User:Elatu/sandbox

thumbnail

The birth of Western Dressage. Western riding has had basically two main influences, although other influences were possible: Spanish (Vaquero) and European (Military). The vast majority of Western riders were ex-cavalry riders who if they survived the wars up to the 1930’s went to work on the ranges and ranches of the west training horses and working cattle. The ex-cavalry soldiers were also the influence of many riding schools in the Western Hemisphere. It is the ex-cavalry riders that are really the answer to Western Dressage. The Cavalry instructors whether they came from the US Army or Europe were trained and heavily influenced by some of the most famous Classical dressage instructors of the time such as Baucher, Fillis, and De La Guérinière. Otto Lorke in Germany also taught many Cavalry riders. Baucher and De La Guérinière were from the French School, Fillis the British trainer also learned from the French, and Otto Lorke was a German who was considered a trainer of the lightness concept, and was also heavily influenced by the French way of riding. Perhaps the best proof of this finding came from looking back at the US Cavalry Manual, which is still available today, and was adapted to civilian use. The book is entitled The Cavalry Manual of Horsemanship and Horsemastership by Gordon Wright. The concepts are all based on classical dressage. The saddle of choice in the US and Canada was the Western saddle due to it’s purpose of working stock and performing the needed tasks of holding a lariat and horn to rope and restrain cattle and horses. There are two main schools of dressage in Canada and the US. The German concept of training is still based on the heavy almost draft bred horse of the late and early 20th century. The riders had to also ride these horses with very heavy aids. The philosophy required the riders to encourage forwardness, as the horses were of substantial bone and size with a slow mind. Once the horse was trained to move forward then the half-halts were used to bring the horse off the forehand. Applying those concepts to the Western style of riding would not prove as successful to the Western type horse. The dominance of the rider on the horse would not be a successful way of training a horse that would be required to be light and sensitive to the riders’ leg, seat and hand to perform tasks of the ranches. The French School requires a focus on basing the training on lightness and balance. Instead of using a pyramid to illustrate the training scale, the French school is based more on a circular diagram. The requirement is for the horse to become light to the leg, hand and seat starting from the halt, and then advancing to the gaits and using lateral movements to develop the collection and overall performance of the horse. For each skill that a horse is taught, the lightness has to be trained to the horse to achieve lightness and sensitivity to the rider’s aids. When one makes a comparison to the French school of riding, and then observing a well trained Western horse, we can begin to see a parallel. Western Dressage is not the stylized Western horse of today, but the basic trained horse of the mid 1900’s. Perhaps one of the best illustrations of this is a book entitled Schooling of the Western Horse by John R. Young. Horses worked with the poll at the highest point, forward, willing and sensitive to the riders’ aids and balance. If you removed the Western photos in the book, it could have been a dressage book. In my opinion was the actual birth of Western Dressage. Western Dressage is not a renaissance, but the rejuvenation of the original way of Western riding. Western Dressage is now a recognized discipline of the United States Equestrian Federation and the Western Style Dressage Association of Canada