Showjumping course in a small arena: a 20 × 60 indoor that still rides

Published 27 August 2026 · Updated 26 August 2026

By Alex Young

A lot of UK indoor schools are 20 × 60 metres. That is a small arena for a showjumping course, not a championship ring. The extra 20 metres on the long side, compared with a 20 × 40, is real. The width is still 20 metres. The walls are still there. If you copy an outdoor 40 × 60 and shrink the fences, the turns arrive before the horse has landed.

This is a full indoor club track in a 20 × 60. For one related line in a 20 × 40 school, use Related distances in a 20 × 40. For weekday 70 or 80 cm heights, use A 70–80 cm club track that still rides. Open the designer, set the arena to 20 × 60 metres, and build against the real walls.

YardForge is not official British Showjumping or FEI software. Validation in the designer is a planning aid. Check the class rules before anyone jumps it.

20 × 60 is long. It is not wide.

20 × 60 metres is 1,200 m². In feet that is about 66 × 197, the conversion already on Jumping arena size in feet.The FEI Jumping Rules, 28th edition, effective 1 January 2026, Article 241.1.2, say an indoor competition arena must have a minimum size of 1,200 m² and a minimum width on the short side of 25 m. A 20 × 60 school meets the area and misses the width. Treat this as a UK indoor school, not an FEI indoor competition arena.

What the extra length buys:

A horse six-stride related in the British Showjumping Distance Guide, October 2018 v2 is 83ft–85ft (about 25.3–25.9 m). That sits on a 60 m long side with room to straighten after the corner. On a 40 m long side it eats the wall.
You can put a two-stride combination (35ft–36ft horse) on one long side and still leave a related on the other. In a 20 × 40, stacking both on the same wall is how people meet the kickboard.

What it does not buy:

A 20 m short side. After kickboards you have less than 20 metres of riding room. Do not put a combination across the width.
Outdoor-radius turns. A rollback to a fence on the same long side is a club-night question, not a county one.
A water jump. Most 20 × 60 schools do not have one. FEI indoor competitions may omit the water (Art. 226.3.3); they also ban banks, mounds, sunken roads, talus, slopes and ramps except a table bank not over 1 m (Art. 239.3). Leave the bank at home.

What still fits

For an unaffiliated or Hunter indoor class, eight to ten numbered fences is enough. Two changes of rein. One combination or one related that uses most of a long side, not both as the hard question.

A line that works on a 20 × 60 long side:

Straighten off the short-side corner. Do not take off while still bent.
First element of the related, or the A of a double.
Horse numbers from the 2018 guide if it is a horse class: one-stride 24ft 6"–25ft 6"; two-stride 35ft–36ft; five-stride 70ft–72ft; six-stride 83ft–85ft.
Land, then a corner they can see. If the second fence sits in the next corner, it is a turn, not a related.

Ponies need the pony columns, not a shortened horse line. Tables are in British Showjumping pony distances. If the same evening runs horses and 128s, draw two versions.

The official guide still says the distances are for guidance only. Site, going and the material in the cups change the number. Indoor sand that rides deep rides short. Set the short end of the range, or walk it and move a wing.

What to drop

A treble. Three jumping efforts plus two landings plus a wall is a different test from the same treble outdoors.
An oxer off a short turn into a related that already uses the wall.
The last fence pointed at the ingate. Indoor doors are how people exit at speed and how the next horse walks in.
A skinny on a quarter-line that only exists because the long side looked empty from the gallery.
Two diagonals in the jump-off if the collecting area is the same doorway. Take fences out. Leave one rollback.

If you want a combination, that is the question. Keep the rest of the track readable: inviting first fence, a change of rein, a last fence they can see from a long way out.

A simple indoor club track

Set Unaffiliated or Hunter in the designer first. The live checks change with the standard. This is not a British Showjumping schedule.

Fence 1: small upright or cross-pole, straight, after the horse has left the corner.
Long side A: related of five or six horse strides, upright to a modest oxer. Or a two-stride double, and nothing else hard on that wall.
Short side: empty enough to rebalance. No fence in the door.
Long side B: two singles, change of rein between them.
Last: upright they can see. Not a spread off a rollback into the wall.

That is a class. If the brief is 70 or 80 cm, keep the heights there and do not add a liverpool because the plan looked sparse.

Walk it. The tape or the wheel still wins over the screen. If you would not jump the related on a quiet Tuesday, change it before the first horse.

Build it on a scaled arena

Open the designer. Set 20 × 60 metres. Place the ingate and the judges on the plan so you do not put a fence in either.The canvas is true to scale. Related distances and stride numbers update as you move a wing. Pick FEI, British Showjumping, Hunter or Unaffiliated before you lock the numbers. Free accounts get watermarked master, athlete, builder and judge PDFs. Clean PDFs and the 3D viewer are free during alpha. None of that replaces a measuring wheel on the night.

Do not start from a 40 × 60 outdoor plan and scale it. The width is the constraint. The length is the gift.