The piaffe is a high school dressage movement where the horse is in a highly collected and cadenced trot, in place or nearly in place. The center of gravity of the horse should be more towards the hind end, with the hindquarters slightly lowered and great bending of the joints in the hind legs. The front end of the horse is highly mobile, free, and light, with great flexion in the joints of the front legs, and the horse remains light in the hand. The horse should retain a clear and even rhythm, show great impulsion, and should have a moment of suspension between the foot falls. As in all dressage, the horse should perform in a calm manner and remain on the bit with a round back. The fundamental purpose of Dressage (a French term meaning training) is to develop, through standardized progressive training methods, a horses natural athletic ability and willingness to perform, thereby maximizing its potential as a riding horse. ... Binomial name Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 The Horse (Equus caballus) is a sizeable ungulate mammal, one of the seven modern species of the genus Equus. ... The trot is a gait of the horse where the diagonal pairs of legs move forwards at the same time. ...
The piaffe was originally used in battle to keep the horse focussed, warm, and moving, ready to move forward into battle. In modern times the piaffe is mostly taught as an upper level movement in Classical dressage and as a Grand Prix level movement. Classical dressage evolved from cavalry movements trained for the battlefield. ... Georges Boillot winning the 1912 French Grand Prix in Dieppe, France Grand Prix motor racing has its roots in organized automobile racing that began in France as far back as 1894. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1161x1469, 419 KB) Andalusian as presented on the german horsefair Equitana 02. ...
Piaffe has an obvious hovering action of the limbs and, in horses that move through their backs, it shows oscillations of the trunk, but piaffe does not have a suspension.
Piaffe sequence showing the stepping from one diagonal pair to the other (3 left pictures) and the moment in which the limbs are suspended at the highest position during the swing phase (right).
This is one of the differences between piaffe and the other diagonal gaits (trot and passage) and is one of the reasons why piaffe should, perhaps, be regarded as a separate gait.
Piaffe, passage, piaffe-passage and passage-piaffe transitions are the corner stone of academic equitation and are therefore extremely difficult to perfect, though piaffe and passage are quite easy to teach to a passable degree.
In this system, the piaffe is taught as a passage on the spot, conserving the tempo, the suspension and the horizontal balance of the passage and not as a sitting movement that is used to prepare for the levade.
The picures of his horses in piaffe, passage, Spanish trot are exceptional for the brilliance of the movement, the perfection of the rider’s seat, the lightness of the contact, all of it due to a maximum, progressive elevation of the neck.
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