Lusitano horse performing classical dressage

The term dressage can be used to refer to the movements and riding characteristics that are indigenous to various horse breeds. It is popularly believed that a perfect dressage is dependent upon the normal riding capacity of specific horse breeds in the wilderness before being trained for the purpose. There it is the natural capability which can actually help in deciding the dressage proficiency of a horse. The Lusitanos are descendents of the ancient Iberian horses and they have been regarded, since antiquity to be one of the foremost horse breeds which are capable of boasting of extremely high efficiency when it comes to dressage. It is these dressage capabilities that are able to make horses capable of performing competently in the battle field and it is known that the Lusitanos have been very famous as war horses and also during bullfights.

The Lusitano horses are extremely skilled in the art of high school dressage or ‘haute ecole’ which is the classical form of dressage. This classical form of dressage includes the learning of different forms of movement which are time consuming and may take a lot of practice for the horses and the riders to grasp. This includes mastering different forms of movements like the capriole, ballotade, levade and courbette and these movements were actually used during the wars in the early times and have now been adopted in its modern forms. The high school dressage form is also referred to as the ‘airs above the ground’ and there are various different breeds of horses which are considered as efficient in this aspect of which the Lusitano is a chief inclusion.

The high school dressage or haute ecole may be regarded as one of the most ancient forms of classical dressage and it is to be noted here that the Lusitano horses are considered to be the most efficient in this form of dressage. The dressage includes training in different forms of movements like the passage, courbette, piaffe, ballotade, capriole, levade and many others. The strong muscular legs of the Lusitano horses facilitate the learning of these classical dressage forms. The high school dressage is often referred to as ‘airs above the ground’ and the capriole initiates leaps into the air with the forelegs pointing towards the chest. The levade requires the horses to balance at a 45 degree angle and is a difficult posture to achieve. Pirouettes, piaffe, half passage etc are some of the other forms of classical dressage which the Lusitano horses are known to be proficient in. even though classical dressage is known to be difficult to grasp, the Lusitanos have been able to prove their supremacy in this aspect.