If you're just starting out with competitions, you'll quickly hear the terms outdoor and indoor. They're not just about where you ride, but also about when in the year certain competitions take place. This guide explains what the two terms mean and roughly how the competition year fits together.
What Outdoor and Indoor Actually Mean
Outdoor means outside, indoor means inside. An outdoor competition is held on an outdoor arena, often an open-air sand arena or a grass field. An indoor competition takes place in a covered indoor arena.
The distinction sounds simple, but it shapes a lot:
- Footing. Outside you ride on sand or grass, which reacts to the weather: softer after rain, harder in summer. Indoors there's usually a prepared, consistent footing that doesn't depend on the weather.
- Space. Outdoor arenas are often more spacious. An indoor hall is bounded by walls, which makes turns tighter and the pace slower.
- Atmosphere and stimuli. Indoors, the audience sits close by, sound bounces around, and the lighting is artificial. Outdoors you have wind, changing light, and more distractions in the distance. A horse can spook either way.
For a horse new to competition, that difference is real: a combination (you and your horse together) that moves relaxed outdoors can get tense in a busy hall, and the other way around.
The Outdoor Season: The Summer Half
The outdoor season runs roughly from early spring into autumn — think roughly March to October, depending on the weather and the region. For many disciplines, this is the main season.
Most regular competitions are held during this period, and many championships fall within it too. The big outdoor events — think international competitions in summer — belong to this part of the year. For most recreational and beginning competition riders, summer is simply the time when there's the most to ride, close to home on an outdoor arena.
Eventing (the combination of dressage, cross-country, and show jumping) is largely an outdoor discipline and plays out almost entirely in this season, because the cross-country phase requires an outdoor course over terrain.
The Indoor Season: The Winter Half
When it gets too wet, too cold, or too dark outside, the sport shifts indoors. The indoor season runs roughly from late autumn into early spring — about November to March.
Indoor competitions keep the sport going through the winter and often serve as a build-up toward the new outdoor season. A number of leading events fall right in this period; in the Netherlands, Indoor Brabant in Den Bosch (a major international indoor show) is the best-known example, usually held in late March at the close of the indoor season.
Not every discipline has an equally busy winter program. Dressage and show jumping have a full indoor circuit; eventing largely comes to a halt in winter because there's no cross-country phase.
How the Competition Year Is Roughly Structured
Broadly speaking, the two seasons alternate over the year. The exact dates, classes, and championships are in the federation's official calendar; always check knhs.nl for the current, precise schedule.
| Period (roughly) | Season | Where | Feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| March – October | Outdoor | Outdoor arena (sand/grass) | Main season, most competitions, many championships |
| November – March | Indoor | Covered indoor arena | Continues through winter, build-up toward outdoor |
The transition months aren't strictly defined: around March and October, indoor and outdoor overlap, and the weather shifts the boundaries a bit each year. Many riders ride all year round and simply adapt to where the competitions are held.
What This Means for You as a Beginning Competitor
For your first competitions, you don't need to make complicated plans. A few practical points:
- Choose your first starts close to home. Whether that's outdoor or indoor mainly depends on the season in which you start. Either is fine to begin with.
- Factor in the season when you prepare. If you mainly train outdoors in summer, a first indoor start in winter can take some getting used to for your horse, and the other way around. Practice in both settings where possible.
- Your class (your competition-level grouping) and promotion points (the points you earn for a good competition result) carry over. It doesn't matter for your level grouping whether you earn points indoors or outdoors; promotion works the same way all year.
- Dress for the weather. Outdoor means allowing for rain, wind, and sun; indoor is sheltered, but the footing can be dusty.
In Short
Outdoor is outside and falls roughly in the summer half of the year (about March–October); indoor is inside and bridges the winter (about November–March). For most disciplines, the outdoor season is the main season with the most competitions; indoor keeps the sport going through the winter. For your own start, it hardly matters which of the two you begin with — choose an accessible competition nearby and check the exact calendar at knhs.nl.
See also: Reading and Riding Your First Dressage Test · Glossary: show · Level: First Competitions