A 70–80 cm club track that still rides
The brief for most weekday clubs is the same: get twelve horses round without a scare, finish before the light goes, and still feel like a show. Height is 70 or 80 cm. The arena is often a school. Riders range from "first ever class" to someone who jumped 1.10 last season and is bringing a green one.
If every fence is the same upright on a 20 m circle, nobody learns anything. If you copy a county 1.20 and shrink the numbers, you get stops.
Design it in the designer at the real arena size. Unaffiliated or Hunter standard is enough for most of these nights. This is not a BS schedule.
One question, not five
Pick one thing the course asks:
- a related distance on the long side, or
- a change of lead across the diagonal, or
- a slightly short turn to the last
Do not do all three. At 80 cm the horse is still green enough that a related plus a rollback plus a skinny is just messy.
Open with something inviting and straight. Put the question in the middle once they are in front of the leg. Finish on a fence they can see from a long way out.
Jump-off that fits the clock
You do not need a full second track. Take out four fences, leave a bending line and one rollback. If the school is 20 × 40, a jump-off that uses both diagonals will have people meeting each other in the collecting area.
See how to design a jump-off and then delete half of it. Club jump-offs fail when they are too clever for the space.
Build list
Write the builder PDF with fence type and height only. No novella. Number the cups. If volunteers are building, a print pack beats a WhatsApp photo of your laptop.
Walk it yourself before the first horse. If you would not jump the related on a quiet Tuesday, change it.
Ready? Open the designer and place eight fences. That is a whole class.
Related: Related distances in a 20 × 40 · How to number a course · Walking a course
