totally agree. it was absolutly fabulous and amazing to see the connection between rider andhorse.
dressage is the most disclipined competion in equine sport. these horses are not being treated to punishment or to hurt in the slightest..what a ridculous statement
as for the comment regarding dancing bears..? crap.....the people who 'know nowt' are the ones that shout loudest..take time to understand before you comment, you just said you dont know anything about horses, well if you dont know then how can you judge?
they way they are trained to 'skip and dance' as you put it, is to do with which leg they lead from. for example any 12 year old rider will learn to change the leading leg when in a canter...all theses dressage eventers are doing is 'changing leg' more frequently.
eg: have you ever done step aerobics.. you change the leading leg dont you, so you arent alwyas putting the same leg first
as for the horse, you could see when he relaxed, he was given a bit more rein, and the head dropped and the tail stopped flicking so much. then when he started again the neck was arched, the ears forward, the chin tucked in...and all done with what looked like a double bridle, and no martingle was used
this website gives good information
Dressage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia