"Definitely yes", says Colonel Christian Carde, former Écuyer en Chef of the Cadre Noir, Saumur. The discipline of dressage has ist roots in the Italian renaissance. After coming a long way during which renowned masters of different European countries left their imprint, it became an Olympic discipline at the beginning of the 20th century. As such it was supposed to preserve equestrian art from the alterations which it could suffer from. But under the effect of globalization dressage developed rapidly in the course of the past decades, thereby having found it hard to achieve a good balance between sport and equestrian art which is but indispensable for the discipline to survive. The authors expose this development from the perspective of the German as well as the French equestrian tradition and illustrate in which situation contemporary dressage is in. In the practical part of the book pleasure as well as competitive dressage riders benefit from the extensive experience of Christian Carde who witnessed international dressage in the past 50 years from almost all angles, as a rider in international dressage competition up to Olympic games, as Ecuyer en Chef of the Cadre Noir, Saumur, and as a sought-after instructor worldwide. Heavily influenced by his classical teachers, he presents a training concept for dressage horses which always focuses on the physical and mental integrity of the horse and serves dressage riders both for competition and leisure.weiterlesen