Paradis Pro Lori Barrett is an FEI dressage rider and trainer (the highest level of horsemanship), specializing in the development of young dressage prospects. Dressage is an equestrian sport requiring the execution of precise movements by a trained horse in response to barely perceptible signals from its rider. The word dressage means “training” in French.
Lori has loved horses essentially from birth, starting her professional career as a “barn rat” at the age of 12, first with hunter/jumper training & competitions. At 17, she began apprenticing under an elite dressage trainer in the US before moving to Europe to further her education. Lori competes with Olympic dressage riders around the country and her current coach anchored the silver medal in dressage from the Tokyo Olympics. Lori is the owner of Revel Ranch, a top training facility for young dressage horses based near Park City, UT, and she is exclusively the trainer for her own and her client’s horses.
Lori took some time to explain to us more about the sport of Dressage and what the sport entails as our first in a new series where we explore the nuances of some lesser known competitive sports.
Dressage is a disciplined form of equestrian horse riding that emphasizes communication between horse & rider, which is a pithy summary of a sport / art that hundreds of volumes have been written about. It’s as good a starting point as any!
The goal in dressage is to have complete harmony between horse & rider, teaching the horse to use its body in expansive & beautiful ways, at the invisible direction of the rider. Well executed dressage looks like a dance, a merging of horse & rider as one creature. Riders are driven toward the relentless pursuit of unattainable perfection, like any athlete or artist.
In competition, there is a score given for each movement, similar to a gymnastics routine, evaluating the technical precision of each action. After the foundational work, riders are able to recombine the test elements to music (seen here in the famous “Rave Horse” video,) where riders also receive artistic scores, in addition to technical. The advanced work is very strenuous for the horses. The typical training of a horse from first time under saddle to the pinnacle of the sport takes around 5-10 years. Consequently, great value is placed on the mental & physical health of the horses as athletes, and long careers are prized: the average age of team horses on the US Dressage Team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was 17. Trainers & riders work hard to provide a holistic approach to their work & health, incorporating familiar elements as athletes in other realms: periodization of training, strength work, endurance training, mobility exercises & auxiliary elements (like trail rides or plyometrics), to keep all of the work fresh & the horses engaged.
In daily training, I wear breeches, helmet, gloves and tall boots. In competition, I add either a blazer-type jacket for National-level competition, or a tailcoat for International, when I like to look like a small Victorian man. With many hours spent in the saddle, I developed saddle sores and was looking for underwear that was more comfortable and wouldn’t chafe. The Paradis bikini stays put, which, while a wedgie on the horse isn't as annoying as one when you're running, when isn't a wedgie annoying? So that is a fine discovery.
One of the great attractions of dressage is that any horse can learn it; they won’t all be Olympic candidates, but think about yoga being for every body type. The movement variation can benefit any animal, increasing elasticity & range of motion for our equine counterparts.
One question that comes up is whether riders are actually athletes. It’s a good practice for every rider, but if you’re going to go deeper into the performance elements of the sport, it is crucial that the rider be strong (in core & back) and finely tuned to propriocepting while being acted upon by the horse’s movements! Every rider who has started a practice of dressage will tell you it is the hardest sport they have ever done, as our bodies can be noncompliant, even once our busy minds wrap around all of the dictums of the sport.
But it’s this level of pursuit that is intriguing, along with the horse partnership. Given that riders work with their horses 4-5 days/week for years on end, the horse/human friendship becomes strong. Riders know their horse's quirks, their preferences, and their personalities better than most of our loved ones, because, isn’t that what love is? Showing up, day in, day out & keep building together?
Lori Barrett's dedication to dressage, her pursuit of perfection, and her commitment to the well-being of her equine partners exemplify the essence of the sport. Whether through her impressive competitive achievements or her passion for nurturing young horses at Revel Ranch, Lori's journey underscores the beauty and challenge of dressage. Equally important is the role of reliable, comfortable apparel in achieving peak performance. Lori's partnership with Paradis Sport highlights how essential it is for riders to have gear that supports them without causing discomfort. As we delve into the world of dressage, we uncover not just a competitive pursuit but a lifelong dance of harmony, discipline, and mutual respect between horse and rider, where every detail, including what you wear, matters.
