Christina Keim for Premier Equestrian Inc. shares the meaning behind dressage letters. #Dressage is hard enough for aficionados to master the nuances of, never mind innocent spectators who may find themselves dragged along to a competition (you know, intrepid souls like partners, children, or the kind acquaintance who took interest in your #horse that one time at yoga). Add to that the pomp and circumstance (The braids! The outfits! The polite golf claps at the end of a test!) and it is no wonder that the entire experience can leave the uninitiated feeling a bit…mystified.
So where, exactly, did this random placement of arena letters come from? One theory attributes the development of modern dressage letters to the German cavalry of the early 1900’s. According to many sources, the space between the stable blocks in the German cavalry barracks was 20 meters wide by 60 meters long, the same dimensions as a modern standard sized arena. This space was generous enough to allow for formation and daily schooling and was labelled with letters whose positions along the edge may have been partially inspired by the earlier system related to noble titles. Other sources indicate that the outdoor arena was labelled simply with letters corresponding to the entrances of the various barracks. The German Cavalry Manual of 1882 shows an indoor arena diagram with the dimensions of 20 meters by 40 meters – the modern small arena – with the letters “A”, “B”, “C”, and “D” marking each corner, and the letters “E” and “F” positioned on the middle of each long side. https://bit.ly/3OORQIp 👇👇👇
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Cool!