Dressage

The art of dressage has a long history that dates back more than 2,000 years. The precise, graceful maneuvers that can be observed in modern competitive dressage originally served a much more utilitarian purpose, namely, to prepare the horse for military operations. In order to ensure safety and effectiveness in battle, a warhorse had to be agile and able to immediately respond to his rider’s signals. Today’s competitive dressage maintains many of these characteristics, though the purpose has been greatly changed since the principles of dressage were originally developed.