The word dressage refers to the training of a horse. To dress a horse means to train it.

A "dressage horse" is generally known to be any horse who competes in dressage.   However, every horse who is taught to carry a rider is in fact being given some level of dressage training, although the rider may not refer to the training as dressage work.   Often dressage training is simple called "flat work" or "ring work".

Throughout the training and development of the dressage horse, we are slowly and carefully working towards several goals which interplay and overlap:

• Acceptance - The horse first learns to accept a rider's weight on his back and a bit in his mouth.   He learns to take direction from the rider.
  
• Harmony - Horse and rider working together as dance partners.
  
• Suppleness - Elasticity of the muscles, allowing the horse to move more gymnastically.
  
• Impulsion - The desire to move forward.   Energy.   Engagement.
  
• Straightness - Like humans, every horse is left or right sided, which means they move crookedly.   We aim to eliminate the crookedness.
  
• Lightness - The horse's center of gravity is gradually shifted more and more to the hind end where his strongest muscles (the engine!) lie.   This in turn lightens the forehand, allowing the horse to be more graceful while having more power.
  
• Collection - Think of this as "torque".   This is the collecting of the energy and power of the horse to put to use in the more advanced movements.
  
• Elevation - The ultimate goal of dressage.   The ability of the horse to perform the high school "airs above the ground" movements which, for example, you see performed by the white Lippizan stallions of Vienna.

Competitive Dressage

Horses who compete in dressage competition must perform a prescribed test which consists of several "movements".   Each movement is scored 0 to 10 by a dressage judge.   After the test is complete, the judge also gives scores for four "general impressions":

• Gaits / Paces - The quality of the horse's walk, trot, and canter is judged for freedom of movement and regularity of the steps.
  
• Impulsion - The desire of the horse to go forward (energy), elasticity of the steps, and relaxation of the back.
  
• Submission - The obedience and willingness of the horse.   This includes attention to and confidence in the rider, harmony, lightness and ease of the movements, acceptance of the bit.
  
• The Rider - The effectiveness of the rider.

The general impressions scores should reflect the scores giving throughout the test, however, this is not always the case.   A horse can show good gaits but perform a fairly bad test.   Also, a rider on a very disobedient horse can gain points for proper application of their skills.

The Scores

    0 -- Not executed      4 -- Insufficient       8 -- Good
    1 -- Very bad          5 -- Sufficient         9 -- Very good
    2 -- Bad               6 -- Satisfactory      10 -- Excellent
    3 -- Fairly bad        7 -- Fairly good

Along with each score, the judge can provide a comment which helps the rider understand why a certain score was given, or what was needed to get a better score.

From this competitor's point of view, the scores can be interpreted this way:

    0-3   -- Needs serious fixing
     4    -- Need to improve here
     5    -- Marginal, work on this
     6    -- Okay, what we aim for
     7    -- Nice job
     8    -- Wowwee!!
    9-10  -- Unbelievable!!!

The final score of the test is a percentage of points earned out of a perfect test of all 10's (never seen).   So, a test with all 6's would be 60%.   A test with an equal number of 5's and 6's would be a 55%.   A test with all 7's would be a 70%.

A score of 60% is okay, the base score to aim for.   Less than that and you've got work to do.   More than that and you're doing well.   Scores in the 70's are not common and well worth being quite proud of.   Scores in the 80's are very rare and usually are only earned in Musical Freestyle's (Kurs) by top horse and rider combinations or in Young Horse classes.

The Advanced Movements

Many dressage riders dream of the day they will get to "feel" the advanced movements.   Usually, those first experiences will be during a lesson on a "school master", a horse who already knows how to perform the movements.   After learning how to perform the movement, and how it should feel when done properly, the rider can then try to teach the movement to their own horse.

I highly recommend you check out Karen Pautz's website, http://www.ridinghabit.com/guide/.   There, you will find some short video clips of some of the advanced dressage movements seen in FEI and Olympic level competitive dressage as performed by some international riders.   It's a great website.