The Sport of Dressage
This section is the wiki’s front door to dressage itself — what the sport is, where it comes from, and how the world around it fits together. The mechanics of competition live in the competition section and the horse’s education in the training section; the articles here supply the frame around both.
The articles
- What is dressage? — the complete orientation: what happens in a test, how the levels and judging work, who rides, and what the sport is for.
- A history of dressage — from Xenophon and the Renaissance academies through the cavalry era to the modern Olympic sport.
- Classical and competitive dressage — the two traditions: where they share ancestry, where they genuinely differ, and the debate between them.
- Dressage at the Olympic Games — the Olympic history and the current format, from the 1912 officers’ competition to today’s three-rider teams.
- The dressage industry — how sport, breeding and trade interlock into one economy, and where the buyer fits in it.
Planned for this section: the classical riding schools, haute école and the airs above the ground, para-dressage, and the dressage phase in eventing.
Corrections and proposals are welcome via the contribute page.
Frequently asked questions
What does dressage mean? Dressage is French for ’training’. The sport takes its name from its purpose: the systematic gymnastic education of the horse. In competition, horse and rider perform prescribed movements that display that training, and judges score each movement from 0 to 10.
Is dressage an Olympic sport? Yes — dressage has been on the Olympic programme since 1912 and is one of the three Olympic equestrian disciplines, alongside jumping and eventing. Olympic dressage is ridden at Grand Prix level, the sport’s highest, with team and individual medals.
What is the difference between classical and competitive dressage? Both descend from the same training tradition. Competitive dressage is the FEI-governed sport of tests, scores and championships; classical dressage is the academic tradition of training for its own sake, kept alive in the old riding schools and by independent trainers. They share the training scale and most movements, and each critiques the other’s excesses.