Dressage Quotes

My first ambition was to be a show jumper. I did a bit of dressage as part of it, and the dressage trainer saw me and said, 'Why are you wasting your time with the other stuff? You should be concentrating on this.'

The best riders in the world with the best horses make it look so elegant and graceful. When you watch it done well, it looks so easy that it's difficult for the public to understand how hard this really is.

I got to a point where I was doing county-level shows, but it was dressage that I really loved where, effectively, the horses are dancing. At one point, I was a groom for Hannah Esberger, who has competed for Great Britain and has seven national championship titles.

I remember some people after the Olympics that had no idea about horses would ask, 'Do you do that with the horse, or does the horse do it by itself?' I think the fact that you can make it look like you are doing nothing is a real talent. And it is such a massive reward at the end of it.

I always thought I was going to be a professional horse rider because I rode horses competitively from zero to 17 years old.

I understand when people think dressage is boring. But while your standard horse is like driving a Fiesta, our horses are like driving Formula One cars. I can't breathe without the horse reacting. You are training another being to become really responsive and athletic and powerful.

I love the freedom you feel on horseback, and enjoy the discipline of competition.

Competing in show jumping is a school of life. And it's one of the few Olympic sports where men and women are equal.

I've been lucky to ride 10 different horses at the Olympics. I'd like to think that of all of them, Big Ben - who was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame - would still be competitive in the contemporary sport.

Far be it from me to force anyone into either chess or dressage, but if you choose to do so yourself, in my opinion there is only one way: follow the rules.

I started to ride when I was very young, and it's a sport I have practised for a very long time.

A horse perceives eye contact as provocative, as if it and its status in the herd are not being respected. If it cannot avoid eye contact, it will react in a different way, by rebelling for example. In dressage you don't get anywhere by not showing respect, however superior your species might be. Any animal trainer can tell you that. In the mountains in Argentina there's a wild horse which will jump off the nearest precipice if any human tries to ride it.

Riding Valegro always makes you smile, so I enjoy it.

It's going to be hard to ever have a horse to replace Valegro. He is a professor. I think he read the dressage book and learnt it all before he ever did it.

Eventing is way too dangerous. People get killed every year doing cross-country.

I began these clinics because I want to share my years of experience in around the ring, in addition to my proven winning methods. I have seen the good and the bad. I have learned valuable lessons, which I want to pass along to those truly interested in the sport.

Valegro just loves his job. I don't have to force him to do anything, I just sit there and steer, and off I go. There's no sweating, no pushing, no pulling. He knows his job, and it's just fantastic.

This will be Valegro's retirement after Rio, so I want to go out there and want to enjoy every last minute.

It's very good for you, riding. You know how every model is like, 'I do yoga.' Well, I find horses to have the same effect, in that you have to put your ego aside and concentrate on making the horse do the things you want it to do, and move in the way you want it to move - particularly if you're doing dressage.

What are the origins of dressage? Did just, one day, some young horse say to his dad, 'Dad, I don't want to charge into battle...I just wanna dance'?

The idea of being a young 50 sounds like you're trying to kid yourself, like a Harley-Davidson or something. I've bought a dressage horse instead.

When I used to say I did dressage, I got blank looks. No one had a clue what I was on about.

There's footage of me bouncing around, all uncoordinated, trying to work out how on earth you're supposed to do a rising trot on a really extravagant moving eventing horse.

I ride my horse at competition level.

Richard Armitage is very good at the old horse riding because of course he did it in 'Robin Hood,' so he's very good at that.