The Cowboy Dressage Court
The Cowboy Dressage Court is our classroom and our playground. We use the Court to educate our horses and build partnership to help our horses and ourselves be the very best we can be.
The Cowboy Dressage Court is the same size as the traditional small dressage arena but has the added benefit of having a marker every 5 meters all the way around. This makes the entire Court able to be read and ridden on a simple 5-meter grid pattern. Once a rider is familiar with the concept of the 5-meter grid, riding maneuvers and patterns become much simpler, taking the guesswork out of the ride and allowing horse and rider to focus on softness, partnership, and harmony. Cowboy Dressage added four letters to the traditional Court that mark the quarter lines: Q and Y at the C end of the Court, and J and N at the A end of the Court.(fig.1).
Setting Up Your Court
Familiarizing yourself with the lay of the land and the seemingly random assortment of alpha- bet soup that is the Cowboy Dressage Court is essential when you begin to use the Court to school your horse and ride tests. Going through the steps of setting up your Court at home can be a great way to learn where the letters are and how they are paired on the Court in the common maneuvers.
In order to begin to set up your Cowboy Dressage Court, it is useful to have a 40-meter tape measure. Because the Court is set up using a 5-meter grid, the meter tape measure does make things simpler, but it is not essential. A 100-foot tape measure can also be used. Because the measurements in feet can be a little more intricate to keep track of, some Cowboy Dressage enthusiasts will mark their 100-foot tape with a permanent marker to correspond to the 5-meter marks, rather than do the math or repetitively measure out the 16 feet, 4 7/8 inches between each marker.
There are many different ways to set up your Court, and people will have their own surefire way to make sure the Court is square and correct. Some choose to begin with the centerline (A–C line) and the midline (B–E line) at “8” (the center of the Court, marked in recognition of Eitan). You may choose to set up the Court as two 20-meter boxes. However you set up your Court, it is very helpful to have at least one helper to aid in keeping your lines nice and straight. If you start with your centerline and midline, it is useful to then set your letters by using your long and short diagonals.
The long diagonals are F–H and K–M. The short diagonals are P–S and V–R. Then you are only left with your blank cones on either side of B and E and your quarter line letters on either side of A and C. The quarter lines are Q–J and Y–N. Setting up the letters as you would be using them on the Court can be easier than just memorizing their order around the Court.
Aside from the standard letters on the periphery of the Court and the 8 that marks the center of our Cowboy Dressage Court, there are also some “invisible letters” that mark the grid line up the centerline. From A, traveling up the center- line to C, those letters are D, L, 8, I, G. In some
of the more advanced tests, these letters become more important but though they are “invisible,” they are easily located because of the grid lines. D is on the K–F line. L is on the P–V line, I is on the S–R line, and G is on the H–M line. Familiarize yourself with the letters in any way that ensures it makes sense. The Court is there to help you and your horse, not intimidate you.
After you master the Cowboy Dressage & the Cowboy Dressage Challenge Courts Set-up, you can mark the location of all your cones, ground poles, the octagon and the rest of the court with Whisker Markers.
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