Jayne's Country Home ~Equestrian

Equestrian

There are many different equestrian disciplines, from Western Pleasure and Trail riding to Grand Prix Dressage and Advanced Combined Training and also including Driving and Competitive Endurance Riding. I ride English style needless to say, and the disciplines I am primarily interested in are Dressage and Combined Training

Combined Training

Photo of horse jumping

Combined Training was started as a Military discipline, the cavalry soldiers engaging in competitions against each other in three separate stages. The first stage, the Dressage test, designed to test the horse's suppleness and willingness to obey, is a set pattern of movements to be performed in an arena (like the compulsory figures in figure skating. This is followed by the endurance test - which includes miles of roads and tracks to be taken a certain speed and a steeplechase run over brush fences and finishing with a gruelling cross country phase - several miles to be run at a good gallop over thirty obstacles, including water hazards, drop fences and other "natural" obstacles, designed to test the horses's stamina and courage. Following the cross country phase is the final element - the Stadium jumping, showing that the horse is in good enough condition to perform well over posts and rails (rather than fixed cross country fences) and that he is controllable enough to perform within the confines of an arena after galloping across country. Nowadays the Advanced level competitions take place over three days and are known as Three Day Events - the sport as a whole is known as "Eventing"

Photo of horse jumping cross country

Great steps were taken at the Olympics in 1996 to ensure that both horses and riders remained healthy and in good condition, in spite of the heat and humidity of Atlanta in August. These steps included the shortening of the course, while still maintaining an Olympic caliber course, the increase in the number and duration of mandatory stops and vet checks and misting fans set up so that horses could be cooled out after their runs across country. In fact some said that the equestrian athletes were better looked after than their human counterparts!!!

At the lower levels of competition (where yours truly has been and will always remain, thank you very much) the whole thing is done in one day. It begins with a simple dressage test and this is followed by about one and half miles to two miles across country over about ten to fifteen fixed obstacles (depending on the level these might include drop fences, water hazards, ditches etc). The day finishes up with the stadium jumping, again about twelve to fourteen jumping efforts. The larger shows, recognized by the United States Combined Training Association, are usually run over two days. If you have ever seen the movie "Sylvester" starring Melissa Gilbert, you will be somewhat familiar with Combined Training although the movie was pretty unrealistic in that she was able to take a cow horse to the highest levels of competition, and win (of course) with little or no knowledge and very little money, but that is Hollywood for you!!

Dressage

Photo of horse in dressage arena

Dressage simply means "the training of the horse" and so any horse can be said to have some dressage, even trail horses. In its purest form it can breathtakingly beautiful as the horse appears to dance on its own while the rider sits quietly on board. A good example of this would be the Lippizzaner Stallions of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria. In its very basic form it is teaching the young horse to accept the rider's weight and aids (or instructions) and gradually training the horse to move in balance and harmony (not as easy as it would appear as many horses expend more energy in avoiding what you want them to do than just doing it!) In between the two extremes are the thousands of recreational riders like myself who try and make our horses more pleasant to ride by the use of dressage training to make the horse more supple, balanced and obedient. People that head out to shows on the weekends to get some feed back from local or national judges to let us know that what we are doing with our horse's training is on the right track. And, picking up some ribbons on the way never hurt!! I have included some links to my favorite equestrian sites just in case anyone would like to learn a little more.

Links

USDF - the Official Web Page of the US Dressage Federation
The Online Guide to Dressage - a complete guide to Dressage inc video clips
USCTA United States Combined Training Association
Horses at The Mining Company This is my new labor of love
an ever-expanding resource of the links
to the best the Net has to offer in Horses
Or visit The Mining Company's main site and pick a subject to suit you

Annapolis and I have retired from competition now due to past injuries etc. but we have competed at a number of Horse Trials and were even lucky enough to win First Place the first time out. We have also won a number of ribbons in Dressage, at the lower levels, including a Championship we were lucky enough to win at one show .Now, we mainly stick to pleasure riding, although I continue with Annapolis's dressage training as that is what has turned him from the freaked out, high strung, thoroughbred ex-steeplechase that I purchased in 1988, who used to argue with me everyday about where we were going to go and at what speed we were going to go there, in to the mild mannered, supple, obedient horse he is today.

Saw a great tee shirt the other day - it had a silhouette of a dressage horse and rider and the wording said "Dances With Horses". That is what I aspire to. Must get that tee shirt!!!

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