Arena Diagrams: the 20 × 60 m and 20 × 40 m Dressage Arenas

A dressage arena is a rectangle of 20 × 60 m (the standard arena, used for all FEI and most higher national tests) or 20 × 40 m (the small arena, used at lower national levels). Twelve letters mark the standard arena’s perimeter — reading clockwise from the entrance at A: A, K, V, E, S, H, C, M, R, B, P, F — with D, L, X, I and G spaced along the centre line; the small arena uses eight perimeter letters and D, X, G. The two diagrams below show both layouts to scale, with every letter distance and the judges’ positions. They are the reference companion to the full article on the dressage arena, which covers the history of the letters, footing and construction; this page is the tool.

How to read the diagrams

Both diagrams are drawn from above with A at the bottom, exactly as a rider approaches the arena: entering at A and facing C, K is the first letter on the left and F the first on the right. The perimeter letters stand on boards outside a low fence; the track runs just inside it. The centre-line letters (shown in grey) are not physically marked — riders locate them from the letter pairs they sit between. Small squares are the judges’ boxes, labelled with the letter each judge sits at; dashed squares are the extra positions used by championship panels. The scale on the left of each diagram gives the distance in metres from the A end, which is how the letter stations are usually quoted.

The standard arena: 20 × 60 m

The standard arena hosts every FEI test from the young-horse classes to the Grand Prix, and most national tests from the middle levels upward. Its geometry is strict: the corner letters K, F, M and H stand 6 m from the short sides, and the five letters along each long side are 12 m apart, so the stations measured from the A end fall at 0, 6, 18, 30, 42, 54 and 60 m. The centre-line letters sit level with the perimeter pairs — D between K and F, L between V and P, X exactly in the middle of the arena, I between S and R, and G between H and M. X is therefore 30 m from either short side and 10 m from either long side, which is why the 20 m circles at A, X and C fit the arena exactly three times.

The fence is a low boarded surround, open (or opened) at A for the entry; the letters themselves stand on markers outside it, so the rider’s track passes about half a metre inside each letter. Why the letters follow this apparently random sequence is a question with a long history and no certain answer — the theories are set out in the dressage arena. Riders mostly fall back on mnemonics; for the small arena’s eight letters, All King Edward’s Horses Can Manage Big Fences remains the standard one.

The small arena: 20 × 40 m

The small arena keeps the corner letters at 6 m from the short sides but spaces the three letters along each long side 14 m apart, with E and B exactly halfway along at 20 m. The centre line carries only D, X and G, at 6, 20 and 34 m from A. It is the arena of the lower national levels, club and riding-school competition, and countless home schooling arenas — everything ridden in it transfers directly to the standard arena, except that circles and lines arrive faster and the letters no longer divide the long side into equal 12 m steps.

Letter stations at a glance

20 × 60 m standard arena (distances from the A end):

20 × 40 m small arena:

“Left” and “right” are the rider’s, entering at A and facing C.

Judge positions

Under the FEI rules an international panel of five judges surrounds the arena, each identified by the letter nearest their box. The president of the ground jury sits at C, on the extended centre line 3–5 m behind the short side, looking straight down the line the horse enters on. The judges at H and M sit in line with C behind the same short side, each 2.5 m in from the extended long sides, giving them a slightly angled view of the arena. The judges at E and B sit beside the long sides, level with their letters and a few metres back from the boards, and see everything the short-side judges cannot — most obviously the horse’s outline and straightness in profile. At championships and the Olympic Games the panel grows to seven, adding judges on the long sides level with K and F. Each judge scores every movement independently, and the marks are averaged; how the percentages are built from those sheets is covered in judging and scoring and reading a score sheet.

In the small arena a single judge at C is the norm, with national rules allowing additional judges at E or B and M or H as classes move up the levels.

Printing and setting out an arena

Both diagrams are plain, self-contained vector graphics drawn to scale, so they print cleanly at any size from this page — in black and white as readily as on screen — and are accurate enough to measure from. They also double as a setting-out guide: to mark an arena at home, measure the rectangle first, then place the corner letters 6 m from each short side and the remaining long-side letters at 12 m intervals (14 m in a 20 × 40 m school), and check the diagonals are equal before trusting any of it. For why the arena is the shape it is, what the letters might once have meant and how competition surfaces are built, see the full article on the dressage arena; for the figures, lines and movements that are ridden between these letters, see dressage movements and the FEI levels they belong to.

Sources

• Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI) — FEI Dressage Judging Manual, effective 1 January 2025. https://inside.fei.org/sites/default/files/FEI%20Dressage%20Judging%20Manual%20-%20Effective%201%20January%202025.pdf
• Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI) — FEI Dressage Handbook: Guidelines for Judging, FEI library. https://inside.fei.org/fei/about-fei/fei-library/dressage-handbook
• United States Eventing Association (USEA) — Dressage Arena Diagram. https://useventing.com/safety-education/forms-documents/dressage-arena-diagram
• Wikipedia — Dressage (arena section), 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dressage