Cowpony
Well-Known Member
One of the comments I often get from dressage judges is that I wasn't on the centre line when coming down the middle of the arena, or when turning onto it from a half circle. No matter how hard I try, I seem to get it wrong. It doesn't help that the A and C markers are not quite straight in the arena where I compete, nor that the way the judge's box is placed means that the judge isn't sitting directly behind C, but hey ho.
So I was quite surprised to see that in the Burghley dressage today they had a very visible line down the centre of the arena. It's clearly visible to the riders (so not a trick done by the TV company) because when a couple of them have been a bit off the line they have come back onto it within a couple of strides. It's the width of a lawnmower and I therefore guess that it's been done by mowing that particular line shorter than the rest of the arena, which is on grass. Is this normal? I've never noticed it in any other 3 day event (although I don't often watch the dressage phase) or dressage competition before. If it's legal in BD it would be jolly useful!
So I was quite surprised to see that in the Burghley dressage today they had a very visible line down the centre of the arena. It's clearly visible to the riders (so not a trick done by the TV company) because when a couple of them have been a bit off the line they have come back onto it within a couple of strides. It's the width of a lawnmower and I therefore guess that it's been done by mowing that particular line shorter than the rest of the arena, which is on grass. Is this normal? I've never noticed it in any other 3 day event (although I don't often watch the dressage phase) or dressage competition before. If it's legal in BD it would be jolly useful!