Polk County military students learn discipline of dressage from former Marine
FORT MEADE, Fla. - A former Polk County Marine is passing along the oldest form of military riding to the next generation.
It is a typical morning at High Gait Farms in Fort Meade where students from Summerlin Academy, a Polk County public school where rigorous academics are taught in a military-structured environment, are learning the classic art of dressage.
They sit quietly, perfectly balanced, and with nearly imperceptible cues, their horses glide lightly and gracefully around the ring. They are under the watchful eye of their instructor, former U.S. Marine and lifelong horseman, Ken Allen.
"You have to talk to horses. You have to learn to speak horse," he explained to FOX 13. "They have to ask the horse, rather than demand. There has to be rapport."
Summerlin offers a four-year program in equestrian studies at no extra cost to the student.
Students from Summerlin Academy, a Polk County public school where rigorous academics are taught in a military-structured environment, are learning the classic art of dressage.
"It gives them the opportunity to do something they would have probably never been able to do in their entire lives because it is such an expensive sport," said Commandant Dr. Cynthia Downing, the academy’s top administrator.
"I like it a lot better than Western or English riding," stated Elyssa Eichar, one of the two dozen students in the program.
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The discipline of dressage is the oldest form of military riding that dates back to Roman and Greek times. It was widely known and popular in Europe for centuries. In the U.S., it got a boost in the early 1960s when Disney released the movie, "Miracle of the White Stallions."
The discipline of dressage is the oldest form of military riding that dates back to Roman and Greek times. It was widely-known and popular in Europe for centuries. In the U.S., it got a boost in the early 1960s when Disney released the movie, "Miracl
It is the story of how the beloved Lippizan stallions were rescued from the Spanish Riding School in Vienna during the Nazi invasion.
Allen still carries on that same traditional training today.
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"You don’t see it with your eye," said Hannah Causby. "That’s the point. To see the result, not to see the process"
Former Marine Ken Allen teaches students the discipline of dressage.
Now up in years, Allen is trying to bring his love of dressage to a whole new generation of young people.
"I think it has a good foundation, rules that people live by," he said.
On a horse, or wherever they go in life.