Dressage is a kind of horse riding — and an Olympic sport — in which the horse and rider perform a planned set of careful movements, almost like a dance. The rider gives very small signals with the legs, the seat, and the reins; the horse walks, trots, canters, turns, and stops in a precise way. Judges mark how calm, obedient, and beautiful the work looks. It is not a race, and it is not about putting clothes on a horse, though the English word dress sits in the background: the French source means training, arranging, preparing. English often keeps a slightly French sound, “dress-AHZH.” It is a specialist word; people who do not ride may never use it. Formal, sport-and-stable register.