Stephen Colbert and “DRESsage vs dresSAGE!” : Robert Dover
I love the fact that Stephen Colbert named Dresage the Official Colbert Nation Sport For Summer, 2012, and that he followed up on his initial report last Monday showing everyone at Gladstone, the site of the Olympic Selection Trials, wearing their big red finger gloves and drinking their Bud’s. You can’t buy publicity like this, especially for a sport like ours that isn’t known to be “mainstream”. I wonder if Anky Van Grunsven knows she’s had a staring role on Stephen’s show twice already. And Jan Ebeling and Rafalca now have the distinction of being the most well known American Dressage combination in the history of the sport, thanks to Mitt and Ann Romney being part owners of the horse. Even announcer, Brian O’Conner, is now officially more famous than his Gold Medal-winning brother, David!
But here’s the thing. If, Stephen, by some chance you are up late in the middle of the night searching more information about our wonderful sport and you run across DoversWorld.com, I just want you to know that Brian was not altogether right to correct you for your pronunciation of the word, “DRESSAGE”. The truth is that you were just as correct in how you said it as was Brian, depending upon which country you are from. The British actually place the emphasis on the first half of the word while we Americans tend to say it the way Brian did. In fact, it is a French word and considering your roots, I would say that you hit the nail slap-dad right on the head! But like most sports, we who play it have a language all to our own, so if you ever need an expert interpreter, I’d be happy to come on the Report and help you out. LOL!
Cheers!
RD
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