Three riding traditions, one arena
Dressage, doma vaquera and alta escuela
What the three riding traditions named in the Córdoba show are, where each comes from and what to watch for when the horses and the dancer move.
Reserve your seat at the stables ↗Three traditions in one hour
The booking page names three riding traditions in the Córdoba show: classical dressage, doma vaquera and alta escuela. The operator uses the same three names for the disciplines at its Christmas cup. A flamenco dancer moves with the horses in the show, so you see riding, music and dance in one arena. Which numbers you see is up to the organisers on the night, so treat what follows as a way of seeing, not a programme.
Classical dressage
Dressage means training. Wikipedia calls it the highest expression of horse training, in which the rider directs the horse with coordinated leg, seat and rein aids. At its peak the horse answers minimal aids and the rider looks relaxed. Its roots go back to Xenophon, and the Renaissance brought new treatises, such as Federico Grisone's of 1550. Classical riding aims to work in harmony with the horse, not against it.
Why these three
The operator lists the same three disciplines on the entry form for its Christmas cup: classical dressage, doma vaquera and alta escuela. They are the names it uses for riding at the Caballerizas Reales, and the booking page builds the show from them. A flamenco dancer then joins the horse's movements, which the booking page and Spain's tourism board both describe.
Doma vaquera
Wikipedia describes doma vaquera as the traditional working riding discipline of Spain. It is based on two older riding styles, a la brida, the style of heavy cavalry, and a la jineta, the style of light cavalry. It is distinct from the classical high school, and it sits beside rejoneo and acoso y derribo in Spain's riding traditions. In the arena, this is the cowboy side of the show.
Alta escuela
Alta escuela is the Spanish name for the high school of riding, haute école in French. Wikipedia calls it the highest form of classical riding, one that takes years for both horse and rider to master. It includes movements such as piaffe and passage and, for some horses, the school jumps called airs above the ground: courbette, capriole, levade and ballotade. Usually a horse is trained in only one air.
Where flamenco comes in
Flamenco brings song, guitar, dance and handclaps together, and UNESCO declared it part of the intangible heritage of humanity on 16 November 2010, according to Wikipedia. In the Córdoba show, the tourism board says dance numbers fuse the dance with the horses' exercises. The booking page says a dancer accompanies the horse's movements. The dancer's role is to answer the horse, not to take the stage from it.
How to watch
Watch the rider's hands and seat: in good dressage the aids are barely visible. Watch the horse's balance in turns and halts. When the dancer joins, look for how the dancer's steps match the horse's rhythm. If a horse rears or leaps in the high-school section, remember Wikipedia's point that these airs were more likely training exercises than battlefield moves. Nobody expects you to name the movements.
The airs, one by one
Wikipedia describes four school jumps. In the courbette, the horse balances on its hind legs and jumps, keeping its forelegs off the ground. In the capriole, it leaps into the air, pulls its forelegs towards its chest and kicks out with its hind legs. The levade and the ballotade complete the set. None is used in modern competitive dressage, but riding academies perform them, and they demand years of work from horse and rider.
Dressage in competition
Modern dressage is a sport that runs from amateur level to the Olympic Games. The rider performs a memorised sequence of movements in a standard arena, and judges score each movement from zero to ten. A show like the one in Córdoba is a display, not a test, so nobody is scoring. Even so, the same principles of balance, rhythm and an effortless-looking rider apply, and they explain why the work looks calm.
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