Good Morning! I hope I put this in the right forum.
So, my husband just retired from the Army and we are FINALLY on our "forever farm". No more moving horses across the country, switching trainers like underwear, putting up with/making do, being under someone else's thumb, etc. Yay!
Now, I'm ready to install an arena. I would like a 20x60 but I think for the moment, I have to go with a 20x40-50 ish due to lay of land. We have 36 acres which is nice but I want to keep most of that in grazing pastures because I plan to do some limited boarding. There is a definite possibility that we may acquire some ajoining land and then I could push the arena out. But I can't be sure that will ever come to fruition and meanwhile, I need something solid.
I ordered and bumbled through the USDF's Underfoot. I understood about half of it but I have gleaned that the most important part is hiring professionals if you yourself are not a soil expert, laser leveler, etc. (and who is, really? )
I have reached out to the local dressage community and have gotten a few recommendations for arena installation.
If you have had one installed, what advice would you share? The do's and don'ts? Thank you!
If it is sand or sandy loam, then all you really need to do is measure and put up your markers.
If it is clay, then you need a substrate to provide drainage, and then your footing of choice. Whatever you do, do not put sand on top of clay. That's the same as putting bb's on a tile floor!
I prefer training without a marked arena. It gives my horses a better outside rein, because they never learn to lean on the "rail". They never learn to line up their eye, shoulder and hip on the rail. I have several sets of the metal poke in the ground letters that I stick up to work on a specific test.
I find my test geometry is much better if my horses are not always confined to 20 meters.....
There is no reason as to why you cannot do it yourself if you have the machinery.
The area needs to be levelled. If you are on clay and get wet weather, i would put in French Drains. This is a series of foot wide and deep ditches about 10-12 feet apart then filled with gravel to take away excess water. Over the area we put a membrane to stop weeds and stones coming up then a sand. On top of the sand we had rubber chippings from cut up car door surrounds, these are about 4-6" in length and this gives a good bounce and stops the sand from moving which will happen with finer rubber chips.
It is best to have a board around the outside to stop the surface moving.
You need to check on your zoning laws just in case they have any requirements that you have to adhere too - things like drainage and arena toppings can start to set off alarm bells in some places
Both of our arenas (one is more of a square round pen!!) are fenced because we wanted to be able to use them for turnout if we ever needed too - such as a horse needing to be on a small area if recovering from something.
CT is sat on a lot of rocks and the soil drains really well so we didn't any artificial drainage at all. We had the ground levelled and on the one that's raised above the rest of the surrounding ground we used wooden beams to stop the sand from escaping
We have a membrane laid over the top of the levelled area and then sand on top of that, next year we're going to get a load of fiber to mix in with the sand to get a better footing.
Some councils aren't keen on you using shredded rubber now so something else to check on if you wanted to go that route
So that I am clear. Both of you used a membrane under the under the sand. Jaydee, you said that there were rocks under the membrane, did you put them there or they just naturally exist? Do you know if your sand was "angular"? Thank you both for your input.
The rocks are naturally occurring here!!!
In the UK where we had clay soil we had to have drainage and a layer of stones put in
We had a layer of top soil put down to level the ground under the membrane so no sharp rocks were poking through - we had to have some pretty huge boulders taken away - then the sand on top of the membrane
Our small manège has the type of sand on it they use in septic systems - quite gritty, it drains really well but has a firmer surface, the larger one was mostly done by a contractor who used a much finer softer sand, it rides a lot deeper when dry so needs watering all the time, it's the one that we must get some fiber in - after seeing how much better the surface is on the sand/fiber mix outdoor arena's at Old Salem farm (run by Frank Madden) we were 'sold' on doing it ourselves
Great, thanks for the additional info! I will keep ya posted. So excited! Meanwhile, I am lunging in grass....like the TB wasn't uncoordinated enough on a circle....let's just add some ropey, wet bermuda to the mix.
Good morning! Here's the plan. We staked out our 20x50. We are having it dozed and lazor leveled, he's coming out today or tomorrow to take a look.
We are then dropping 3 inches of blue stone, 3 inches of crusher, and two inches of sand. It's going to sit higher than the ground with swales on both sides. Drainage is top priority. It will look a lot like this :
But we are doing some really neat arena railing. My husband and my dad are both great engineer/wood worker types so they are brainstorming ideas.
First complication....it's too dry. The dozer guys came out and said we'll give it a try but you can't pack dust. So, we ordered a 200 gallon water sprayer for the tractor. It may take two weeks to get here though. I think that placing the order will insure that it rains for a week straight here. I imagine it will come in handy anyway. So as he levels, we will spray so the roller can pack, pack, pack.
We went to the quarry yesterday and scoped out our footing. The gentleman was very nice and actually took us on a tour of the whole bit! Anyway, we are using 3 inches of clean stone to drain, 3 inches of grade crusher, and two inches of "screenings" which is sand like angular bits of granite. Should pack but not so well and easily as to be concrete overnight.
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