Dressage with a Western Accent vs. an English Accent
Western and more traditional, classical dressage are a bit different, but they still follow the same principles. The two disciplines help create a better horse and rider partnership with structured training and working up the levels. Both look for balance, cadence and carriage and share fundamentals; both feature patterns or tests used in competition for judges to award a numerical score.
Lark’s Home Run, aka Homer, is bilingual when it comes to dressage. He holds the record as a seven-time Western Dressage Association of America (WDAA) World Champion at Basic, First, Second and Third Levels. He was also a two-time Western Dressage Association of Florida (WDAFL) State Champion at Second and Third Levels, a two-time WDAFL High Point Champion at Second and Third Levels, and the Western Dressage Association of Florida (WDAFL) Amateur High Point Champion.
The difference is that Western dressage integrates principles of the Western working horse and the goal is a safe, willing, versatile and useful horse in the movements and duties asked of a Western cow horse. In keeping with tradition, Western Dressage is shown in Western tack and clothing and it even features musical freestyle tests.
Natalie Lamping, a Western dressage “S” judge, FEI 4* judge and FEI Para 3* judge, explained some of the differences between Western and classical dressage. She said the scope of the horse’s gaits is the biggest difference between the two disciplines.
“The scope of the horses is a big thing,” she said. “You can have a very nice, correctly moving Western dressage horse and, on that same horse in a traditional dressage class, the gaits might not be big enough to score well. A good horse is a good horse, no matter what breed it is if the horse bends his hocks, uses his back and has some animation.”
Lamping added that in classical dressage there's more forwardness with engagement and energy while Western dressage tends to also be engaged but a little slower and designed with working cow horses in mind.
Homer is no newcomer to more traditional dressage. He won the Adequan/USDF All-Breeds Champion at Second and Third Levels and Reserve Fourth Level as well as the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) Dressage Champion First, Second, Third and Fourth Levels. He loves his new job learning more about classical dressage. He also loves dancing to the music in his baseball-themed freestyle created by Ruth Hogan-Poulsen.
“Western dressage is tailored to the cow horse,” she said. “It's just that traditionally they don't cover as much ground as classical dressage. In classical dressage, even though the horse has collected, the hind legs have to step under and cover some ground to reach the front legs.”
For example, in one of the Western dressage tests, the horse and rider come down the quarter line and do a turn on the forehand to a turn on the hunches. Lamping said you can either pivot or keep moving in a turn on the haunches. She said in classical dressage, when a horse does a turn on the haunches, the hind legs have to keep moving. In Western dressage, judges accept a pivot or a roll back behind so the horse can spin.
“And that's like what I was talking about the cow horse,” she explained. “They have to work. They have to be close to the ground. They have to be able to turn and work cattle.
“Their tests are designed with that in mind. They do shoulder-in and they leg yield and they do simple changes and lengthenings, but the lengthening on a Quarter Horse is generally not going to be the same as on a good Thoroughbred or warmblood. That's not to say that you might not have a Quarter Horse that moves exceptionally well. A really good Western dressage horse with good gaits and free shoulders that tracks up and comes up in the neck and shoulders will do well in Western dressage, but will also do well in regular dressage.”
Lamping advocates for some changes in Western dressage. She thinks that separate classes should be created for Quarter Horses and for other breeds, and that special tests should be devised for gaited horses. She also thinks that the riders should strive to incorporate more classically correct dressage into their work to get more bending in their figures.
“That's still a work in progress, but we get that in dressage too,” she said.
She suggested that Western dressage could be a fun alternative for traditional dressage riders and their horses who are getting older.
“A lot of people who can't ride a horse to show off all the gaits well because they might not be able to sit the trot, or the horse is older and can’t go as forward or as elastically but can bend its hocks and is obedient and nice and in the contact, they could do well in Western dressage,” she said. “They could get a better score than someone in a regular dressage class, and they would have fun and the horse would have more fun. A lot of people who are limited in the suppleness of their body or in the horse’s body could do similar tasks in Western dressage and have fun.”