Ellipse and Oval Arena Layouts

Indoor schools and some warm-up rings use rounded short sides — effectively an ellipse inscribed in a rectangle. YardForge does not yet offer a one-click ellipse primitive; you can still build accurate oval tracks today:

Recommended workflow

  1. Set the bounding rectangle to the outer dimensions (e.g. 40 × 80 m).
  2. Enable the custom arena polygon and clip the corners with a chamfered octagon or 12-point outline that approximates the curve.
  3. Route the horse with two connectors per long side so the stride path bows around the short ends instead of cutting the chord.

Measuring the curve

Use the tape measure tool (curve mode with Shift for straight segments) to check that your bowed legs match the intended riding distance. Stride labels update along the foot path.

When to use a plain rectangle

For affiliated FEI/BS courses on standard rings, a rectangle with correct width × length is usually sufficient — see FEI arena dimensions.