Book review: ‘Dressage, Art Of Classical Riding’ by Sylvia Loch
Posted By Iris on April 9, 2010
I love this book!
This book is not a ‘How To’ book… This book is actually a history and a bit of a ‘What is’ in the broader sense of word since it tells about practically all the ‘styles’ and era’s of Classical Dressage in chronological order.
Sylvia starts the book with a definition of Classical Dressage, which goes a bit deeper into the semantics of the term. Since the term ‘Classical’ can mean so much as; ‘from the Classical era’ as more in the sense of ‘Classic’. The term ‘Classical Dressage’ is used more in the sense of being ‘Classic’ because the art goes further back than just the Classical Era.
After the definition of the term, the books start telling about the history of Classical Dressage, starting at the earliest documented time: 430BC, with well known Roman trainer Xenophon. It tells about how he worked and about his vision and the reason why he felt the need to develop what we now see as Classical Dressage.
From there on the books tells how Classical Dressage developed further into time; from the early Romanic schools of Napels, Portugal and Spain, to the age of Baroque in Austria and Germany to the school of Versaille in France.
From here on she talks about great masters like Sieur de la Gueriniere, Baucher, Caprilli and a bunch in between to Natural Dressage in the US. Sylvia mentions Wynmalen, Decarpentry and Podhajsky and continues to the day of today where she talks about trainers of modern Germany, the Spanish riding school, Nuno Oliveira. And one of the last chapters she talks about the modern quest for Olympic gold and other influences.
What I love so much about this book is not just the indebt explanation of the history of the art but the fact that the book is beautifully illustrated to give a so much better impression of Classical Dressage throughout history.
Really; if you have any interest in Dressage (especially Classical dressage) this book is a must have!
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