Equestrian Dressage

Equestrian dressage is a sort of ballet on horseback, in which the rider has the horse perform certain intricate maneuvers of stepping. Dressage is a French term, most commonly translated to mean “training”.

Dressage was first contested at the Olympics in 1912 at Stockholm, although team dressage was not added until the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. Both individual and team dressage have been on the Olympic Programme since, with the lone exception of 1960, when only an individual competition was contested. Through 1948, Olympic equestrian events were limited to military officers and men only, but in 1952 this was changed, and dressage became open to either gender at the Olympics.

Dressage is scored by judges evaluating the execution and purity of each performance. Olympic competitions in dressage have usually consisted of two or three rounds, with scoring done for each round, and lower placed competitors eliminated after each round. Since 1996, Olympic individual dressage has consisted of three phases – Grand Prix, Grand Prix Special, and Grand Prix Freestyle.

Through 2024, the top nations in equestrian events at the Olympics have been Germany (and also West Germany), Sweden, and France, with Germany cementing their top position in the last few Olympiads. The gold medal count is led by German Isabell Werth, with eight golds, and Reiner Klimke, who won six golds representing Germany and West Germany. Werth has also won the most Olympic medals in dressage, with a total of 14, followed by Dutch Anky van Grunsven, with nine medals in all.

Dressage is governed by the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), which was formed in 1921 by Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and the United States, and had 136 affiliated national federations as of 2024. The FEI governs several different disciplines of equestrianism, including jumping, eventing, dressage, driving, and vaulting.