What Is Dressage? A Complete Guide for Beginners

Dressage is the oldest and most misunderstood of the Olympic equestrian sports. What is dressage, exactly? Ask ten people and you will get ten answers, most of them involving the phrase "horse dancing". The honest definition is simpler and rather more useful: dressage is the systematic training of a riding horse, and the sport is a test of how far that training has got. This guide covers the meaning of the word, the history behind it, how a test is ridden, judged and scored, what the levels are, and how to enter your first competition in Britain or South Africa.

What Is Dressage? A Plain Definition

Dressage is an equestrian sport in which a horse and rider perform a set sequence of movements in a rectangular arena, and are scored against written criteria by one or more judges. That is how British Dressage, the governing body for the sport in the UK, defines it: a test of movements in a rectangular arena, judged against set criteria, with the highest percentage winning.

That is the sport. The wider meaning is bigger than the sport, and it is the part beginners usually miss. Dressage is also simply the schooling of a horse, whatever you then do with it. As British Equestrian puts it, at its most basic level dressage is knowing how to control your horse through the paces from halt to walk, trot and canter, and how to steer. Every discipline uses it. A showjumper who can shorten and lengthen a canter stride on command is doing dressage. So is a happy hacker whose horse stands still at a gate. Our guide to hacking out safely leans on exactly the same obedience that a dressage test measures.

So there are two answers to "what is dressage", and both are correct. It is a competitive discipline with rules, levels and percentages. It is also the foundation training that makes any horse safer, straighter and more pleasant to ride.

What the Word Dressage Means, and How to Say It

"Dressage" is French. It comes from the verb dresser, to train or to set straight, and that is all it has ever meant. There is nothing in the word about dancing, ribbons or top hats. It describes a process: taking a horse that is crooked, one-sided and on its forehand, and training it until it is straight, balanced and carrying itself.

On pronunciation, British riders say DRESS-ahzh, with the second syllable soft, as in "beige". Some say dri-SAHZH with the stress on the back end. Both are in the dictionaries and nobody at a British riding club will blink at either. What will mark you out as new is saying it as though it rhymes with "message".

A few other words you will hear on day one, and what they actually mean:

• Test - the numbered sequence of movements you ride, printed on a sheet. Not an exam you pass or fail.
• On the bit - the horse accepting a soft, consistent rein contact with a supple poll as the highest point of the neck, which is the FEI wording, not a head position you pull into place.
• Working in - the warm-up before your test.
• Collectives - the marks at the bottom of the sheet for the overall picture rather than a single movement.
• Unaffiliated - a competition you can enter without joining a governing body.

A Short History of Dressage

Dressage has the longest paper trail of any horse sport. British Dressage traces the concept to around 350 BC, when the Athenian soldier and historian Xenophon wrote On Horsemanship. Much of what Xenophon said about rewarding a willing horse and never training in anger would pass without comment in a modern coaching manual.

The through-line is military. A better schooled horse was a more useful horse in battle, which is why cavalry schools drove the training forward for centuries. Alongside that ran a second, showier motive: the nobility wanted to be seen on magnificent horses performing exaggerated movements. British Dressage names William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle, as the key early British advocate, whose 1658 book A General System of Horsemanship set out a more sympathetic way of training horses.

The sporting side is far more recent. Dressage entered the Olympic Games in 1912, and the FEI Dressage Rules record in Article 400 that the FEI established an international dressage event in 1929 specifically "to preserve the Equestrian Art from the abuses to which it can be exposed". Para-dressage has been a fixture of the Paralympic Games since 1996 and is, as the FEI notes, the only equestrian discipline in the Paralympic programme.

Dressage Basics for Beginner Riders: What Actually Happens on the Day

Strip away the jargon and a dressage competition is straightforward. Here is the shape of a first outing, in order:

1. You enter a class at a named level and are sent a test sheet, or you download it. The sheet lists every movement in order, with the arena letters telling you where each one starts and finishes.
2. You learn the test. At most unaffiliated shows you may have it read aloud to you by a "caller". At affiliated level you ride from memory.
3. You warm up in a separate schooling area, then wait to be called.
4. You ride a circuit of the outside of the arena while the previous competitor finishes, then enter at A when the judge sounds the bell or horn.
5. You ride the test, halting and saluting at the start and the end.
6. You leave, and your sheet is scored. Each movement carries a mark out of ten plus a written comment. The total is converted into a percentage.

Two things surprise most first-timers. The first is how short it is: an introductory test is over in a matter of minutes. The second is how useful the sheet is. The comments are the point, far more than the placing. A judge writing "needs more forward" or "not straight on the centre line" has given you a free lesson plan, and a good one.

The obvious beginner mistakes are mechanical rather than technical. Learn the test properly, because an error of course costs marks. Ride into the corners rather than cutting them. Look up. And do not chase a perfect outline at the expense of rhythm, because rhythm is the first thing the judge is assessing.

The Dressage Arena: Sizes, Letters and Geometry

Every test is ridden inside a marked rectangle. There are two standard sizes, and British Dressage confirms both are laid out in metres:

• The small arena, 20m x 40m. Used for introductory and preliminary tests, and the size most riding schools and private yards have at home.
• The standard arena, 20m x 60m. Used from around novice level upwards and for all international competition. FEI Dressage Rules Article 411 specifies 60 metres long by 20 metres wide, flat and level, predominantly sand, enclosed by a low white fence of about 30 centimetres.

Around the outside sit the markers, each labelled with a letter, which tell you exactly where a movement begins and ends. In the small arena they run A, K, E, H, C, M, B and F, with D, X and G marking the centre line. The 20m x 60m arena adds V, S, R and P on the long sides and L and I on the centre line. Nobody is entirely sure where the letters came from. British Dressage notes only that they are thought to relate to 19th century German social ranking, which is as close to an answer as the sport has. Our full breakdown of the dressage arena sets out both layouts and the distances between markers.

The letters matter more than they look. "Circle 20m at B" is a precise instruction, and a circle that is really an egg will be marked as one. Accuracy is cheap marks: riding the geometry correctly costs nothing in training and gains you a point here and there in every test.

How Dressage Is Judged and Scored

Judging is more transparent than it appears from the side of the arena. Under FEI Dressage Rules Article 423, every movement is marked from 0 to 10 by each judge on a published scale:

• 10 Excellent, 9 Very good, 8 Good
• 7 Fairly good, 6 Satisfactory, 5 Sufficient
• 4 Insufficient, 3 Fairly bad, 2 Bad, 1 Very bad
• 0 Not executed, meaning practically nothing of the required movement happened

Half marks from 0.5 to 9.5 are available at the judge's discretion. Harder movements carry a coefficient, so they count double. At the end the judge awards a collective mark, which under Article 423 is given for harmony and demonstration of the training scale rather than for any one movement. British Dressage confirms a panel may be one, two, three, five or seven judges, sitting at different points around the arena so that straightness and geometry can be seen from more than one angle.

The total is then converted to a percentage, and the highest percentage wins. On what counts as a good score, British Equestrian is explicit: a good dressage score is often around 60 to 70 per cent, against a highest ever score of 94.3 per cent, set by Charlotte Dujardin on Valegro in 2014. For a first outing, 60 per cent is a perfectly respectable day out. If you want the detail of how the sheet is built up, we cover how dressage scoring works and what judges look for separately. Affiliated competitors should also read our explanation of British Dressage points, rules and thresholds, because points determine when you must move up a level.

The Levels of Dressage Explained

British Dressage runs national competition on a ladder that goes Introductory, Preliminary, Novice, Elementary, Medium, Advanced Medium, Advanced, Prix St Georges, Intermediate and Grand Prix. What changes as you climb is not speed but difficulty and degree of collection:

• Introductory - walk and trot only. No canter at all, which makes it a genuine entry point for a green horse or a nervous rider.
• Preliminary - canter is introduced.
• Novice - lengthened strides appear.
• Elementary - lateral work begins.
• Medium - the difficulty steps up.
• Advanced Medium - flying changes come in.
• Advanced - the last of the national levels.
• Prix St Georges and Intermediate I - known as "small tour". These and everything above are international tests written by the FEI.
• Grand Prix - the ultimate test, and the one ridden at the Olympics alongside the Grand Prix Special and the Grand Prix Freestyle to music.

A note that saves confusion: tests from Introductory to Advanced come from British Dressage's own library, while Prix St Georges and above are FEI tests used worldwide. That is why the top of the ladder looks the same in Britain, South Africa and Germany, while the national levels beneath it carry different names in different countries.

Do not be in a hurry. British Dressage is blunt that reaching Grand Prix takes years of training and dedication, and there is no prize for moving up before the horse is ready. Most riders find the work in getting a solid Novice or Elementary horse is where the real education happens.

The Scales of Training: The Framework Behind Every Test

If you learn one thing from this guide, make it this. The scales of training are the six-step framework that riders train by and judges mark against. British Dressage describes them as the stepping stones riders live by, and they run in order:

1. Rhythm - regular and correct for the pace, four beats in walk, two in trot, three in canter, and in the same tempo whether you are on a straight line or a corner.
2. Suppleness - muscles with tone and free from resistance. The test is that when you ease the rein, the horse wants to stretch forward and down rather than hollow and lift his head.
3. Contact - a light, even, elastic feel in both reins, created by leg and seat rather than by the hands.
4. Impulsion - contained power. Energy from the hindquarters that the contact stops the horse from spending on simply going faster.
5. Straightness - hind legs stepping into the tracks of the forelegs, on a circle as well as a straight line. Horses, like people, are born one-sided.
6. Collection - the horse carrying more weight behind and less on the forehand, which lightens the shoulders and makes him a more athletic ride.

The order is not decorative. You cannot build impulsion on a horse that is tight through his back, and you cannot collect a horse that is not straight. When something goes wrong in a test, the fault is nearly always further down the scale than the movement that fell apart. A rushed shoulder-in is usually a rhythm problem wearing a lateral-work costume.

The FEI states the same idea as principle. Its object of dressage, reproduced in full by British Dressage, is the development of the horse into a happy athlete through harmonious education, shown by freedom and regularity of the paces and acceptance of the bit without tension or resistance.

Dressage Movements, From Leg Yield to Piaffe

The vocabulary is the last barrier for most beginners. British Dressage keeps a set of short videos of the paces and movements, which is worth ten minutes of anyone's time. In rough order of when you meet them:

• Transitions and the half halt. Changes between and within paces. The half halt is the rebalancing aid that sits underneath almost everything else.
• Circles and serpentines. Twenty metres to start, getting smaller as the horse gets stronger.
• Lengthened and extended strides. More ground covered per stride, not more strides per minute.
• Leg yield. The first sideways movement, with the horse straight but stepping away from the leg.
• Shoulder-in. The gateway to proper lateral work, and the exercise most trainers reach for when straightness is the problem.
• Travers and renvers. Quarters-in and quarters-out along the track.
• Counter canter. Cantering on the "wrong" leg deliberately, as a balance and obedience exercise.
• Flying changes. Changing canter lead in the moment of suspension. These arrive at Advanced Medium.
• Pirouette. The forehand turning around the hindquarters, in walk first and canter much later.
• Piaffe and passage. Grand Prix movements. Piaffe is trot on the spot, passage is an elevated, floating trot.

Your seat is the limiting factor for longer than you expect. Most riders get further, faster, by fixing the basics than by drilling movements, which is why rising trot and sitting trot are worth real attention. A deeper look at the day-to-day work sits in our guide to dressage horse training.

What Makes a Good Dressage Horse?

This is where beginners talk themselves out of the sport unnecessarily. British Dressage could not be clearer: any horse can do dressage. Judges are looking at the picture the horse and rider make, and breed, colour, size and age are not marked. At the lower levels an accurate native pony regularly beats a better-bred horse that has been ridden carelessly.

At the top of the sport the picture narrows. British Dressage notes that the warmblood breeds are generally considered most suitable there for their conformation, movement and temperament, which is why you see so many Hanoverians, Dutch Warmbloods and Trakehners at championships. The Iberian breeds, the Lusitano and the Pura Raza Española, have become far more visible in recent years, and they often find collection easier than they find extension. For a modern example of what the sport now breeds for, the KWPN stallion Glamourdale has shaped a generation of sport horse pedigrees in Britain and South Africa alike.

None of that matters for your first five years. A sound, sane horse with three correct paces and a willing attitude will take you to Elementary, and a good Welsh Cob has done it more often than the catalogues admit. What genuinely helps:

• Three clear, regular paces. Correct beats matter more than spectacular ones.
• A trainable temperament. Dressage is repetition, and a horse that sours quickly will make it miserable.
• Soundness and a comfortable back. Ridden work loads the back and the sacroiliac region, so persistent resistance in one rein or a reluctance to work through is worth a vet's opinion rather than a stronger bit. Conditions such as sacroiliac joint disease often present first as a schooling problem.
• A saddle that fits both of you, checked regularly as the horse's topline changes with work.

Tack, Turnout and What to Wear

Unaffiliated shows are relaxed about turnout: clean, tidy and safe is the standard. Affiliated and international competition is specific, and the rules are published rather than folklore.

Tack

• Saddle and bridle are compulsory. Any English or continental saddle is allowed, though most riders eventually choose a dressage saddle for the straighter flap and deeper seat.
• Bitting steps up with the level. British Dressage permits a single bit from Introductory to Novice, and a double bridle may be worn from Elementary upwards. Most riders start in a plain snaffle.
• No boots or bandages in the test. British Dressage is blunt that this results in elimination. Take them off before you go in, every time.
• Spurs are optional. Under FEI Article 431 they must be metal with smooth, blunt arms, and any rowels must be blunt and free to rotate.

Rider dress

• A correctly fastened, current-standard riding hat whenever you are mounted. British Dressage requires it at all times when mounted, and FEI Article 431 says the same for international competition.
• Breeches or jodhpurs, white or off-white under FEI rules. Our comparison of jodhpurs and breeches explains which suits which boot.
• A jacket, any single colour under FEI rules. Striped or multi-coloured coats are not permitted, though discreet piping or crystal detail is fine.
• A white or off-white stock tie or tie, with gloves in white, off-white or the colour of the coat, and black or dark riding boots.

Plaiting is conventional rather than compulsory at national level, and a tidy mane reads as respect for the occasion. Our step-by-step guide to horse plaits and braids covers the methods that hold for a full day.

Is Dressage Cruel? The Welfare Question, Answered Honestly

This question deserves a straight answer rather than a defensive one, because it is asked more every year and the sport has not always covered itself in glory.

Dressage ridden correctly is training, not coercion. The FEI principle, quoted above, defines the object of the sport as a happy athlete produced by harmonious education, with the horse giving the impression of doing what is asked of its own accord. A horse that is tense, behind the vertical or resisting is not scoring well, because the scales of training that the judge is marking against start with rhythm and suppleness. The marking system is, in principle, aligned with the horse's comfort.

In practice the sport has had to police itself, and it has not always done so quickly. Abusive training methods and over-tight nosebands have been real problems, and the governance response has come in stages. Today the FEI rules address abuse of horses directly, stewards check tack and oversee the warm-up, and British Dressage notes that judges also monitor welfare during the test, checking horses are sound and free from obvious injury.

The honest position for a beginner is this. The training itself, done in the right order and at the right speed, makes horses stronger, straighter and more comfortable to carry a rider. The risk is not in the discipline but in rushing it, and the warning signs are worth knowing: a horse that grinds its teeth, swishes its tail continuously, will not stretch down when the rein is eased, or resists in one rein every session is telling you something. That is a conversation with a coach, a saddler and a vet, not a reason for a stronger bit.

How to Start Dressage in the UK and South Africa

The route in is easier and cheaper than most people assume, and you do not need to own a horse.

1. Have some lessons. Any decent riding school teaches flatwork, which is dressage by another name. A course of lessons will tell you whether you enjoy the detail.
2. Ride an unaffiliated test first. Riding clubs and local venues run these constantly, entries are inexpensive, and you can usually have the test called to you. Nobody expects a polished performance.
3. Learn to read the sheet. Take the comments seriously and the placing lightly. Two or three sheets in a row will show you your pattern.
4. Join the governing body when you are ready to go affiliated. In the UK that is British Dressage membership, which offers a club tier aimed at riders taking their first steps in affiliated competition, across roughly 180 affiliated venues.
5. Keep the horse in front of the leg. Everything else is easier from there.

Dressage is also one of the most genuinely open sports in the equestrian world. British Equestrian notes that many riding schools and Riding for the Disabled Association groups run their own dressage competitions, and para-dressage has been a Paralympic discipline since 1996. Men and women compete against each other on equal terms at every level including the Olympics, which remains rare in sport.

South African riders follow the same structure. The national federation is affiliated to the FEI through the same route British Dressage is, so the international levels from Prix St Georges upwards use identical FEI tests and the identical 0 to 10 marking scale set out in Article 423. National level names and the entry grades below Prix St Georges are set locally, so check with your provincial body for the current test sheets rather than assuming the British ladder applies unchanged.

Frequently Asked Questions