Jumping in a 20x40m arena...

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MegaBeast

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I've been totally spoilt by the 30x60 arena at my yard, plenty of room to set up grids, full courses, various schooling exercises etc...

Was wondering the other day what it would be like to have a 20x40, can you still do grid work? Obviously can't put out a full course but realistically a small course? A treble?

Those of you with 20x40 arenas do you find yourself hiring large arenas so you can school with more variety or is it adequate? Thinking in respect to competing at PN/BE90 level.

Just mindless ponderings...
 
You can jump in a 20x40 but it's tight and there's not way you could put out a proper course.

We schooled a 17hh hunter round a 2'9 'course' the other day in a small 20x40.

5 jumps, places stragically and build so they can be jumped from both directions, give you a decent course to practise round.
 
an old instructor got to 4* with a 20x40 too. It had a lovely surface, and she used lots of skinnys so she could fit more in, but yes you could get a treble in, although you wouldnt have lots of room before and after.

The school we have at our current yard is 18x35, and we dont jump in there because the surface isnt great (deep) and cause its small, you always have to be turning, so wouldnt be wise as risk putting too much strain on the tendons.

I think with a good surface, and clever course building, having a 20x40 shouldnt restrict what you do too much at all! :)
 
kerilli said:
my former trainer had a 20x40 and got to 4* level...
he used the diagonal for big trebles, that was about it. we did plenty of grids and he got short courses up in there too.
Click to expand...

I guess you put the grid down the long side rather than the centre line? Unless horse is very good at half ten metre circles :)

ETA guess it could be beneficial in that you'll never find a course tight at a competition ever again!
 
I tend to jump in my lessons in a bigger arena and just jump single fences in our 20x40 at the yard (the surface isn't great as well)
 
If you make use of the long sides and diagonals you can, esp if you use short-ish poles.
We have a 20x40 at the yard but I tend not to jump Lace in there as the surface is very thin in places and because she's so gangly knowing her she'd fall over. It's being topped up soon so hopefully we'll jump in there during the winter.
 
I jump in a 20x40, grids and short courses. If you can make the fences jumpable both ways you can do short courses.

It does mean that whatever arena you are in at a show tends to seem really big with lots of space!
 
I went to a show where the ground was way to slippy to jump on in the jumping field so they set up a course in the 20 x 40 menage, we had to jump some of the fences twice- but backwards etc to make up the course- worked really well suprisingly!
 
our yard has two arenas, one is 60 x 25 and the other is only 20 x 40 - unfortunately it is also a riding school so when the large school isnt free i have to make do with the smaller one - i have managed small courses (5 or so fences placed in sensible places and so they can be jumped from both ways) - havent tried a triple, but can fit a 2 stride double in so assuming a triple would be possible (if i want to jump triples i just wait until the bigger menage is free :)

but i think if you have a good surfaces and afre smart with where you put fences - a 20 x 40 is possible to use for jumping :)
 
I struggled jumping the big lad I had on loan, you can make do I think with ponies or smaller horses but even so, still not ideal, by the time used to get round a corner and jump over a fence on a big striding 17.2, we were hitting the bend again, having said that I swear it's smaller than 20x40 but YO insists it is :D

Suppose you could always merge your SJ with arena XC and jump out of the school and back in again, I did seriously consider it :D
 
Our arena is 25x27 and I managed a grid in it the other day. Obviously too small for a course but you can be creative - the grid was along one side (although still 1.5m off the track so I could work round it) and was just a canter pole, to a fence, bounce to another fence and another canter pole. It was tight but we did it and it's improved our gymnastic work and the horses' responsiveness no end!! He had to listen to me on landing or we would have crashed into the fence!! We can also set up 4 jumps across the middle of the arena, so there's an upright or oxer, then we have one of those 'corner' wings to you can put 2 cups on facing different ways, then another upright/oxer, sort of like this:

_/\_ although the angle in the middle is not as tight so you can jump across the (very short!) diagonal.

Means competition arenas seem HUGE now!!!!
 
Definitely-one of the country's top course builders showed our riding club how to build two completely different courses in a 20x40 inc a double plus distances to use depending on going and size of horse and it works brilliantly.
 
We have a 20x40 at my yard and we still do grids etc in it. I've done a grid of around 3 foot across the long diagonal in my school. Ours has a silica and rubber surface though so I may not be as adventurous with one that isn't quite so good!
 
you can build a treble yes, have done.
Can jump a course easily-yes. TBH I don't notice it being 'small' as such, very few normal people have much bigger!
 
I don't understand people who say you cannot build a course. I get the base of mine from Training the modern showjumper

My arena has 9-14 jumps in it and its 22 x 45m!

Dressage people hate it, but gets you jumping courses and then seems easy when I compete!
 
I am totally spoilt, we have a 60x40 arena and I struggle when the indoor season starts as all the turns look really tight!!!
Depends what you are used to, at my old yard we had a 20x40 and I used to do grids and set up courses with no problems.
 
The arena at my yard is lsightly shorter then 20x30 and we manage fine, actually I feel that my jump offs are better as whenever I want to do a course etc I have to take tight turns. I still manage grids I just got to keep him contained so I can do the turn at the end.

We manage courses by putting two lines of jumps right across the middle of the school and we practice courses on these, by doing this you can do 12 jumps in a course. I think you just have to be more strageidic (SP) about where you place the fences.
 
we have a 20x40 and can do some jumping in differant ways, but not a course. i know a show cntre that has about 6 jumps in a 20x40 for small jumping classes, it's not that bad :)
 
This is my 20 x 40 with 5 jumps and a triple, which is a relatively small course for me - there is another oxer to the left of the camera

2010-08-11_2231.png
 
Thanks CSJ, looks more than adequate in the pic... in many ways a 20x40 would be good for me as right now dressage arenas feel small so would help matters no end if I had no choice about working in a smaller area.
 
yes definitely doable! the only problem i think you get is of you want a BIG treble (i.e. newcomers height and width)- even across the diagonal it doesn't give you much space either end. my SJ trainer has a wierd shaped school but its relatively small (i would guesstimate about 30x40) and she gets LOADS of fences in there- it means she can be really evil with some of the turns you have to do- but its great because it sharpens you up and when you go to a show you seem to have all the time and space in the world :D
i would say in an ideal world (esp for eventing) you would also do some practice jumping in a bigger (pref grass) arena, but mostly your 20x40 would be fine. :)
 
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