Article 5 — The levels
The level is set by the horse's degree of schooling, not by the rider's level.
A LEVEL IS NOT DEFINED BY A REQUIRED NUMBER OF MOVEMENTS. No movement is compulsory: the choreography decides which ones are shown. The descriptions below state what the horse must be ABLE to perform, not what it must display.
1 — AMATEUR HORSE The horse is schooled to Low School level: lateral work, jambettes, Spanish walk, single flying changes. Whip and spurs allowed.
2 — PRO INTER HORSE The category for riders who believe their horse has now reached Pro level and want to try before taking the step: the stepping stone to Pro level. Movements remain free: High School movements (piaffe, passage, close-sequence flying changes, pirouettes) as well as movements drawn from other riding traditions — spins from western riding, jumped pirouettes, vaquera pirouettes from Spanish riding. The trainer's difficulty is to combine every aid so that the horse does not confuse them and can perform them through all the transitions, so as to dance. Whip and spurs allowed.
3 — PRO HORSE The category every rider aspires to: the horse dances without a whip. Only spurs are allowed. Movements remain free, and it is the rider who chooses to enter the horse at this level.
Moving from Pro Inter to Pro is not a matter of adding movements: it means doing without the whip, a step few pairs take.
4 — PRO LIBRE HORSE The highest level of Artistic Dressage. Without a whip.
Here, what is set free is the rider. At the other levels, the rider keeps the reins in hand and a rider's position. In Pro Libre, the rider's body enters the choreography: arm movements, reins at the belt, riding without permanent contact. The rider may also play with a prop that serves the theme — an umbrella to “Singin' in the Rain”, for example.
The horse then dances on an almost invisible understanding, and it is this bond that is judged, more than the movements. The pair becomes one: this is the myth of the centaur.
The rider does not leave the saddle for more than five seconds: beyond that, the pair is eliminated (article 17). Artistic Dressage remains a dance, not a circus act.
The Federation's logo comes from a movement at this level.
