Arena Figures

Sue Morris


	Straight Lines and Corners

Arena Figures and Exercises

I - Straight Lines and Corners

These articles will build into a file of arena figures and movements and exercises that can be ridden through them. Although I’ve put them in general ascending order of difficulty, take into consideration that all horses are different and will take varying amounts of time to perfect the movement. Remember also, that there are ‘degrees’ of difficulty – the shoulder in begins with the shoulder fore; the travers with the haunches fore.

There may be a set number of school movements that you can ride, but the ways of combining them and patterns ridden within them are almost endless. Many riders seem to get stuck in the ‘go large and ride 20m circles’ routine – no wonder they think dressage is boring! Dressage begins and ends with the 20m circle. It is the easiest and most the difficult figure to ride correctly!

Let’s begin by looking at that most basic shape: the 20m metre circle.(Fig.1) Or perhaps I should say the half 20m circle as this is where young and green (in the sense of older, stiffer re-trainee) horses start their bending in the dressage arena. For these horses, each of the two short sides of the 20m x 40m or 20m x 60m arena consist of a half 20m circle. (Fig.2) Unfortunately, many horses then spend the rest of their career riding the short sides as half 20m circles, instead of progressing down to corners ridden with 3 steps of the inside hind leg – which effectively makes these advanced corners a quarter of a 6m volte. The 6m volte is the smallest circle a horse can describe without deviating from the line with his shoulders or haunches. (More on this in a future article.)





		Fig.1





									Fig.2


	Fig.3


	Fig.4

As you can see from the above illustrations, to ride a correct 5m Loop, (Fig.3) the horse needs to get a little deeper into the corner than for a 20m Half Circle (Fig 4.), otherwise he will leave the track too late and find himself quickly running out of room to make the changes of bend smoothly and evenly.

The apex of the loop is a at point 5m from E (or B) on the quarter line. On the right rein, as the horse leaves the track at K you have to slowly and smoothly change the flexion and bend to the left, so that the horse is bent to the left as he passes E. Then as you head back to the track you once again slowly and smoothly return to the right flexion and bend and continue around the corner in the correct form.

Although this is a relatively simple exercise do not be tempted to force the flexion and bend with your hands. Changing your seat bones, together with the position of your legs, and shoulders fluidly through the movement will allow your hands to keep and even contact on the reins and encourage the horse to continue to seek the bit.

As your horse becomes proficient in this exercise you can move on to 10m Loops and then onto the Serpentines.

The most basic Serpentine, beginning at A or C, is the 2-loop or 2 half 20m circles in the small arena or 3-Loop Serpentine (Fig 5) in the large arena. These only require a smooth change of flexion, bend and diagonal (if rising trot is ridden) over the centreline. However, when more loops are added the way of riding them changes also. In the small arena a three loop Serpentine is ridden as 3 half circles connected by straight lines.





			Fig.5



	It is possible to take serpentines further by including a complete circle within each loop or by riding them as a series of 5m or 10m loops either side of the centreline. In training you may turn them into a series of egg-timer shapes by adding more and more loops to the set, but bear in mind for competition purposes the Serpentines are ridden as half circles and straight lines.

If, every time you ride, you insist on the horse making the correct arena patterns, you will be well on the way to training your horse, without riding any movements, because in order to ride a straight line, a round circle, and a good corner, your horse has to be straight and on the aids. You will gain a head start on suppleness and durchlässigkeit (throughness) with this attention to accuracy.

Please let me know your favourite patterns and exercises and what purpose you use them for and I may include them in future articles. suemorris@classicaldressage.co.uk


	Copyright © Sue Morris 1998-2008 The “3 Black Horses” & Email logos are trademarks of the Classical Dressage Notebook