DRESSAGE TERMS.
LEFT: THIS LOOKS LIKE A HAPPY ATHLETE, USING ITS BODY ATHLETICALLY AND APPEARING WILLING AND HAPPY IN ITS WORK.
PART 4
BEYOND THE COMMENTS
IN OUR FINAL INSTALMENT OF JANE KIDD’S LOOK AT THE MEANING BEHIND SOME COMMONLY USED JUDGE COMMENTS, WE LOOK AT REMARKS WHICH COVER THE WHOLE HORSE WITH SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO IMPROVE BEFORE YOUR NEXT OUTING.
T
he very fi rst sentence in the F I’s guidelines is The object of dressage is the development of the horse into a happy athlete through harmonious education. Therefore, the goal of every rider, trainer and judge has to be a happy athlete. This wonderful image of the whole horse is one to keep uppermost in our minds alongside the scales of training. It’s the starting and end point as opposed to the detail featured in the three previous articles on the forehand, back and hindquarters.
JUDGES COMMENT: THROUGHNESS Throughness indicates the quality of the work and all the other fundamentals make a positive or negative contribution towards it. The scales of training appropriate for that horse and at that level are what need to be in place to achieve it. ermeability is a good way of looking at it the impulsive forces aids, contact and impulsion can go through the horse’s body and are not blocked by resistance, tension, stiffness, anxiety, etc.
Throughness is the best translation of the term used in Germany for the third collective mark. We call it submission and this can be associated with subordination not what we want in dressage . We associate throughness with cooperation and harmony and many support it as a better way of describing what we are looking for in that third collective mark. Possible corrections: It’s when the scales of training are working well that throughness is possible, so focusing on the basics helps this key state to thrive. LEFT: ALTHOUGH WE USUALLY THINK OF SELF CARRIAGE AS WHEN THE HORSE IS WORKING IN A RAISED OUTLINE THE AIM IS FOR A HORSE TO BE IN THE NECESSARY BALANCE AND CARRYING ITSELF IN ALL OUTLINES.
BRITISH DRESSAGE // Issue 8 2020 // 53
