10/25/2024
This is a great article !
WELCOME TO SOLO'S NEWSLETTER
After the Olympics there was a lot of talk about whether dressage would be removed from the games.
Full time social media dressage haters took to their keyboards to vilify the sport, declaring that modern dressage has failed us and how it has become a worthless practice.
"Dressage should lose its social license!" they frantically pound from their laptops, sweat pouring from their brows, chocolate pudding smeared around their mouth. Printouts of all the top riders with red lines drawn through them to analyse every angle of failure lay in piles at their feet.
"Dressage has to end!" - they screech between labored breaths, staring at the faded, black-and-white picture on the wall of the last time they sat on a horse. (It was 1982.)
"If only I ran things, if only Catherine Dufour learned to ride correctly, if only judges knew what to look for, if only people rode like they did in 1867.....life would be perfect. "
Is dressage doomed?
No. And society doesn't need less dressage. We need more of it.
A noble pursuit would be to venture head first into the world of dressage. In doing so dressage will reward you with the tools you need to become a better version of yourself.
Dressage isn't an evil or a failure. Its the world's best teacher.
Dressage will teach you perseverance and stamina. It will teach you what it means to commit; dressage is a long, hard road.
It will teach you integrity, you can't trick your horse with your lies.
It will teach you how to carry on through failures, let downs, set backs, financial strain, physical injuries, fear, and utter heartbreak.
You'll learn about focus, body control, and how to regulate your emotions. You learn to communicate more effectively and you'll learn what it means to be fair and why reward is powerful. You'll learn the power of friendship.
Dressage will teach you that anger and hate are worthless fuels and that you're much better off filling your tank with play and joy.
You'll learn how to study and how to solve problems. Most importantly, you'll learn how to listen. You'll learn why being quiet is important, and why less is always more.
You'll learn to act with grace, poise and elegance under pressure, and how to smile when all you want to do is cry.
That transitions are everything, including the transitions within our own lives. The transition of friends, family, houses, jobs, cities, and priorities.
It will teach you that all worthy pursuits never have a shortcut.
It will teach you that taking care of your own body is as important as tending to your horse's.
Dressage will teach you to stand up straight, pay attention to the details, be more empathetic, develop your moral fibre and to love more deeply.
And that's something we should all have more of.