Dressage on the Average Horse

I came across a great article the other day about doing dressage with the "ordinary" horse. I'll link the article at the bottom of this post and encourage others to read it in its entirety, but I'll just share my thoughts and summarize.

 All of us horse owners are biased to think that our horses are more than average, but dressage definitely has a certain type or look that dominates competition. That "look" is flashy, high stepping, floaty movement. An example would be the gelding SPH Dante, who sold at the P.S.I auction for 2.8 million dollars. His movement is spectacular, but 2.8 million dollars for a GELDING spectacular? Hard to understand that logic. Regardless, it's easy to see why he'd fetch a high price tag:

*drools*

 

SPH Dante Welfenadel - Dormello from P.S.I. Auktionen on Vimeo.

For those of us who don't have a few million laying around to throw at horses, we have to stick to the "average" movers. Average is defined by not being naturally balanced and cadenced with flashy movement. However, the foundation of dressage is not about pizzazz, it's about correct horsemanship and training. A quote from the article that really resonates is:

"The measure of a system is not how it works with the most talented, but how well it works with the least talented.” 

Dressage works really, really well with any type of horse. That's what is great about dressage, there aren't any movements that the average horse can't do. The article gives many examples of horses that definitely are not bred for dressage excelling at competition. If your goal is not competition, then you've developed a very sensitive, balanced, and well-developed horse. 

Calvin isn't flashy. He's not built like what one typically looks for in a dressage horse: his back is too long, he's slightly downhill, he's slightly butt-high (which may disappear in a few years but who knows) and he doesn't have flashy movement.

Great hooves though :)

 But ya know what, if we work hard enough we can move up the levels and do Grand Prix (advanced) movements. When people think Grand Prix Dressage, they think of only elite competitions such as the Olympics. But Grand Prixs are just advanced tests that can be done with any horse. The Olympics are typically dominated by the flashy horses, and Calvin won't ever look like Totilas:

... but that's okay, because with enough work and training he *can* do the same stuff, but in a more  average way. As the article says, the ordinary horse doesn't know they are ordinary. If we approach dressage like our horse is a superstar and set high expectations for ourselves, we'll likely end up with a superstar. 

My Superstar <3

For the article "The Hero 6: In Praise of the Ordinary Horse" click here.