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Dressage


Dressage (a French term meaning "training") is a path and destination of competitive horse training, with competitions held at all levels from amateur to the Olympics. Its fundamental purpose is to develop, through standardized progressive training methods, a horse's natural athletic ability and willingness to perform, thereby maximizing its potential as a riding horse. At the peak of a dressage horse's gymnastic development, it can smoothly respond to a skilled rider's minimal aids by performing the requested movement while remaining relaxed and appearing effortless. Dressage is occasionally referred to as "Horse Ballet." Although the discipline has its roots in classical Greek horsemanship, mainly through the influence of Xenophon, dressage was first recognized as an important equestrian pursuit during the Renaissance in Western Europe. The great European riding masters of that period developed a sequential training system that has changed little since then and classical dressage is still considered the basis of trained modern dressage.

Early European aristocrats displayed their horses' training in equestrian pageants, but in modern dressage competition, successful training at the various levels is demonstrated through the performance of "tests," or prescribed series of movements within a standard arena. Judges evaluate each movement on the basis of an objective standard appropriate to the level of the test and assign each movement a score from zero to ten - zero being "not executed" and ten being "excellent." A score of nine (or "very good") is considered a particularly high mark, while a competitor achieving all sixes (or 60% overall) should be considering moving on to the next level.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

PW

So PW is just doing fantastic I am just so happy with her. And...............having time for her is making the whole experience so much more gratifying. Yesterday there was excitement at the farm, a trailer in lesson loading and leaving and her best buddy Graci is back. These things created some distractions during our lesson. But, taking our time and letting her settle into her nerves and she particpated in our lesson and was perfect. She is such a good girl. It was in my mind not to get on her yesterday just because she was feeling so distracted but, we kept to our routine and she settled right in and in the end Raymundo led us around the whole arena with out a problem. She is also getting so nicely muscled and looks beautiful on the lunge.
Yes! Graci is back, my 6 year old oldenburg mare by Glorioso Noir. She is a big girl, and I was thinking of selling her because she is too big for me. But, we will ride her for a couple of days and see how it goes. Yesterday we started to get to know each other and I have to say for how big she is she is light and comfortable to ride. We will see.

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