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Dressage, the highest expression of horse training, is considered the most artistic of the equestrian sports and can be traced as far back as ancient Greece. The horse has to perform at a walk, trot and canter, and all tests are ridden from memory and follow a prescribed pattern of movements. The only exception is the Freestyle which is specially choreographed for each horse and is performed to music.
Of all the exponents of Dressage Germany’s Reiner Kilmke is perhaps the best known, after winning six gold and two bronze medals between 1964 and 1976, a record for equestrian events. And Dressage has also produced its share of heroic achievements, none more so than Denmark’s Lis Hartel.
Hartel, who became one of the first women to take part in Olympic Dressage, was paralysed by polio in 1944, when she was 23 and expecting her first child. Despite remaining paralysed below the knees, she was chosen to represent her country in the Helsinki Olympics of 1952 and responded by winning the silver medal. When gold medallist Henri Saint Cyr helped her up on to the podium, it was one of the most emotional moments in Olympic history.
The popularity of Dressage has increased rapidly in recent years and the sport now regularly attracts huge crowds. Dressage is undoubtedly the most aesthetically pleasing of the disciplines in the FEI stable and the pure magic of top-class Freestyle under floodlights, as sport and art combine, guarantees that the popularity of Dressage will continue to grow. Furthermore, Para-Equestrian Dressage is the only equestrian discipline that is included in the Paralympic Games, where it has been a regular fixture since 1996.
| FEI DRESSAGE RECORDS - Updated 01/11/2022 |
The FEI Board approved to de-freeze the FEI Dressage World Rankings from 1 August 2021, by four months at a time, which would allow the FEI Dressage World Rankings to be back to its normal 12-month rolling format in December 2021 (for 01.01.2022).
The FEI Dressage Committee has approved a modification to the Degree of Difficulty for Grand Prix Freestyle competitions. The modifiers for the DoD will be adjusted so that a combination needs to obtain at least 8.5 (instead of 10) for every element in order to receive a 10 for Degree of Difficulty. This change to the Degree of Difficulty system will come into force as of 01 July 2021 for all Events, when relevant, including the Tokyo Olympic Games.
The FEI Board approved a Covid-19 related resolution to waive the qualification criteria for the 2021 Youth Championships (Children, Juniors, Young Riders, U25 and Ponies) due to the limited opportunities for Athletes to achieve MERs, as a result of the restrictions on travel and cancellations of international events.
The same process will apply as for 2020, when the qualification criteria for the Youth Championships were also waived and NFs were responsible for selecting their best Athletes.
Dressage Rules Art. 427.2.2:
Due to an administrative error, this article has been updated to reflect the provision approved at the FEI GA in 2020, which was the deletion of the entire art. 427.2.2.
A full statement can be found directly in the FEI Dressage Rules available here
The FEI Board has approved as emergency resolution, the use of the "regular" Grand Prix test at all CDI-W events until 21 June 2021 to enable combinations to achieve the MERs for the Olympic Games. After this date, the Short Grand Prix test will be used at all CDI-W events, as per the FEI Dressage World CupTM Rules. The amendment document is available on the FEI Dressage Rules page here.
Qualification Criteria for the FEI Dressage European Championship 2021 have been updated, including now the Short Grand Prix, as well as the Grand Prix, as qualifying competition. This document is available on the Dressage Main Events page.
Following the announcement on Friday 19 March regarding four FEI Jumping calendar recommendations approved by the Board, we would now like to share the FEI Dressage Calendar measures which have been approved. Once again, these measures seek to mitigate the negative effects of Covid-19 and EHV-1, and in particular to allow as many Events as possible to take place leading up to Tokyo 2020. They will provide Athletes more opportunities to compete to obtain the Minimum Eligibility Requirements (MERs) and Confirmation Results, and to train for the Olympic Games as well as for other Championships, while for Organisers, these measures provide more flexibility to re-schedule their cancelled or postponed Events.
The FEI Dressage Calendar measures approved by the FEI Board are:
The FEI Board approved that all Dressage Event Organisers may, until the end of the Tokyo 2020 Games (Sunday 8 August 2021), organise their Events (subject to the Calendar applications deadline mentioned below) on their selected dates and no Dates Clash Rules shall apply during that time.
In order to give National Federations and Organisers more flexibility when applying for their Events in the FEI Calendar (and consequently providing more options for the Athletes to compete), the FEI Board approved the reduction of deadlines for Calendar applications as follows:
Following Jumping and now Dressage, we would also like to highlight that we will be announcing additional Calendar Measures for other disciplines in the coming days, following input from each of the dedicated Calendar Task Forces.
Guidelines for the Grand Prix Special to Music - Background Music, have been updated regarding the provision and the start of the music, on 18 March 2021. This document is available on the Useful Documents page for Dressage.
Emergency Board Resolution - Covid-19 (17/02/2021).
The Board approved an exception to the FEI Dressage Rules regarding qualification for CDI5* for the 2021 Calendar season whereby an “Athlete/Horse combination must have achieved a minimum of sixty four percent (64%) in Grand Prix at two (2) different CDI3*/CDI4*/CDI-W or CDIO3* /CDIO4* (Consolation Competitions do not count) after 01 January 2019 the previous year.”
The FEI Education & Officials Department have recently published explainer videos for the major FEI Dressage & Para-Dressage 2021 Rule changes.
These videos are mainly aimed at Officials and Athletes who are required to be up-to-date with the different rules. For the wider audience these videos will serve a rather informative purpose, providing a deeper understanding of our sport. The goal of these short videos is to highlight the most impactful rule changes and their rationale in each discipline, as well as more general regulations including the Equine Anti-Doping Controlled Medication Regulations and the Anti-Doping Rules for Human Athletes which underwent a full review in 2020.
Here are the direct links to the below listed videos on FEI Campus by clicking on the relevant name:
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