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Dressage
(French, "training") refers to training a horse to be
thoroughly supple, balanced, and responsive. Basic dressage work
includes collection and extension (shortening and lengthening the horse’s
stride) at the walk, trot, and canter, and such lateral movements as the
leg yield, in which the horse moves forward and to one side
simultaneously. Dressage
can be used as training for other disciplines, for competition, as in
horse shows, or for exhibition. The Spanish Riding School of Vienna,
Australia, founded about 1572, is the world’s most celebrated center
of exhibition dressage; among the haute école
(highest-schooling) movements are the piaffe, or trot in place, and the
so-called airs above the ground, including the levade, controlled
rearing, and the capriole, in which the horse simultaneously leaps and
kicks out its hind legs.
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