Dressage Is Dead?!?

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It's February 2nd, 2024. My KLM flight just landed in Amsterdam to make my way to Spoga in Cologne, Germany. Spoga is the largest equestrian trade show in the world, but that's for another story.

I turn on my phone and open up Facebook.

"Dressage is dead!"

"Behind the vertical!"

"Dressage will lose it's social license!"

"Dressage will be removed from the next Olympics, mark my words!"

Facebook can be depressing as these kind of comments are prevalent all over the platform.

But Dressage isn't going anywhere. And this is nothing new.

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VERSAILLES, FRANCE 1833

(This is a true story)*

*except the hot dog part, which will make sense later.

A young stallion by the name of Gericault had been deemed unrideable. All the best horse trainers at the time had given their best shot to ride him and failed miserably. The owner of Gericault said if anyone could stay on the back while they rode from one end of the park to the other (approx 100 meters distance), that he would gift the horse to who ever could accomplish such a feat.

A wise and clever rider devised a plan. He would mount the horse, but have his friends surround him closely with their horses while he made the attempt.

He mounted. Immediately his group of friends encircled Gericault, not giving him any room to misbehave. They rode in a group from one end of the park to the other.

The owner of Gericault wasn't impressed, but was a man of his word. He gifted the horse to the young trainer, who in turn gifted the horse to his riding idol, Francois Baucher.

Who dat??

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FRANCOIS BAUCHER

Francois Baucher grew up poor. Dressage at the time was mostly practiced by the nobles, whom he despised. Can you blame him?

But Francois was a freak. In a good way. Gifted with the talents to train.

He showcased his horses in the circus. Remember, this was the mid 1800's. Dressage shows were a 100 years away. But the crowds that visited Baucher's events were dazzled.

He was the first person to "invent" the one tempi changes. Previously deemed impossible, Baucher made them look easy.

But let's skip to the part where he was gifted Gericault. As Gericault had become famous as an unrideable horse, Baucher said he would present Gericault in 30 days time at his circus.

Baucher got to work.

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PRESENTATION 27 DAYS LATER

That night the circus was pumping. The band played extra loud so the extra seating could hear the music. The place was packed and people clamored to find an opening to watch the show.

Beer was ordered. Hotdogs were ate.

"COTTON CANDY! GET YOUR COTTON CANDY" - yelled the little man with big spectacles and a greasy mustache.

Then the curtains were drawn. In entered Baucher on Gericault.

He mesmerized the crowd, performing tempi changes, pirouettes, piaffe, passage. Then dropped the reins and walked out of the ring on a long rein.

The shit hit the fan. The crowd went wild. Baucher became the Taylor Swift of his era.

But in the audience that special night was one man who didn't clap. Louis Seeger.

And he was irate.

Who dis Seeger dude??

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LOUIS SEEGER

In the mid 1800's, Louis Seeger was the goat (greatest of all time) when it came to German riding. He had a riding school in Berlin and taught Steinbrecht all he knew about Dressage. Steinbrecht's book The Gymnasium Of The Horse is still considered a bible when it comes to dressage.

But first, let's rewind 31 days earlier to the time Gericault was brought to that park in Paris, waiting for someone to try to ride him.

Louis Seeger's student was one of the first to try. He was piled within a matter of seconds. Launched into the air like a flying squirrel, before thudding to the ground like a sack of potatoes dropped from a second story window. Besides the rip in his breeches, his body hurt as bad as his ego.

He knew he'd blown his chance to ask the hot dame who came to watch out to the royal Gala. So he dusted himself off and went to go buy some Advil's.

When word got back to Louis Seeger via carrier pigeon (p-mail as it was known) that his student had tried and failed, it began the hate on for Baucher and his students.

Fast forward to Circus Night when Baucher brilliantly rode Gericault through an entire repertoire of high school movements, and Seeger didn't clap. He did eat a hot dog though. "Was cold, overpriced and the bun was soggy" he later commented.*

*That's the part I made up. But it actually COULD have happened. But whatever, let's get back to the story.

But how was Baucher able to accomplish this? What was his system?

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THE SYSTEM

Remember when I said Baucher was poor? That meant he couldn't get into equestrian schools the nobles would have had access to.

Baucher was an artist. He wasn't boxed in to the traditional system of training horses because he never learnt it. He created his own system.

This is the jist of it:

Baucher broke up the horses body into segments. Each segment was worked on independently. For example, the jaw, the head and neck, the shoulders, the haunches.
The goal was to make each section of the horse supple through a series of special exercises and flexions.
These suppling exercises were first done at the halt.
Only when the horse was perfectly supple at the halt, was movement allowed.
Suppleness and balance preceded movement.
If tension arose, it was back to the halt to work on the section that had tension through more flexions.
As the horse became more supple, he would increase the gaits.
Baucher expected the horse to be very supple in the jaw and was expected to carry himself in a frame without support from the rider. In lightness, away from the hand.

There are many books on Baucher's system, so obviously this is the extremely condensed version.

But it wasn't just the neck flexions that caused an enormous amount of controversy. The entire system was deemed "unclassical".

This system didn't follow in the footsteps of Xenephon, Pluvinel, Duke of Newcastle, de La Guérinière, etc...

And this enraged Louis Seeger. He devoted much of his remaining time to telling people the evils of Baucher and how he was ruining equestrian art.

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FALL OUT

Louis Seeger was even invited to ride some of Baucher's horses, which he gladly accepted. But this only made him more committed to tear down Baucher's legacy.

He found Baucher's horses lacked impulsion, had stiff hind legs, "crawled" in the walk, and didn't take an even contact on the reins.

He felt he needed to warn the world about all that was wrong with his riding, and wrote an 80 page pamphlet called "Monsieur Baucher and His Arts: a Serious Word with Germany's Riders". Back in those days, when you wrote a pamphlet, shit was getting real.

Seeger continued to "warn" the dressage world about the evils of Baucher for much of his life. This conflict deeply divided the dressage world, ripples of which can be felt today.

If there were Facebook at the time, he would have started his own page talking about the ruins of dressage, ran ads, drawn lines through Baucher's pictures, and ranted about how we needed to go back to classical principles.

Remember, this was almost 200 years ago.

Well before the start of competitive dressage.

People have been arguing about dressage since the first caveman tried to ride an animal and we will argue until the sun swallows the earth.

Dressage is, after all, art.

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Dressage Is Too Important To Be Taken Seriously

While it can be frustrating to hear the constant criticism of our beloved dressage, keep in mind that studies show that hearing the differing opinions of others can improve innovation by up to 20%.

Has dressage improved because of the constant human nature to bicker? Maybe it has. Perhaps we owe more to those who disagree with us than we are aware of.

I believe our current sport is the best it's ever been. Modern horses are amazing, and the quality of riding is better than ever.

But these 2 things are certain.

Dressage isn't going anywhere.
No matter the era, some people will complain about the state of "modern" dressage, and want a return to classical dressage, whatever that may be.

But hey, who I am to give my opinion?

Disagree with me? Write a pamphlet.

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