laura and i went to dressage at devon on saturday. dressage is one of those sports that tends to be boring to watch unless you know what to look for. like american football. or ice skating. but to riders, dressage is a dream.

dressage means "training". horses are trained in advanced movements, which are then performed in an arena. letters around the arena mark locations which are used to designate where the rider should cue the movements in a dressage test. they are judged on the horse's willingness, impulsion, precision, and the rider's technical ability and subtlety. the movements include the halt, back, walk (collected, medium, extended), trot (collected, medium, extended), canter (collected, medium, extended. also required: flying lead changes every 4, 3, 2, or 1 stride (this one makes the horse appear to be skipping)), the shoulder-in (where the horse bends his body to the inside while still moving in a straight line), half-pass (the horse moves diagonally, crossing his feet in front of each other, performed at the trot and canter), passage (an exagerated trot, where the horse picks up his legs more than usual, and suspends them for just a moment in the air before putting them down again. looks like prancing), piaffe (trot in place), and pirouette. when done correctly, the movements are beautiful, and the connection between the horse and rider is hardly noticeable. the movements are performed exactly on time, exactly with the rider's cue.

laura and i oooh'd and ahhhhh'd over the horses. we pined for them. we knew that we had nowhere near the training to properly ride one of those wonderful animals. sigh.