FEI Dressage World Cup 2019-2020
Unfortunately most of the winter sport competitions are over for now, taking a break as Christmas and New Year is coming. I have to wait till the beginning of January to watch some again.
Today I'm going to post about a topic that has not been discussed by me till now as it's not exactly my favorite for a very good reason. It's dressage. It's not new, actually it has a long history.
Dressage dates back to classical Greek horsemanship and the military who trained their horses to perform movements intended to evade or attack the enemy whilst in battle. The earliest work on training horses was written by Xenophon, a Greek Military Commander born around 430 BC. source
Dressage is an Olympic Sport since 1912 and not only dressage but there are other horse sports as well like jumping and driving.
While I'm ok with jumping and driving, when animals are used to entertain people I have a huge problem. I believe animals have a purpose and that's not to entertain humans. Jumping is ok as horses when are let free are jumping, that's natural, you can't go on without jumping. Driving is also ok as some of the horses are for work. Bur dressage is only for the show.
Unlike athletics where you only need a good pair of shoes and a dress, riding is not for everyone. These horses are not cheap, in some cases you can buy a luxury car with the price of the horse.
Today I saw a lot of gorgeous horse that I bet cost a fortune but unfortunately none of them were natural. They were performing, playing a role that is pretty hard. Imagine how many hours these horses are spending training. There's a choreography that needs to be learned and there are mandatory elements that the choreography must include.
If you look at the photo you see the horse is keeping his head down. All the horses were keeping their heads down, this was the only head position I saw today. I bet there's a good explanation for that but it's not natural.
No matter how popular the sport is or how much money is in it, I'm not going to be a fan, that is 100% sure. I'd better see these horses free.