“Higher School”

The golden horses of a Scythian pectoral, the numerous pictures that show Cossack Mamai’s loyal companion resting together with his master after a longtime expedition: ancient art has always reminded us that horses used to serve our ancestors from times immemorial, be it a Cossack’s dashing and proud clipper or a peasant’s quiet workhorse. “No sooner had I brought in my horse to be shod as the smithy burned down,” “Never flog a willing horse,” “A horse will fancy a horse,” “You won’t ride too far on somebody else’s horse,” “Horses are not to blame” — there are countless folk sayings with “horse-related content.”

In the early 1990s Ukrainian horses faced the danger of remaining just a folklore item: the equestrian sport seemed to be on its last legs because the best sportsmen had gone abroad, taking the best horses with themselves. The past few years have seen not only the economic growth but also a gradual revival of Ukrainian horse- breeding and the equestrian sport. It is, naturally, right to say that horses are an expensive hobby. Only very affluent people can afford to keep a horse of their own, especially a sporting-class one.

Yet, a true love for this animal knows no social or material bounds, while the entire country should take pride in its equestrian sports men and women.

Last Friday the equestrian center in Kyiv’s Obolon district hosted the 2nd international dressage tournament dedicated to the outstanding sportsman and coach Oleksandr Kovshov. He was an irreplaceable mentor for many equestrians, and the Kovshov dynasty is a household name in not only the Ukrainian but also the international equestrian sporting community. Oleksandr Kovshov’s son Yuriy won a gold medal at the 1980 Olympics, and this glorious tradition is being upheld today by the family’s younger generation.

Dressage is often called the higher school of horsemanship. It is quite a difficult but, at the same time, spectacular variety of the equestrian sport, a “horse ballet” of sorts, which emphasizes, as best as it can, the beautiful harmony between man and horse. One must carefully perform, from A to Z, all the elements of the pattern. A slightest hitch or mistake will result in lower scores and loss of the prize. What is considered the acme of dressage art is the Vienna-based Spanish Higher School of Riding. It was founded in the Austrian capital back in 1572 and was named “Spanish” because of the origin of the horses that worked there. The slow but, as it seems, sure renaissance of the equestrian sport in this country allows us to hope that one day the world will be also speaking about the Ukrainian school.