11/04/2025
“Dressage’s Midlife Crisis and Why Your Riding-School Horse Might Just Save It”
Dressage, they tell us, is facing a crisis. Falling spectator numbers, shrinking memberships, shows closing down… it’s all sounding a bit grim. The sport that once pranced proudly in top hat and tails is now, apparently, staring moodily into the mirror, wondering if a freestyle remix of Beyoncé might make it feel young again.
But maybe the problem isn’t just the ticket prices or the lack of trade stands. Maybe dressage, and the riding world more broadly, has forgotten its greatest resource: the riding-school horse.
Yes, those noble, patient, saintly creatures who spend their days trying to interpret the signals of five different riders in five different hours, ranging from “accidental piaffe” to “emergency halt at E”.
The Unsung Heroes
Riding-school horses are, quite frankly, the backbone of equestrianism. They introduce people to the sport, keep riding accessible, and quietly perform half-passes for riders who swear they’re “just steering.”
Yet these horses are often labelled “lazy,” “stubborn,” or “not off the leg.” In reality, they’ve simply developed the good sense not to react to someone’s left leg, right hand, and enthusiastic seat all giving contradictory instructions at once. They are not lazy, they are philosophers.
The Delicate Art of Self-Awareness
Somewhere along the way, we riders started believing our own press releases. We went from “I’m learning to feel the rhythm” to “I’m basically doing Grand Prix” in the space of a riding holiday.
We’ve all met that person who insists their riding-school mount “just doesn’t go properly for me” as if Geoff, the 18-year-old schoolmaster who’s been teaching balance and patience for two decades, has suddenly decided today is the day he’ll stage a mutiny.
If we’re honest, many of us ride for joy, for fitness, for the smell of the mane and the freedom of movement and that’s wonderful. But somewhere in that joy, we lost the reverence for the craft of riding; the hours, the sweat, the sore muscles, the humility of learning.
Learning Is the New Luxury
Dressage’s salvation won’t come from more glitzy venues or bigger prize pots. It’ll come from riders rediscovering the art of wanting to be better for their horse’s sake, not their ego’s.
It means celebrating lessons as much as ribbons, taking pride in improving our seat before our score, and understanding that true partnership, not just posing for pictures, is what makes riding extraordinary.
Imagine if every riding-school rider treated their weekly lesson like a step towards artistry. Imagine if every rider at home thought of “working in” not as a chore but as a privilege, the chance to dance with a horse, however imperfectly.
The Comeback Tour Starts in the School Arena
Dressage may be struggling with identity, but it’s not dying; it’s just waiting for us to show up with the right attitude.
Forget the crisis headlines. The future of dressage doesn’t live in elite arenas or YouTube highlights. It lives in every quiet arena where someone’s trying to learn a better contact, sit straighter, breathe with the horse.
Let's celebrate that riding-school horses are our unsung professors. The humble riders who admit they’re learning, and to bringing back the idea that being a rider isn’t a social label or a status symbol. It’s a lifelong apprenticeship in empathy, discipline, and grace.
Now go thank your riding-school horse. (Preferably before you next ask for shoulder-in.)"
