Dressage: The Quest for Perfection

Perfection is defined as “the condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects.” Well doesn’t this sound like the elusive quest of a dressage show? But who really attains perfection? This flawless state seems reserved for the Gods and Goddesses of the mythological world, and even they encounter challenges! Think of Demeter, the Great and Powerful Goddess, wife of Zeus, who finds herself in a fight with Hades, for the retrieval of her daughter Persephone, who has been dragged into the underworld. Demeter has to raise hell and refuse to let anything grow on earth, in order to get some attention to settle the matter!

Sitting atop a large dressage horse, in all of her finery, a woman takes on a Goddess like position. The spirit of the horse between her legs is a powerful force, ready to fly, leap, or dance in response to the slightest request. The counterbalance to that power is Persephone, as a personification of a less mature part of the self that lives in the psyche. In the myth, Persephone is innocently picking flowers in a meadow, when Hades, who rides through the sky in a chariot drawn by black horses, snatches her up. How many of us, sitting there on our mounts, (with hours and hours of practice under our shiny black belts), have felt the younger part of ourselves begin to lose focus, drift off into the fields of self-doubt or slide into the underworld of nervousness or fear? Persephone can take an unexpected dive and you’d better get a handle on her; otherwise, that test which you have carefully memorized might be snatched right from your mind. Be on the lookout for Hades! He’s quick. What an awful feeling to come past A, round the corner towards K and realize that you have no idea about what comes next. Where, oh where, did it go!  Fortunately, dressage is a relational sport, and our horses usually remember the next move, if we can only allow them. 

Perhaps striving for perfection is not really the best route. It is rather dangerous to fly too far into the heavens, as was demonstrated by the Greek figure of Icarus. His father, Daedalus, fashioned wings of wax and feathers to help Icarus escape Sicily. Icarus became excited in his flight and flew up and up and up until he was so close to the sun that his waxy wings melted and he fell down, down into the sea and drowned. That craving for the heights, the heavens, up where the Gods live, is somewhat insatiable. 

What Sicily are we trying to escape by striving for a perfection that is typically reserved for the deities; the mundane world of work, dishes, brushing teeth, tending to others? Being around horses inevitably lifts the spirits. It’s a given, and brains, with a slew of neurotransmitters connecting to release pleasure hormones, crave it. Any rider will tell you that she cannot go too many days in a row without a visit to the barn. It’s our therapy. Rather expensive, but we all know it. We crave those heights of emotion and the thrill of the almost perfect ride. If only I had used a little more leg there or backed off here, oh, I would have had that next higher score! Give me just one more ride…Perfection is elusive; the pursuit of it, addictive. The excessive pursuit of it can tarnish the experience and ruin the adventure. 

Let’s consider for a moment if it is not perfection that we must seek, what is it? What might be more fitting for a mere mortal? How about the experience itself; the process, the joining with the horse, the journey?  It is a moment-by-moment experience and no two rides are ever exactly the same, no matter the number of times the moves have been drilled. In fact, we can drive the spirit right out of the experience by seeking perfection from a mechanistic approach. We are not riding machines! We’ve all seen horses become broken from being ridden as if they were a piece of athletic equipment, with not a single feeling for their emotional well being. This horse does not last long. 

What about harmony between horse and rider? The beauty of harmony, balance and relaxation is exquisite. We know the special times when we’ve seen this present in the electromagnetic field shared between horse and rider. There’s a particular sense that you get when watching such a pair.  Harmony is defined as “the quality of forming a pleasing and consistent whole.” Wholeness suggests unity between horse and rider. Striving for harmony places more emphasis on this relationship. It is a beautiful thing to behold. Why not bring in the feminine principles of harmony, balance, and wholeness and move away from the rather worn out masculine principles of hard-nosed perfection? While we may never entirely give up striving for perfection, we can at least temper it with knowing that there is a little bit of the Gods and Goddesses in us already. From that knowing, from that place, perhaps we can reach for harmony. And the horse, we can all agree, is filled with a spirit so magnanimous that it awakens the awe and wonder in each of us. And here we have a mythic combination, right on planet Earth.

Written By Dr. Jill Griffin, July 25, 2019.
Jill studies in the fields of mythology and depth psychology.
She co-facilitates an equine-assisted learning program for teen girls and works as a University professor. Jill rides with a Dutch Warm Blood named Daley.