Dressage riding

This article deals with German and English dressage and Olympic tournament sport;
For dressage in other riding styles see: Classical dressage , Spanish or Iberian dressage , reining in western riding , as well as high school , freedom training , horse training .

Trakehner in dressage

Dressage arena 20 meters × 60 meters

Dressage is a discipline of equestrian sport in which the natural disposition of the horse is promoted and refined through gymnastic exercises. The aim of dressage is the rideable horse , which can be prompted to carry out a desired task (“lesson”) precisely in response to minimal signals ( “help” ). The dressage training of the horse is the basis of every riding activity and finds its completion in the high school . The so-called scale of training is decisive for the training of all horses in dressage .

Goal setting

Dressage riding promotes and refines the horse's natural movements and enables him to optimally carry the rider's weight , thereby helping to keep the horse healthy. In this context, dressage means less the conditioning of the horse on commands in the sense of freedom training, but rather the gymnastics and sensitization of the horse to increase strength, mobility and permeability :

“The basic idea of ​​classical dressage is to keep a riding horse healthy for as long as possible by practicing gymnastic exercises, through which the horse should be able to remain usable for riding without being damaged. The horse should become more beautiful, expressive and self-confident through the systematic training, which results in the overall image of a [...] harmoniously built athlete. "

The training of a dressage horse is classically based on the training scale .

Dressage as a tournament sport

history

Dressage riding around 100 years ago: A major in the Swiss Army rides a dressage test on a curb

Dressage as a sport emerged from the comparison between officers at the end of the 19th century and, like most equestrian disciplines, was initially reserved for them. While the so-called "Carousels" or "Horse-Ballets" (comparable to today's quadrilles ) were the usual riding demonstrations in court circles for a long time , in 1873 the "Society for Prämierung well-trained Campagne Horses" in Pressburg for the first time a price riding as an individual riding competition carried out. These exams spread throughout Europe in the years that followed. In addition to the usual lessons in today's dressage tests, they also contained obstacles. The successor to these obstacles was an obedience jump at the end of dressage tests until the 1970s.

The rules of the sport, which have been Olympic since 1912 , are based on the military requirements of the European cavalry . Today women are leaders in dressage around the world. Since 2009 men and women have been rated jointly at the German Dressage Championships. For decades, Germany has dominated the dressage sport due to its success in horse breeding ; it is one of the most successful sports in which German athletes compete internationally.

Tournament sport

At tournaments , riders and horses in dressage tasks are rated with a value from 0 (not shown) to 10 (excellent). Either a grade is given for the entire task or an overall grade that results from separate grades for each individual lesson of the task. The tests are carried out individually or in small groups on a standardized dressage arena and assessed jointly or individually by up to five judges.

The dressage exercises consist of a certain number of lessons that are shown in a certain order or, in a freestyle, with background music in a freely chosen sequence. The horse moves in the basic gaits of step, trot and gallop on straight and curved lines (train figures ), forwards, sideways or backwards. In the higher disciplines of dressage, more complicated movement sequences are shown ( traversal , passage , piaffe , canter pirouette, etc.).

The seat and the aids provided by the rider, the movement and rideability of the horse as well as the correctness of the execution of the required lessons are assessed.

Dressage riders are repeatedly criticized for using the " roll cure ", also known as hyperflexion. The rider acts so strongly on the reins that he forces his horse to lower his head and curl his neck.

Dressage, despite its Olympic successes, received little attention from the German-speaking media, from the end of 2010 onwards there was a temporary increase in media coverage. The reason for this was the marketing of the stallion Totilas , sometimes referred to as a “wonder horse” , which was also reflected in the tabloids.

Olympic history

→ Main article : List of Olympic champions in equestrian sport

Dressage has been Olympic since Stockholm 1912 (individual) and Amsterdam 1928 (team). Women have been integrated into the teams since 1952 .

Individual gold medal winners 2012: Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro

The German dressage team at the award ceremony of the team competition in Hong Kong

Olympic champion

year	Individual winner			Team winner
	country	athlete	horse
1912	Sweden	Carl Bonde	Emperor	-
1920	Sweden	Janne Lundblad	U.N	-
1924	Sweden	Ernst Linder	Piccolomini	-
1928	German Empire	Carl-Friedrich von Langen	Daredevil	German Empire
1932	France	Xavier Lesage	Taine	France
1936	German Empire	Heinz Pollay	Kronos	German Empire
1948	Switzerland	Hans Moser	lobster	France
1952	Sweden	Henri Saint Cyr	Master Rufus	Sweden
1956	Sweden	Henri Saint Cyr	July	Sweden
1960	USSR	Sergei Ivanovich Filatov	Absent	-
1964	Switzerland	Henri Chammartin	Woermann	Germany
1968	USSR	Ivan Michailowitsch Kisimow	ichor	BR Germany
1972	BR Germany	Liselott Linsenhoff	Piaff	USSR
1976	Switzerland	Christine Stückelberger	garnet	BR Germany
1980	Austria	Elisabeth Theurer	Mon Chérie	USSR
1984	BR Germany	Reiner Klimke	Ahlerich	BR Germany
1988	BR Germany	Nicole Uphoff	Rembrandt	BR Germany
1992	Germany	Nicole Uphoff	Rembrandt	Germany
1996	Germany	Isabell Werth	gigolo	Germany
2000	Netherlands	Anky van Grunsven	Bonfire	Germany
2004	Netherlands	Anky van Grunsven	Salinero	Germany
2008	Netherlands	Anky van Grunsven	Salinero	Germany
2012	Great Britain	Charlotte Dujardin	Valegro	Great Britain
2016	Great Britain	Charlotte Dujardin	Valegro	Germany

Since Atlanta 1996, dressage riding has also been a discipline in the Paralympics , the Olympic Games for athletes with a physical disability.

Records

The world records in the three most difficult dressage competitions - Grand Prix de Dressage , Grand Prix Spécial and Grand Prix Freestyle - are each over 80 percent, in the Freestyle even over 90 percent. The following lists contain the current records as well as previous world records.

Grand Prix de Dressage

Result	equestrian	horse	date	place
87.460%	Charlotte Dujardin	Valegro	December 16, 2014	CDI-W London
87.129%	Charlotte Dujardin	Valegro	April 19, 2014	World Cup finals in Lyon
85.942%	Charlotte Dujardin	Valegro	22nd August 2013	European championship in Herning
84.447%	Charlotte Dujardin	Valegro	17th December 2012	CDI-W London
84.085%	Edward Gal	Totilas	August 26, 2009	European Championships in Windsor
81.333%	Anky van Grunsven	Salinero	June 22, 2006	CHIO Rotterdam

Grand Prix Spécial

Result	equestrian	horse	date	place
88.022%	Charlotte Dujardin	Valegro	April 29, 2012	CDI 4 * Hagen am Teutoburg Forest
86.458%	Edward Gal	Totilas	July 17, 2010	CHIO Aachen
84.042%	Adelinde Cornelissen	Parzival	August 27, 2009	European Championships in Windsor

Grand Prix Freestyle

Result	equestrian	horse	date	place
94.300%	Charlotte Dujardin	Valegro	17th December 2014	CDI-W London
93.975%	Charlotte Dujardin	Valegro	17th December 2013	CDI-W London
92.300%	Edward Gal	Totilas	December 16, 2009	CDI-W London
90.750%	Edward Gal	Totilas	August 29, 2009	European Championships in Windsor
87.925%	Anky van Grunsven	Salinero	March 25, 2006	CDI-W 's-Hertogenbosch

literature

• Philipe Karl: wrong ways of modern dressage . Cadmos Verlag (2006/2009), 160 pages, ISBN 978-3-86127-413-1

See also

• Horsemanship
• World Equestrian Games
• Disabled sports riding
• Horse performance show

Web links

Wiktionary: Dressage riding  - explanations of meanings, origins of words, synonyms, translations

Commons : Dressage  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Xenophon eV , an association founded with Klaus Balkenhol to promote classic dressage riding, which is superior in terms of species justice
• Dressage riding at the German Equestrian Association (FN)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Robert Stodulka, p. 150
2. ↑ The Beginnings of Dressage , Max E. Ammann in the Horse Week , October 6, 2015
3. ↑ for example the article "The miracle horse: Totilas in sex stress" of BILD
4. ↑ CDI-W London 2014: Result Grand Prix de Dressage
5. ↑ World Cup Final 2014: Result Grand Prix de Dressage
6. ↑ European Championships 2013: Result Grand Prix de Dressage
7. ↑ CDI-W London 2012: Result Grand Prix de Dressage
8. ↑ European Championship Dressage 2009, result Grand Prix de Dressage
9. ↑ Grand Prix de Dressage, CHIO Rotterdam 2006 ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
10. ↑ CDI 4 * Hagen aTW 2012: Result Grand Prix Spécial ( Memento from May 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
11. ↑ CDIO 5 * at the CHIO Aachen 2010: Result Grand Prix Spécial
12. ↑ European Dressage Championship 2009, result Grand Prix Spécial
13. ↑ CDI-W London 2014: Result Grand Prix Freestyle (PDF)
14. ↑ CDI-W London 2013: Result Grand Prix Freestyle (PDF)
15. ↑ CDI-W London 2009: Result of the Grand Prix Freestyle (PDF; 49 kB)
16. ↑ European Dressage Championship 2009, result of the Grand Prix Freestyle (PDF; 20 kB)
17. ↑ CDI-W 's-Hertogenbosch ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )