Dressage

Dressage a French term, most commonly translated to mean "training") is a competitive equestrian sport, defined by the International Equestrian Federation as "the highest expression of horse training", where "horse and rider are expected to perform from memory a series of predetermined movements. International Equestrian Federation, Competitions are held at all levels from amateur to the World Equestrian Games.

Quotes

• They say that princes learn no art truly, but the art of horsemanship. The reason is, the brave beast is no flatterer. He will throw a prince as soon as his groom.
  • Ben Jonson

• Competitive riding should be classical riding at its best.
  • Charles de Kunffy

• Horsemanship is not merely a matter of bodily skills, but is based on scholarship and, therefore, is a matter of the mind and intellect. Good horsemansip is based on proper character development and, therefore, is also a matter of mentality and spirit. Without the correct attitudes and insights, there cannot be the right sport.
  • Charles de Kunffy

• The trust between human and horse is based on the same behavioral rules that regulate social life within the herd: Those who have obtained a higher rank in the herd assume at the same time the responsibility for the weaker members."
  • (1983; translation: T. Ritter)

• Poll flexion is not Pull Flexion.
  • Dr. Thomas Ritter

• Descente de main: the rider relaxes his fingers and the horse meanwhile maintains the same pace, the same attitude and the same cadence.
  • Nuno Oliveira, Reflections on Equestrian Art (1965)

• A horse will never tire of a rider who possesses both tact and sensitivity because he will never be pushed beyond his possibilities.
  • Nuno Oliveira, Reflections on Equestrian Art (1965)

• Training a horse is above all feeling and trying, according to what you feel, to help the horse and not to force him.
  • Nuno Oliveira

• Equestrian art is the perfect understanding and harmony between horse and rider.
  • Nuno Oliveira

• Nothing forced or misunderstood can be beautiful.
  • Xenophon

• Dressage is striving for the equation 1+1=One
  • Author Unknown

• DRESSAGE, n.: the passionate pursuit of perfection by the obsessively imperfect
  • Author Unknown

• Dressage. It's a science before it's an art.
  • Author Unknown

• Ask me to show you poetry in motion, and I will show you a horse
  • Author Unknown

• give and take...the art is in the give not in the taker.
  • Author Unknown