Riding in the dressage arena © Benkert

Points of the arena

A dressage arena differs from any other riding arena mainly by the points of the arena. Especially when dressage riding, learning these points is very important.
The dressage arena is equipped with different course points in the form of letters and the so-called circle points. These letters mark the points on the square where dressage riders start or finish their lessons at the tournament. Their location and distances to each other are defined for both the 20m x 40xm square and the 20m x 60m square. The points are for orientation and allow a concrete description of the lines of the schooling figures. Especially in dressage competitions, the judges can use the points to evaluate the correct execution of schooling figures and lessons.

Points of the arena

Eight letters (A, K, E, H, C, M, B, F) surround the standard square with an edge length of 20 x 40 metres, plus three imaginary letters (G, X, D) on the centre line.
In the 60x40 meter square, dressage competitions starting with class M (occasionally already class L) as well as all international dressage competitions usually take place in Germany - there are twelve letters on the edge (M, R, B, P, F, A, K, V, E, S, H, C) and five on the center line (G, I, X, L, D). The circle points are used for orientation to turn away correctly on the circle line towards the centre of the path X.
The path points F, M, K and H are also called change points. The corner markings of the long sides (M, F, K, H) are always six meters away from the corner of the track. Additionally, there are black circles on the long sides at a distance of 10 meters from the respective corner: the circle points. At 60-metre-square are additional circle points at middle of long sides at B and E.

The dressage arena

The entrance of the dressage arena is always at A. The judges sit, depending on class and number of judges, in the middle of the opposite side at C, along the short side at H, C and M and if necessary also in the middle of the long sides at B and E.
Since the course letters are the standard for all dressage riders who participate in international competitions, the riding arenas all over the world are also equipped with them. In Germany, for example, up to an average performance level in dressage, riders mainly ride on 40-metre long squares. Therefore, in badge tests the naming of a small arena is learned and queried. In France, on the other hand, riders learn the points of the 60-metre square from the very beginning.

The history of the arena points

Exactly when the name of the arena points was created is unclear. What is certain is that the letters first appeared at an international competition at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp.
In 1912, when the first individual medals in Olympic history were awarded to riders in tails and top hats in Stockholm, there were no letters on the edge of the rectangle.
There is hardly any reliable information about their origin. The dressage trainer and former career officer Eberhard Weiß from Marloffstein near Nuremberg reports that already in the 19th century the Prussian cavalry marked the corners of the riding arenas in the cavalry riding schools with the letters A to D,. "At the beginning of the 20th century these letters moved to the middle of the square sides." Weiß believes that there is no systematic behind the sequence of letters, but that the International Equestrian Federation FEI had to determine a designation and that this was obviously solved unsystematically. In every language there are so-called mnemonic devices to remember the letter sequences.