Riders who want to develop their horse to the highest possible level when it comes to dressage, and who are not interested in sports, competitive or modern dressage or natural horsemanship, will often be attracted to the principles of the old grandmasters and their ‘classical’ way of training horses.
Nowadays, there are many classical styles available under the names:
- Classical riding
- Classical dressage
- Classical equitation
- Classical horsemanship
- Classical art of riding
- Academic art of riding
- Academic riding
- Art to ride
- Art of riding
- Art of horsemanship
- Artistic dressage
- Equestrian art
- Baroque riding
- Renaissance riding
- German dressage
- French dressage
- Spanish riding
- Italian school
- Working equitation
- Vaquero riding
- Etc.
All of them follow the logical system of progressive exercises, where they use the exercises such as circles, shoulder-in, haunches-in (travers), renvers, half pass, and pirouette, practiced in the different gaits, and in more or less collection or extension.
Nowadays, the average rider has no access to the traditional, academic, royal or military European riding academies, so riders must find other ways to learn how to apply the logical system of gymnastic and progressive exercises to develop a horse.
And there are many alternative opportunities: Read more »
