Who’s your pick for dressage gold at the 2012 London Olympics? British rider Charlotte Dujardin is looking like the one to beat this year after being the first British rider to score in the 90s in international Grand Prix freestyle competition with her horse, Valegro. The pair achieved the feat last weekend at the Hartpury International Festival, two months after setting a record in the Grand Prix Special.
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Way to go! Congrats!
Unfortunately dressage has become a spectator sport recently. Instead of showing correct training, obedience and harmony with the rider, most of the free-style competitions are demonstrations of piaffe and passage. The extended trot has become an excercise in flinging the front legs high into the air while the hindquaters are not pushing forward to show a correct extention. Dressage has become a circus with horses getting very high scores for movements that have been incorrectly performed. Winning riders are those that can do the passage/piaffe for a LOT of the test. So sad that our riding skills are being lost to performing skills that appeal to the spectators..