
The International Equestrian Federation defines dressage as, “the highest expression of horse training” where “horse and rider are expected to perform from memory a series of predetermined movements,” according to Wikipedia.
There are amateur competitions and competitions that take place at the Olympic Games and World Equestrian Games.
If you ask us to define it, it’s a person dressed in fancy clothing and hats that rides around on a horse that skips around and wags its mane.
Anyway, the goal of dressage is to train the horse to develop its natural ability and willingness to perform. A well-trained dressage horse instinctually responds to their routine with minimal aid from the ride. The ride should appear to be effortlessly riding the horse as the horse performs their moves.
Apparently, dressage goes back to the Renaissance era.
In modern day dressage competitions, horses and their riders are tested on the performances through various tests that are prescribed by various movements.
Each movement is evaluated based on the standard level of the test and is given a score of zero, which means not being executed, to 10, which is deemed “excellent.”
If they score high enough, they can pass on to the next level
Each movement is evaluated based on the standard level of the test and is given a score of zero, which means not being executed, to 10, which is deemed “excellent.” If they score high enough, they can pass on to the next level.
The rider is responsible for guiding the horse through the routine after hours and hours of training. Andreas Helgstrand is one of the world’s most renown dressage riders who won four consecutive Danish dress championships in a row from 2006 to 2008.
He came in second for the Individual Freestyle competition during the 2006 World Equestrian Games while riding a mare called Matiné.
Helgstrand was deemed a “favorite of the crowd” that “seemed to have redefined piaffe and passage.” The video of his performance received more than 18 million views on YouTube.
You can watch that performance below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
