Last night I got a chance to catch some of the Olympic dressage. Wow! I think that has to be just about the most beautiful thing you can do with a horse. I don’t do that myself yet because Copper and I are working on bending and getting our gaits correct. Anne, our Marketing Media Manager here and my riding instructor each week, said that no matter what discipline you ride you should be able to do a basic dressage pattern so I aim to get there.
According to Don Vizi, executive director of the National Walking Horse Association, there is a dramatic increase of interest among dressage for gaited horses. Realizing this, the National Walking Horse Association and the United States Dressage Federation have collaborated to provide exhibitors correct information and to train judges for modified tests since gaited horses don’t trot. This is so great because within NWHA or TWBHEA, Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' and Exhibitors' Association, sanctioned shows in the Versatility portion riders do a dressage pattern. This is a way to provide expertise to the discipline and to promote it.
Gaited horses won’t be able to compete in the USEF or USDF sanctioned events because they don’t trot and, therefore, can’t exhibit the trotting requirement of regular dressage like you see in the Olympics. Dressage is beneficial to any discipline you ride for the communication, bending, and overall collection. Plus, it is amazing to watch! Here are some links for more information. I'm not up to speed on the official rules between NWHA and TWHBEA.
http://www.nwha.com/dressage.html
http://www.nwha.com/news08Feb06.html
http://www.twhbea.com/News/08WVSRelease.htm
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment