I have to admit, with some of my early exposure to dressage, I just didn’t “get” it. At the lowest levels—like Thoroughbred Makeover classes—yes, it made sense as a stepping stone to another discipline, installing a good foundation and teaching rideability and all that. But as an end in itself? I wasn’t sure!
As far as what discipline I most enjoyed watching, it was definitely the hunters (or equitation), largely because the goal is to have a happy, balanced, rhythmic horse, and especially at the top levels, you can reliably count on every round being some degree of perfect or more perfect — easy to watch when the definition of “perfect” involves a relaxed, confident horse. For some reason, dressage and jumpers don’t feel that way. It’s like relaxation is a nice-to-have. And I know that’s not supposed to be the case (particularly for dressage), but it just seems like you can watch really polished dressage tests where the horse is not quite there in terms of confidence in the frame or the movements. Fair that it’s a WIP, fair that it’s way more demanding than a hunter frame — but it still just feels like such a crapshoot what you’re doing to see rewarded, almost like how figure skating rewards based on the complexity of a maneuver, not necessarily on how well or confidently it’s executed. I get second-hand stress watching.
Ok, ALL that to say, I’ve discovered some dressage riders I think really are just a joy to watch. And I’m looking for more. The two standouts for me are Milly Dove Dressage and Henry Boswell Dressage. Love watching their training videos! Ingrid Klimpke is another one that comes to mind, but somehow she seems “too” perfect, such that it’s hard to glean much from watching her ride apart from “be perfect.”
. I recommend to google him with Imperio and Escolar 
