Dressage Court Remeasured

Someday, I hope to board at a barn that has a permanent dressage arena. Someplace where someone else takes care of it. Wouldn't that be wonderful? And expensive. So scratch that. I'll keep my water jugs and schlepp around my own meter tape.

I think El Sueno's court would do nicely.

Since building my own dressage court this summer, I've remeasured and changed it several times looking for the best way to eliminate 10 meters. After three months, I've finally found the set of measurements that offers me the most accurate riding space possible. And here it is:

Where to eliminate meters when you have to cram 60 of them into a 50-meter rectangle.

After much trial and error, I finally realized that I need my corners to be accurate. So many of the mid-level movements begin and end in those corners. The place to chop off your length is not there. Instead, I realized that shrinking the distance between each of the rest of the letters would actually help me be more precise once we're showing in a full length court. That's where I took out my length; 2.5 meters from each section.

With F, M. H, and K set at 6-meters, I now feel like I am able to use my corners so much more effectively. Now that I am not trying to start my half pass while I am still in the corner, Speedy is able to get his butt through the corner before I start asking.

Riding 10-meter circles at each letter doesn't require 12-meters between one letter and the next. My diagonal work is shorter, but it would be no matter where R, B, and P are placed. After riding in my court measured out the way it is now, I am convinced that taking out 2.5 meters between each long side letter is the perfect solution.

Hey, maybe this is what we needed to improve our scores! We'll find out this month.