Dressage: Because Gibberish is Cool

"make a circle at x"

Let me make something very clear: I have been riding for close to 10 years now- sure, I have seen dressage letters in the ring or out at a show, but I did not spend any time at all actually looking at them. I was the perfect hunter snob... why would I care?

So, naturally, when Debi asked me to make a circle at x, I had absolutely no clue where that was (and I decided not to wear my glasses to the lesson- they always steam up!), which meant I was wandering around the ring squinting like an idiot trying to see if I could spot the x before she realized I had no clue what I was doing. Unfortunately, the x is not one of the nice big letters that I might have been able to see- it was a small smudge underneath another letter (okay, seriously? How is anyone supposed to be able to see that, especially when trotting around the ring?)

From USDF:



















This led to a discussion about the letters- which are arranged in no apparent order...in my mind. Might as well try memorizing jibberish! There are a few theories that speculate as to why the letters are the way they are now. The most common belief is that they are arranged based on Imperial German court, where the stable yard was marked to indicate where a rider's horse was to stand to wait for the rider. The letters would then be as follows:

A = Ausgang /Exit
K = Kaiser/King
F = Furst/Prince
P = Pferdknecht/Ostler
V = Vassal
E = Edeling/Ehrengast/Guest of Honour
B = Bannertrager/Standard Bearer
S = Schzkanzler/Chancellor of Exchequer
R = Ritter/Knight
M = Meier/Steward
H = Hofsmarshall/Lord Chancellor

In the 1932 the Olympic committee added: D, L, X, I, G, and C. The only research I could find in regards to these letters suggested that they came from French terms, where:
X = cross or center
G = gauche (left)
D = droit (right)

I found nothing on L, I, and C...


A second theory suggests that the original letters represented the first cities conquered by the Roman empire. However, no one bothers to state what these cities were called. Upon a quick Google search of "early Roman conquests," I discovered that early Romans did not keep a written history, and much of what was written in later years was mixed in with fables and myths (even the name of Rome's founder, Romulus, is fantastical). Furthermore, my research suggests that Rome's first conquests were the Etruscan towns, named Arretium, Casira, Clevsin, Curtun, Perusna, Pupluna, Veii, Tarchna, Vetluna, Volterra, Velzna, and Velch...no correlation there.

There are other theories with German origins, but I found them to be inconclusive and not particularly interesting. It seems to me that it all comes down to tradition, although I would have liked to know for sure why things are the way they are.