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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.

Monday, June 6, 2011

New Summer Home Official

So it is officially arranged, the new summer home of Carousel Dressage Horses, aka nancy later dressage horses, will be the wonderful Ashby Stock Farm, Ashby, MA. We will be arriving there wednesday June 15 th and be ready for business! From Florida we will bring 9 horses. Over the summer we plan to show at The Westbrook Hunt Club Qualifier at the end of June, King Oak Dressage Days and GMHA in July and Saugerties in August. We are super excited about our move. Florida has been fantastic and May was a wonderful month for training and catching our breath after the winter, but Massachusetts cool weather is starting to look pretty good just about now!
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