Dressage is considered the epitome of elegance, the art of riding in harmony rather than confrontation. Where did this beautiful ride come from? A brief look at the history of dressage and the origins of the Olympic movement reveals something.
Originated in ancient Greece
The history of dressage steps originates in ancient Greece, when the dressage dance steps were called classical dressage steps. Classical dressage was used as a way to train horses to adapt to the war environment. The first recorded classical dressage work was by the Greek commander Xenophon. The book was written in 430-354 BC and is titled On Horsemanship.
In classical dressage, many horse movements were developed to better serve the battlefield, making it easier for riders to capture prisoners of war and defend themselves. These movements include high-level, difficult dressage moves such as levade, cabriole, courbette, and ballotade, such as the air movement.
Each of these maneuvers requires the horse to leave the ground, exposing its fragile abdomen, so most experts agree that these skills are not trained for use in combat, but in environments outside the battlefield. These are trained to improve the skills and strength of riders and horses.
Show status symbols
Later, the dressage dance steps began to evolve and gradually became popular. It is not only a popular pastime, but also a way for some people to show their elegance and lofty status.
Around the middle and late 16th century, various royal riding schools arose, such as the Spanish Royal Riding School and the Portuguese Noble Royal Riding School. Through the development and carving of the dance step masters, the dressage dance step system has gradually taken shape, and this system is also the basis of all the dressage dance steps today. Classic high-level moves such as capriole, courbette, mezair, croupade and levade are derived from these royal riding schools.
The movements in modern dressage, such as piaffe and passage, also flowed from the army to the masses during this period. Renaissance equestrian master Federico Grisone and his students Count Fiaschi and Pigatelli slowly collected some wonderful moments of riding movements, eventually forming a rough system.
The modern Olympic movement
As horses declined as a military asset, dressage became more focused on competition, and made its debut at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912 as an Olympic sport.
Since then, dressage has evolved into a popular equestrian sport, with equestrian competitions around the world eventually attracting thousands of equestrian followers. The prescribed movements of the FIR Dressage Competition, such as slow walking, fast walking, running, conversion, semi-reduction, transformation of nostalgia, partial horizontal step, oblique horizontal step, fixed hind limb rotation, etc., have also begun to develop systematically.
Dressage salutes and hat changes
Here is a very characteristic action, that is, the salute of the dressage dance step at the "X" point. Since the dressage is derived from the army, when the dressage competition was first conducted, the riders participating were all soldiers, and they would march in military salutes.
But as dressage slowly became more popular, when non-military personnel participated in the competition, they were asked to take off their top hats, lower their chins, and then put their hats back on. When a woman starts competing, she is asked to lower her chin and hold the reins in one hand, but not to remove her top hat. Up to now, the action of lowering the chin and holding the reins in one hand has been used to this day.
It is also worth noting here that from 1 January 2021, the FIA prohibits dressage riders from wearing traditional top hats instead of helmets.
This is also the performance of the development of competitive sports in terms of clothing, and with the development of sports, people will have a lot of emphasis, one of which is its safety. With the increase of the safety factor of a sport, more people can also be driven into the sport.
The development of domestic dressage dance steps
Compared with foreign equestrian sports projects with deep accumulation, domestic equestrian sports have only begun to develop in recent decades, especially the macho events of equestrian art, and there are relatively few talents who understand and specialize. According to the 2019 Survey on the Development of China's Equestrian Industry in Equestrian Magazine, domestic field obstacle courses account for 23% of the total equestrian events, while dressage dance steps account for only 6.1%. Horse farm equestrian is the foundation of all equestrian sports, so strengthening the promotion and development of the dressage dance step program is crucial to the improvement of the development level and quality of domestic equestrian sports.
The proportion of the event is small, there is a lack of talents specializing in the teaching of dressage dance steps, and the audience group of dressage dance steps in China is slightly smaller. Most of the stables or clubs that teach dressage dance steps often take into account the teaching of venue obstacles, and there are very few stables or clubs that specialize in dressage teaching. As more and more equestrian practitioners realize the importance of horse riding in horse parks, dressage dance steps have been recognized and loved by more and more equestrian practitioners and equestrian enthusiasts.
Lina Liu and I Do Dance Academy
The development of the costume dance step project requires professional and enthusiastic talents, and Liu Lina is such a person. In 2006, Liu Lina won the individual championship of the National Equestrian Dressage Championship. In 2008, at the age of 29, she successfully won the Olympic ticket at the Spanish Equestrian Competition, becoming the first person in the history of China's Olympic dressage event. In 2009, at the 11th National Games, Liu Lina won the championship with a performance of 143.052 in two rounds.
Behind these achievements, it is always inevitable that it will be difficult, and the road to success is always full of thorns. In 1994, Liu Lina, who practiced athletics at the Xinjiang Sports School, was selected by the equestrian coach and became a member of the Xinjiang equestrian team. Since there is no professional level equestrian coach in China, in order to make her skills more refined, Liu Lina has been studying in Denmark and Germany since 2002. After more than a decade of going around, she has finally accumulated a wealth of experience in equestrian dressage projects.
In 2015, she completed her studies at the German Equestrian Association and obtained the German Coach Registration System Certification, thus starting a career in chinese equestrian teaching and promotion. Since then, she has been concerned about the cultivation of dressage talents and the promotion of dressage projects.
In 2017, the I Do Dance Academy was founded. Liu Lina appeared at the opening ceremony riding her love horse "Leven". As the founder of the I Do Dance Academy, Lina Liu faces new challenges. The management of the trainees, the management of the team, are all new challenges for her. More than 20 years of athlete career, shaping Liu Lina's stubborn, unwilling to lose character, every day, she is desperately contacting and learning new knowledge, not easy to stop the pace of progress. Along with her footsteps is the I Do Academy. In recent years, I Do Dance Step Academy has continued to develop, and has never forgotten the original intention of cultivating dressage dance talent, a group of new riders are emerging, and I Do has gradually become the cradle of domestic dressage talent training.
"Everyone's work schedule, the whole training plan, you have to think about it, now it's time to go forward with a team, I have a responsibility to everyone." Liu Lina said. Under the leadership of Liu Lina, I Do Dance Academy has made great achievements in the cultivation of talents in the equestrian dressage project in recent years. In May 2021, I Do Academy Wu Yue and his partner horse "Indira" won the individual championship in the youth category of the National Equestrian Dressage Championships with a percentage score of 70.765 points. In the same month, Zhang Hongzhao rode the dark horse "I Do" to lead the Shanghai team to break through the siege and win the runner-up of the National Games qualification tournament. At the 14th National Games, the Shanghai Dressage Dance Team also refreshed the best result in the history of the National Games and won the third place in the team. Two members of the Shanghai team, Zhang Hongzhao and Wu Yue, are from the I Do Academy. Team member Zhang Hongzhao ce rode "I Do" to win the third place. Liu Lina, head coach of the Shanghai Dressage Team and founder of the I Do Dance Step Academy, said that the Shanghai team has been preparing for the National Games for two years. During the preparation cycle, I Do Dance Academy set up a targeted training plan for the players, selected the participants of various events, provided a solid foundation in all aspects of the venue, horses, technology, etc., escorted the improvement of the players' training level and competition results, and specially thanked the horse owner Mr. Li Houlin for providing such an excellent warhorse for Zhang Hongzhao and Wu Yue.
The well-known jewelry brand I Do strongly supports the I Do Dance Step Academy, aiming to let more Chinese equestrian enthusiasts understand and like the dressage dance steps. It has a professional dance venue with International Federation of Horses (FEI) certified fibers, and the teaching horses are all warm-blooded dance horses. The I Do Academy also provides customized "exclusive" courses for students based on their own foundation and learning objectives, matching suitable dance steps for training.
I Do's patented craftsmanship is as refined as the dressage movement, polishing every detail to the extreme, carefully creating an exclusive souvenir for lovers, and becoming a symbol of happiness for millions of couples around the world. In the cross-border cooperation with equestrian sports, I Do has always adhered to the brand mission of "let more people believe in love, feel love, and pass on love", as well as the unremitting pursuit of extreme quality.
I Do looks at the world, bringing together well-known designers at home and abroad to present international artistic tastes and show the beauty of masters. As one of the domestic jewelry brands with many international resources, I Do has reached in-depth cooperation with dozens of global national treasure design masters in the United States, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Australia and other countries - Kim Buck, Alessandro Mendidni, Tord Boontje and other masters, spanning industry, fashion, architecture and other fields, focusing on the introduction of different Western design styles, taking into account the integration of Oriental charm. He has created more than 30 international master series works.
As the first jewelry brand in China to propose exclusive customization of celebrity wedding rings, I Do integrates jewelry design into the exclusive love imprint and values of celebrity couples. Since its birth, I Do has witnessed 3 million true love members embark on a journey of happy marriage, always guarding the happy journey of tens of millions of lovers.
Text/Door Jingyu