It’s a sight to see: magnificent classical dressage horses of the haute école performing powerful airs above ground. While audiences around the world have enjoyed these displays of strength and beauty for years, science has been relatively silent about how these horses perform the complex movements biomechanically and what effects they might have on the animal. That is, until now.

A group of French researchers recently began investigating the traditional riding school movements to gain a better understanding of them. This will not only improve training and safeguard equine welfare, but it will also help trainers select horses that are “up” to such high-level skills, according to Sophie Biau, PhD, research coordinator at the Ecole National d’Equitation in Saumur. Biau presented her research at the 2013 French Equine Research Day held earlier this year in Paris.

“The research we are carrying out will allow us to establish a quantified reference of school jumps, which will enrich the knowledge of this immaterial cultural heritage of humanity as well as help understand the role of the immediate preparation phase and the mechanics that are subjacent to these movements,” Biau said. “A better understanding of these movements and their biomechanical imperatives creates a basis for an objective monitoring of the training of school jump horses and could even improve their training and the selection of such horses.”

Biau said she and colleagues have studied the history and evolution of the three classic jumps still practiced today at the Ecole Nationale d’Equitation—the courbette, the croupade, and the cabriole—from a biomechanical point of view. These three jumps have changed considerably, in different ways, since they were first trained during the Renaissance period, Biau said. In fact, the courbette isn’t technically a “jump” at all anymore; rather, it is a haute école movement during which the horse remains balanced on his hindquarters. The reasons for these changes are unclear. However, Biau said, “We might be able to find certain biomechanical explanations for some of the changes