Geometry! Not my favorite subject in school but this week Patti has given us the Lens-Artists Challenge of Geometry.
When I thought about it I realized that the discipline of Dressage has a lot of geometry in it. The dressage arena is a rectangle : 20 meters by 60 meters. At the lower test levels circles are 20 meters and then going up the levels they come to 15 meters and then 10 meters and at the most advanced levels 8 meters. The dressage tests require at least one movement where the riders must go diagonally across the arena . At the lower levels the rider goes across on a straight line say from M to K passing through X.
In the advanced tests the rider crosses the arena on a diagonal in a half pass. The Grand Prix requires a trot half pass from K to B and then back from B to H. That is a sharp angle. This is where the horse’s body is bent like a banana and their legs cross. The crossing legs form a triangle! Here are some of those triangles!
In the trot there is a moment when the legs form two triangles.
The horse’s legs form a Square at the halt.
So that is my response to geometry. Thank you Patti for this challenge topic and giving me a chance to show how horses understand Geometry. To see Patti’s Geometry and links to other responses click here : Geometry
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