So who invented the dadgum Dressage Training Scale, anyway? Where did this pyramid of concepts come from?
Equestrian literary academics note that the Training Scale originated in turn-of-the-20th century Germany, and was first recorded in a 1912 German army training manual, refined in later editions, and adopted and incorporated into the German National Federation’s guidelines for riding and driving. Now the Training Scale is the foundation of every national federation’s educational endeavors.
As Dressage becomes increasingly popular around the globe, wee (sic!) practitioners continue to attempt to demystify it. For decades, Americans have grappled with understanding of German words that have no English equivalents, often blaming our misunderstandings on having read ‘bad translations.’ When verbalizing my own understanding of the Training Scale, I find it easiest to rely on definitions published by horsemen far more learned than myself, whom I will quote ad infinitum when, eventually, I flesh out the outline of my own fascinations.
Subconsciously contemplating that timeline-less project an early morn surfing the net, it dawned on me who really invented the Training Scale. Striding out before my very eyes came THE inventor of the Training Scale, exemplified here in the first 45 seconds of this excerpt from “Welcome to Flyinge,” youtubed by FlyingeStud (SWE):
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Even an untrained eye will recognize the intrinsic beauty of this spectacle. Rhythm, elasticity, unconstraint, balance, self-carriage, an ebullient desire to move forward, engagement, throughness, straightness, and elevation of motion are the expression of celebration of the day by this three week old foal.
This is the ideal to which is compared, 10 or 15 years later, a mature riding horse when it is judged in the sporting rectangle. This is the everyday Olympic ideal to which we compare our progress in the process of conserving each horse’s spirit and developing each horse’s innate locomotive abilities and qualities.
It is our horses who invented the Training Scale, and who teach it to us.
29 October, 11
Christopher Hyams
Dressage Underground 
3 responses to “Who invented the Training Scale?”
Vance Shihadeh
January 9th, 2012 at 02:05
Thank you so much for posting relevant subject matter on your web site. Please realize that as each new article becomes available or in the event any changes occur on the current write-up, I want to read more to learning how to make good use of the exercises you write about. Thanks for your efforts and consideration of other riders, and our horses, by making this site available.
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January 12th, 2012 at 22:23
Wow! That’s refreshing. Sometimes I get so involved in what others are telling me about my horse, that I ignore what my horse is telling me.
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January 30th, 2012 at 08:42
Top of the line subject , I really hope how to make my weblog this interesting !