Friesian: is it the right dressage horse? - By: Finimenti Cavalli

Let me start with the obvious first: the idea of “right” is normally a subjective one, depending on many factors as personal preferences, circumstances and contextual details.
Horse training and competitions bring no exception to this, hence what follows is a mix of personal experience and other people opinions. Not being a Pro but a passionate amateur, I am miles far from being able to provide an authoritative opinion on that.

With this is mind, a pretty recurrent subject is about whether the Friesian Horse is suitable to Dressage or not.

For the benefit of people who are not familiar with the subject, let’s introduce few bits about Dressage.
Dressage is a destination of competitive horse training. Competitions take place at any level, from amateur to Olympics. Purpose of this discipline is developing a horse’s ability to perform athletic movements, maximizing its potential as a riding horse. This is done through standardized training procedures.
Over a certain gymnastic development level, horse can promptly and smoothly respond to rider’s minimal input to perform the requested movement, while remaining apparently relaxed and making appear the movement easy and effortless.
Dressage is ofter referred as “Horse Ballet”, with clear reference to the charm and the gracefulness of movements involved.

With the introductory remark that my thoughts are not addressing Pro as I assume they know better than I do what parameters must be taken into an account for their best choice, let’s go back into the initial subject.

As a preliminary consideration, you should make clear to yourself if you are aiming to become a Pro in the future or if you want to start learning and having fun, with few ambitions for competitions.

Many currents of thought consider Friesian Horses as a good Dressage horse. Friesian is a cold-blooded horse and this side makes him a good choice for amateur who need a fellow that can faithfully respond to inputs without the tendency of being distracted or agitated by what may happen around. That is my experience.

However, for some reason, high level Judges do not look these horses with particular favor. Some people suggest not to use Friesian if you are aiming to participate to competition where the matter becomes serious.
In addition, many people report galloping as being pretty uncomfortable and trot as too much “war-style”.
If you are dreaming about a Pro (or half-Pro) career, you might want to consider these two remarks.
Of course you can change the horse later if you figure out you can aim to something more glorious, but this is not ideal. Economic aspects aside (but yet to be considered...), a horse is a fellow you (should) build up a relationship with, so ideal aim should not just be choosing the horse, but you and him choosing at each other for a long friendship.

About the Author

ABOUT MOIRANO With more than two generations expertise in creating harnesses for horses and restoring period carriages, Moirano is the lead brand for equestrian equipment and fine harness for horses.

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