Big "D "and Little "d": A Complete History of Dressage in 3 Acts

Act 1)

In the beginning there was Big X.
Big X had some ideas how to train horses .
He wrote it all down in a book and saw that it was very good.

Act 2)
A Few Centuries Later and some thousands of miles away a group of Old Rich White Guys read this book and decided to create a secret club based on this book. To keep their secret they gave it the code name “dressage.”

The ORWGs decided they needed their own secret horse that nobody else could own except other ORWGs . So they crossed their big but lazy cart horses with smaller but spirited hot blooded steeds from the East. Their offspring were fruitful and multiplied and the ORWGs saw that it was good.

The secret club members however began to be jealous of each other and argue over who had the best horse. And who rode better.

So they had competitions and gave each other prizes But it was still a secret

Act 3)
And then it came to pass that the club wasnt so secret any more.
The knowledge of the secret club called “dressage” spread out and filled the earth. But in some of the lands , Not- ORWG s learned the secrets in Big X book and they too learned dressage. But they did not have the secret warmbloods.
And then there was War.
The ORWGs and the Not-ORWG s fought bitterly over dressage and had competitions called shows.
So the ORWGs hired vassals called judges to make sure that the ORWGs would always win because of their secret horses called warmbloods.

Eventually, they named these shows" Dressage "and the ORWGs triumphed and some of the Not-ORWGs surrendered and formed a sect called Ribbon Ho s.
and bought the Warmbloods so they could win
too.
But there are still some Not -ORWGs who refuse to surrender and are still riding their Not- A-Warmblood to this very day.

The End

Historians of memory would have a field day with this.

Is the OP The Maestro?

3 Likes

Not guilty, your honor

And then along came western who screwed up all their rules and did it their own way.

3 Likes

From what I can tell western is at least trying to actually judge according to the rules that the judges have been ignoring.

2 Likes

LOL I wasn’t referring to Western Dressage. That quote is older than Western Dressage, which is fairly new in the realm of things Equestrian.

are you kidding? Have you ever read anything he wrote? 🤣

Like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17YnLlKLa4M

Western dressage, not western pleasure. Not that Western Dressage will necessarily continue to try to judge according to the rules, but at least they seem to be starting out that way.

3 Likes

Oh My aching back. It may never recover from that vid.

Is that a wrot I see masquerading as a jog? And a real tranter?

Is there a steel rod between the rider’s stuck out hand and their chin to keep it up. Or is the held up chin keeping the hand up?

1 Like

That tranter made me think of lame horses. The horse that actually cantered was pulled up. I couldn’t make it to the end of the video even though I tried.

Painful to watch! I was at one barn that trained horses for that and it was very unpleasant!

1 Like