Rider’s Position: Correctness and effect of the aids.
Dressage Moves
Spectators will notice pairs making the following moves throughout the competition:
- Canter: The canter is a three-time pace, with each stride separated by a moment of suspension.
- Canter Depart: Transition from halt, walk, or trot to canter.
- Change of Rein: Reverse and go around the arena in the opposite direction; the most common way of doing this is to change the rein on the diagonal.
- Change of Leg (Change of Lead): In canter, when a horse is cantering on one lead and immediately changes with the other leg leading.
- Collection: Collection is to develop and increase the horse’s ability to lower and engage his quarters for the benefit of the lightness and mobility of the forehand.
- Diagonal: A direction of movement across the arena.
- Engage: To utilize, to bring into play, as in "to engage the hocks."
- Extension: To cause the horse’s stride to lengthen by encouraging him to reach forward with his head and neck and further engage his hind legs for more impulsion.
- Half-pass: A movement executed "on the diagonal." The outside legs pass and cross in front of the inside legs. The horse is looking in the direction in which it is moving and should maintain the same cadence and balance throughout the whole movement.
- Passage: The passage is a measured, very collected, very elevated and very cadenced trot.
- Piaffe: The piaffe is a highly collected, cadenced, elevated diagonal movement giving the impression of being in place.
- Pirouette: The pirouette is a circle executed on two tracks, with a radius equal to the length of the horse, the forehand moving round the haunches.
- Rein back: The rein back is an equilateral, retrograde movement in which the feet are raised and set down by diagonal pairs. The feet should be well raised and the hind feet remain well in line.
- Suspension: Refers to horse being in the air with all feet off the ground between beats of trot and bounds of canter.
- Trot: The trot is a pace of "two time" on alternate diagonal legs (left fore and right hind leg and vice versa) separated by a moment of suspension.
- Walk: The walk is a marching pace in which the footfalls of the horse’s feet follow one another in "four time," well marked and maintained in all work at the walk.
While these moves, as is traditional, have stood the test of time and are the same moves you might see at any dressage competition, the competition format has changed this year. Now, all riders compete in the Grand Prix test, after which team medals are awarded. Qualified individuals (24) then progress to the Grand Prix Special. Finally, the top 12 riders are allowed personal expression in the arena in the deciding round, the Freestyle.
Freestyle Moves
The Freestyle is new to the Olympic Programme. Also called the "Kur," the freestyle is a competition of artistic equitation including all the school paces but absolutely free in the form and manner of the presentation performed within a fixed time, much like in ice skating or gymnastics. The program a rider selects should clearly show the unity between horse and rider as well as harmony in all the movements and transitions. Unlike earlier rounds, technical and artistic scores are both awarded in the freestyle; in the case of a tie, artistic impression becomes the determining factor.
Watch for horse and rider to try these moves in the freestyle:
- Counter canter: This is a movement where the rider, on a circle to the left, for instance, deliberately makes his horse canter with the right canter lead (with the right fore leading).
- Serpentine: The serpentine consists of half circles connected by a straight line.
- Shoulder-in: The horse’s inside foreleg passes and crosses in front of the outside leg; the inside hind leg is placed in front of the outside leg. The horse is looking away from the direction in which he is moving.
- Volte: The smallest circle of which a horse is capable, 6 meters in diameter (about 20 feet).
Competition Format
The Grand Prix test is the first one scheduled in the Games, and the top three results of each country determine the team placings. In individual competition, the Grand Prix, Grand Prix Special and Freestyle each count for a percentage of the final score.
Only the top 24 best rider/horse combinations progress from the Grand Prix test to the Special, which is a more condensed and intense test calling for all the difficult movements in rapid succession. Surprisingly, this test flows better for most horses, and often the scores are higher than in the Grand Prix.
The results of these two compulsory tests determine which 12 horse/rider combinations go on to the musical freestyle. Dressage is making history at the Atlanta Olympic Games by introducing the freestyle to Olympic competition. In the freestyle, many of the movements from the previous tests are required, but the rider is allowed to show them in any order and at any place in the arena, and he or she can repeat and emphasize a horse’s strong points by clever use of choreography. The rider is also free to choose music which complements the gaits and personality of the mount. The freestyle is already gaining tremendous popularity among spectators involved in the sport, and the hope is that the Olympic freestyle performances will create even more interest in dressage and gain new devotees for the sport.
Courses
A Walk through the Grand Prix
In the Grand Prix test, the horses perform a total of 38 separate movements, each of which is judged by five different judges and given a score ranging from 1 to 10. The judges are placed at different, lettered stations around the arena and they do not confer with each other during the ride. At the end of each ride, the score sheets are collected and the total points added up to determine the placing. The rules set by the FEI, including the judges’ criteria, govern all international equestrian events.
- The horse will enter the ring at a collected canter* halt at X, which is in the center of the rectangle, and remain motionless while the rider salutes the judges. As you follow the horse’s work during the Grand Prix test, following are the movements you can expect to see.
- When the rider gives the horse a signal (called aid), the horse moves off in a collected trot, turns right and then moves across the diagonal in an extended trot. In this movement the horse is required to cover as much ground as possible in each stride, while maintaining the same cadence and tempo as in the collected trot. If an animal has the inborn capacity for an elastic and powerful extension, and has acquired the necessary balance and strength through proper training, this can be an exhilarating movement to watch. The transitions leading into and coming out of the extension are a vital part of the picture, and count heavily in the marks awarded by the judges.
- After a medium canter with a flying change at station X and a section at the collected walk with two half pirouettes, the horse resumes the collected trot and at letter S starts a sharp lateral movement called a halfpass across the entire arena, finishing at letter R. In the halfpass, the horse moves laterally, looking and bending in the direction it is moving while slightly leading with its shoulder. The outside legs pass and cross in front of the inside legs, which gives a delightful impression of suspension and dexterity when the movement is viewed from the front or rear.
- The halfpass is repeated to the right, but in between the two lateral movements is inserted a halt and "swing," i.e., two reinbacks of four and six steps respectively. This seemingly mundane exercise is actually quite difficult to perform smoothly and accurately, and if you pay attention you will see more trouble with this part of the test than you may have anticipated.
- Next, a medium trot from H to F turns into a passage along the short side. The passage is a measured, elevated and very cadenced trot characterized by pronounced engagement of the hindquarters and accentuated flexion of knees and hocks. This movement is always exciting to watch because it gives the horse the appearance of becoming weightless and of floating forward in slow motion, momentarily suspended in air.
- An extended walk across the diagonal follows, a very important movement as it counts for double points and indicates how relaxed the horse is, as well as the pureness and elasticity of the gait. From the collected walk, the horse is asked for a transition to the passage at the letter H, and now starts a series of transitions from passage to piaffe, performed on a serpentine line (the "S"-shaped line running lengthwise through the center of the ring).
- On the center line, the horse is brought from the passage to the piaffe, which is a highly collected, diagonal movement in which the horse gives the impression of trotting in place. Its haunches should be slightly lowered and well engaged, giving lightness and freedom of movement to the forehand and shoulders. This is a very difficult movement for many horses, and one in which the horse shows a great deal of personal style, since many types of piaffe can be correct without being exactly alike.
- Transitions between piaffe and passage also are demanding, and often you will see a loss of rhythm or even an unscheduled stop between the two movements. The smoother and easier it looks, the higher the score will be, and many valuable points will be lost if the passage and piaffe "tour" does not come off well.
- Time has now arrived for the canter work, starting with a zigzag down center line with changes of lead each time there is a change of direction. The jump from one lead to the other is accomplished during the suspended phase of the canter. Extensions are called for at the canter as well, and the more ground covered, the more elastic the stride and steady the pace, the higher the score.
- The horse then returns back to the center line for two full pirouettes. The pirouette at the canter is the movement which most reminds the spectator of ballet, except that the horse, instead of swiveling on its toe, is required to keep his hind feet cantering in a consistent rhythm while carrying his weight on bent hocks and moving the forehand around the hindquarters.
- Flying changes occur nearly every second and are favorites of the audience. This movement gives the impression of the horse skipping along like a happy child carefully counting his strides. One more extended trot and a centerline of passage and piaffe leading to the final halt finishes the Grand Prix test.
*Terms defined in the Dressage Spectator’s Guide.
Herman Duckek Prepares Dressage Arena
It all started one day in 1974, when Herman Duckek was asked by a member of the FEI Bureau, Mr. Knud Larsen, to be in charge of preparing the arenas for the 1974 World Championships in Copenhagen. Educated in agriculture, as riding master and -- at that time -- chief of the largest riding club in Denmark, Duckek had a feel for good arenas.
The World Championships in 1974 in dressage took place in the park of the castle Christiansborg, now the site of the Danish government. The arena had been used for 300 years to train horses from the royal stable. Though it had been used for centuries, it was still perfect from regular maintenance. Herman learned the secret to maintaining such a perfect course all by digging a hole.
It was in Copenhagen that Duckek was asked to build the 21 arenas used in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. Most of them are still in use today. Preparing for the Games taught Duckek the importance of knowing each detail of an installation.
Since then, Duckek has created the dressage and jumping arenas for the World Cup finals (except three) and the dressage arenas for the six last World Championships (except Den Haage) and European Championships. He has supervised major riding installations in four continents, as well as the riding grounds at Madison Square Garden, Meadowlands, Royal Winter Fair Toronto, Gothenburg, Stuttgart, Berlin, Dortmund and many others. And, of course, has been involved in riding arenas in both the Seoul and Barcelona Olympic Games.
This is an official publication of The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Sports Publications Department.
Written by Jennifer Knight. Special thanks to Anne Gribbons.
Olympic Factoid |
More tickets were sold to the competitions of the 1996 Games than to any other Olympic Games or sports event in history. The 8.6 million ticket sales figures topped sales to the Los Angeles and Barcelona Games combined. |