Dressage: Yesterday and Today

The vocabulary "Dressage "takes its root from the French, which amounts to preparation. This is word typically used for making due arrangements for war. The honor for the conception of education and preparation of war goes to the Greek, who invented this special kind of exercising process to conquer wars, which subsequently produced great Greek warriors. The war at that period was fought on horseback mounted soldiers. Every action they took from the horseback, so there was a necessity to develop cohesion between the horse and the soldier. It was like pulling an act of war together by the soldier and the horse. The training was centered on creating absolute synchronization between the two. The word "Dressage" was meant to be the act of schooling various movements like pirrouttes, piaffes, courbettes and so on. They were movements meant for utilizing in battle grounds.

The history tells that the Greek did not take up the advantage of dressage activity while mounting a horse and followed different methods. A perfect version of the dressage was primarily incorporated by the Assyrians in 700-800 BCE. The process of this type of performance was carried out by different warriors till the recession was seen in the Middle age era with the introduction of protective armors for soldiers. The art of dressage was willfully sidetracked to facilitate the placement of heavy armors on horses. The saddle was turned into an equipment of preference for the warring soldier. The seating position of the soldier was secured with the elevated cantle and pommel. The seat itself was revamped for better comfort of the soldier.

During the renaissance period and with the advent of firearms for soldiers, dressage saddles came into being once again. As the enemy could be fired upon from a good distance, the weight of armor was considerably reduced. Horses were trained for better and efficient movements to engage in certain schemes to fight a war. Dressage took a new turn with more importance on the training of horses. This period could see the different varieties in dressage saddles. People finding more interest in fox hunting in England , modified the dressage saddles to suit their need.It made adjustments in the height of pommel and cantle so that the rider could make jumps from the horse without hurting himself and can land comfortably. The entire change was ushered to accommodate the advantage of foxhunters. There was another change made for equestrian art to obtain a better condition during the process of high jumping an obstacle. In this case, the angle of the flap was modified to deliver the advantage to a player of the equestrian game.

The modern time dressage is related to the Olympics game in the Twentieth century. Away from wars and battle fields, the art of dressage is used in the world of sports. Wonderful competitions are held in every corner of the world, participated by scores of men and women. Participants are of all ages and they make sure to make their performances skillfully majestic and thoroughly enjoyable for spectators around the world.

Sources :

http://www.braniganarabians.com/dressagehistory.html
http://equineexpert.blogspot.com/2008/09/history-of-dressage.html