Re: Re: dressage riders

["Maryanne Stroud Gabbani" <gabbani@starnet.com.eg>]

> The history behind the advanced school for dressage movement was that it
was
> for war horses (the baroque breeds excell). These moves allowed riders to
> dodge swords and men trying to unseat them or kill them, which isn't very
> boring either.



Years ago I was taking karate lessons in Toronto and my instructor told me
that Tai Chi (which could be considered like martial arts dressage in that
all the movements are supposed to be very smooth and slow) was in fact
deadly when performed up to speed, probably also like dressage. It had been
turned into these stylised exercise routines to disguise the use. In the
case of dressage, there isn't much call for war horses any more, thank
goodness.

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
gabbani@starnet.com.eg