ANSWER:
The biggest problem is that there are too many people who call themselves classical who simply cannot ride. They use the label "classical" as an excuse for why their horse is never on the bit, or why their horse never learns anything.
There are too many who claim to be classical riders, although they have no first hand experience with classical dressage, since they were not trained by a rider of the SRS or one of the other classical institutions. Therefore, they don't really understand what classical dressage is or how it works. So they bend and stretch the term to fit their own preconceived ideas that are not based on any actual knowledge. Consequently, everybody seems to have their own personal definition of what is or isn't classical, but relatively few people bother to find out by studying with teacher from a classical institution. So the term has become almost meaningless. What's even worse is that when you try to educate them, a surprisingly large number will actually argue, although they have no knowledge base from which to argue - and when the ignorant argue with the educated, nothing positive can come of it. It is just a waste of time for everybody.
Egon von Neindorff actually didn't like the term classical dressage for these exact reasons. He preferred to talk about "feines Reiten", which you could translate as "sophisticated horsemanship", and he often used the term "academic horsemanship". Other terms that were used in the 19th and 20th centuries were "equestrian art", "scientific riding" or "equestrian science", or "natural art of riding".
- Thomas Ritter
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Last Update: February 19, 2007