To think dressage is cruel and also ludicrous?

It’s a lot less likely to result in the horse’s death than anything involving jumping.

I think most things humans do with animals is utterly fucked - selectively breeding for companionship or consumption. Dressage is pretty much the least of it. Have you ever tried making a horse do something they don’t want?

Dressage is supposed to be an extension of natural movements - you can see horses doing many of them alone in the field. It should be developed slowly over many years and was conceived as a training foundation that would give you a strong, sensitive, supple horse for anything else you wanted to do. Think of it like yoga or callisthenics for horses.

But humans choose to do yoga or calisthenics for themselves. Horses don't choose to get someone to train them to do dressage.

"Dressage" just means "training", and horses with the right conformation and temperament can be trained to incredibly high technical standards, just like an athlete or a gymnast.

Those horses that do not have the scope or cadence for the moves don't get up to those levels, just like an athlete or a gymnast.

I will admit that it's not much of a spectator sport for the untrained eye or if you like to see daredevil risk taking (you still wouldn't want to sit on a fit dressage horse feeling a bit fresh with the wind up it's arse let me tell ya), but for anyone with an interest in sensitive, skilled riding the movements are breathtaking. Just like any of us sitting on the couch at home may be impressed by the movements of an athlete or gymnast...

The horse racing industry is a billion times more cruel than dressage.

You're showing that you don't know a lot about either, OP.

Making dogs 'dance' for Saturday night entertainment is also cruel
Putting dogs in stupid costumes/prams/wheeled back legs is cruel
Keeping birds/mice/guinea pigs in cages is cruel
Racing is cruel at the end of the horse's racing life. They are v difficult to rehome without specialist help
Ditto racing greyhounds, ofen just dumped
Inbreeding of dogs so they are the size of teacups and/or brachycephalic is cruel
Horses do not dance. The history of dressage is in war; perhaps read a bit about it

Dressage is supposed to be an extension of natural movements - you can see horses doing many of them alone in the field. It should be developed slowly over many years and was conceived as a training foundation that would give you a strong, sensitive, supple horse for anything else you wanted to do. Think of it like yoga or callisthenics for horses.

Like anything humans do, those fundamentals can be taken to extremes and abused and short-cuts used. The best and (what should be) the highest scoring horses in competition should look relaxed and focussed. It's often hard to tell the difference to the untrained eye. Many of those highly trained horses will carry out the same moves without a bridle - you don't need to force it, unless you don't have the right training foundations.