Horse arena construction/attachments?

[LAXPatrick]

Ok, we've got the space figured out. I see two possible phases. Phase 1 - ride on what we got. Phase 2 - bring in the pros.

Firs phase, we'd like to basically just till up the grass/soil mix and ride on it. That's basically something to do until we can get the pros in to excavate an add sand.

What implements would you recommend for phase 1? Basically going from lawn to a 2-3" deep forgiving surface. I realize it'll go to crap (mud) with rain. Disc? Cultivator? Spike drag?

Then for once we've got it dug & have sand in it - was planning on routine maintenance to keep it worked up. Figured that the cultivator or spike drag would do the trick.

Main use will be pleasure riding, practice for reining, etc. Budget sensitive, of course.

Thanks!

Patrick
4310 with the 430 loader, 72" rear blade, 3 pt finish mower.

 

[LarryD]

Why not just kill the grass with a little Round-up (or like) and then cover with geo-textile fabric and sand. If it's pretty level I would rather not dig down and make a pocket for moisture to collect in.

For maintenance, the cultivator might disturb the fabric barrier so a simple drag should be enough. Be sure to get washed sand, there will be way less dust when it's dry. We put it in the round pen and some friends of ours were amazed at the difference it made compared to just ordering sand.

 

[DaveinVa]

Patrick,

I tried the grass route and ended up with my horses standing in mud. Horses and people lost shoes in the muck. I bit the bullet and had ten twelve ton loads of sand delivered. Used a blade with a gauge wheel to get level. Wow! What a difference. No grass is growing......no mini ponds in arena.....no lost shoes. I use a spike drag to maintain.

The only place that I have used cloth is on driveways and parking areas.....keeps gravel from disappearing in the grey marl that we have on the east coast. Sand doesn't seem to go anywhere. So far no noticeable decrease in sand level.

Dave in Va.

 

[Fireman_dcb]

LAX,

We had a 80x120 ring setup; first stage was to have a pro come in and dig down 6 inches, step two was to have 8 loads of stone dust delivered (double axled dump trucks). Step three was to use the FEL and back blade to move the stone dust around, and around, and around and around until it was leveled out. Step 4 was to get a drag mat to keep the weeds down and smooth out the surface. Next step will be to rent a post hole digger and put up a fence around the ring followed by running electrical wire to the ring and setup 4 spot lights.

 

[Soundguy]

I guess the first question to ask is what kinds of animals are gonna run on this course.

Preakness winners? or the average old nag 'pet' horse.

Different implements. There was a question like this about horse arena maintenance a while back. It basically turned into the 'rich' people jumpin all over the 'little' guy. The big bucks horse people like to use some fairly expensive equipment, and very specific track materials and construction. These tracks and associted equipment can easily eclipse the cost of a small house... while the casual owners get by with a sand ring and a drag harrow... etc.

Soundguy

 

[cowboydoc]

<font color="red">It basically turned into the 'rich' people jumpin all over the 'little' guy. The big bucks horse people like to use some fairly expensive equipment, and very specific track materials and construction. These tracks and associted equipment can easily eclipse the cost of a small house... </font>

Was that really necessary soundguy? /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif It has nothing to do with being rich or poor. It has to do with the kind of horses that you are running and what the surface needs to be prepped for.

To answer the question you can make a decent place to exercise horses from a grass area. I would no way work reining horses in this type of an arena though on any spins, slide stops or roll backs. Way too easy to hurt one with this type of ground. The first thing would be to get a good heavy disc in there to disc everything up as fine as you can. Be careful about going too deep. Deep fine ground is very hard on the horses legs. I would try and keep it from 3-5". Hard to do with a disc but not impossible. Then come back over it with a harrow to smooth out the clumps and get it level and smooth.

If you go to a good arena, especially if you are reining, then you are going to want to get better equipment, mostly to keep your new arena nice. Discs will tear up your base if you put one in and mix the surface material with the base, not good. Aside from previous comments the top of the line 6' arena conditioner is between 3 and 4 thousand. You can precisely control exactly what you are doing and get a very nice conditioned arena with one of these. Yes it's alot of money but hardly the price of a house. This would also work very good for keeping your dirt arena in good condition.

Go rfd-tv.com. Clinton Anderson did an excellent show with Bob Kiser on the proper use and preparation for arenas. You can also call Bob Kiser. He is a super nice guy and will give you tons of great information on how to do an arena that you can practice reining in that won't get your horses hurt. One reining horse getting injured in a poor arena will pay for the cost of the arena and about any implement you want to buy!!!

 

[LAXPatrick]

Some good discussions here.

The little lady competes in reining, pleasure, working cowhorse, etc - BUT

Mainly we're doing this at home for dinking around, exercise, etc. We've got a trainer that's a couple of miles away that's got an indoor and a nice outdoor which are accessible.

For now, something to practice. Once I make the upgrade to the sand, etc. I should be able to do more along the lines of reining, other practice, etc. (she will any way!).

Thanks!

Patrick

 

[dummy]

Just because, for future reference, are there better (preferred) base and top materials for a riding arena? I understand the depth issue, but what about the composition?


Dale

 

[Soundguy]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Was that really necessary soundguy? It has nothing to do with being rich or poor. It has to do with the kind of horses that you are running and what the surface needs to be prepped for. )</font>

For the record.. I dind't use the word poor.

And Yes.. I felt it was important to mention. Remembering that last thread a while back, it pretty much started to come across that if you didn't have 1 of about 2 different arena conditioners, ( spendy items .. as you mention.. a few thousand dollars.. compaired to the average disc and leveling harrow.. both of which can be picked up for under 1000 total.. ) a complex built track, that your horses would explode and die upon entering the arena.

I don't have hi-dollar horses, and we don't do much more than run them in a circle, however.. florida has a good horse industry.. In my area,( 5 mile radious ) there are probably a dozen or more multi million dollar farms. You can't find one of those rotary arena devices anywhere within a hundred miles ... tractor dealers.. implement dealers.. farm stores.. breeder supply stores, and that includes the ffa/fha/aqha and equestrian events.

Heck.. I've disc'ed the arena for the local vet on MANY ocasions.

Again..just trying to get the point across that a spendy super high dollar price tag does not have to apply in 100% of the situations.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( )</font> Aside from previous comments the top of the line 6' arena conditioner is between 3 and 4 thousand. You can precisely control exactly what you are doing and get a very nice conditioned arena with one of these. Yes it's alot of money but hardly the price of a house.

I didn't say that the arena gromer by itself was the price of a small house.. but that all the materials, time and equipment involved into building a 'profesional' areena can easilly hit 40k$ plus... let alone the price of exercise tracks, etc.

I'm quite sure that the exercise tract, and fencing from the horse farm behind my house, easilly costed more to construct than my first 3/2 house I bought...

None of this is made up... anyone can go back and lok at the old thread.. if it wasn't deleted. It boiled down to a group of people that do some pleasure horse work and have inexpensive arena's, and a variety of cheap/inexpensive groomers.. everything from towing a bedspring/ timber behind the tractor to a disc and drag harrow. then you had the elite folks who prefered the high dollar equipment, profesionally built tracks.. special arena materials ( rubber.. etc.. ).

Soundguy

 

[_RaT_]

Thanks for the info Richard, I have an old neighbor that thinks I know how to operate a tractor and continually asks me about how to build a horse arena. I have told her so many times, talk to someone who knows, I do not. Go to the local horse store (or whatever its called) and get some advice from folks who do it. Search the internet. My complete lack of knowledge about horses other then the respect for the loaded shotguns they carry in back is the extent of it.

 

[NoTrespassing]

I'm in the process of creating a 70 ft. dia. round pen for working horses myself. I started by removing all of the sod with my box scraper. That was quite a job, I had to take one side of the circle down about 8 inches to get it level. I'd say I've got about a 8 inch drop from the center to the edges for drainage. I will be putting in drainage tile around the outside edge too. I've got 27 10ft. cedar posts in and will start putting up the fence boards this weekend. For the footing I plan on putting down about 3 inches of 3/4" gravel, then crushed gravel, and then about 4 inches of coarse sand.

The leveling was the hardest part. I used a water level for lack of any other tools, and a line level with stakes around the outside.

Good Luck,
Kevin

 

[gabby]

Hey Kevin,
Are you sure you want to use the 3/4" gravel base? Round pens get dug out pretty deep in the track and that gravel will surely float to the surface. I wouldn't use it because it's going to end up on top.
gabby

 

[NoTrespassing]

Gabby,

Would you build the base of an arena differently than a round pen? Maybe I should skip the gravel and just use stone dust/screenings or limestone. I was hoping that by putting down a good base of gravel and then stone dust or limestone we could avoid soft spots. I'm reading about footing right now and I just realized that they call for more like 6-8 inches of stone dust compacted 2 inches before putting down the sand. That much stone dust should keep the gravel base from coming up I would think.

I've only been in 3 arenas around here and 2 of them were made that way. The difference is that they are both indoor arenas. The 3rd one used rubber for the cushion layer instead of sand. I'm not sure how the base was made.

Kevin

 

[gabby]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Gabby,

Would you build the base of an arena differently than a round pen? Maybe I should skip the gravel and just use stone dust/screenings or limestone. I was hoping that by putting down a good base of gravel and then stone dust or limestone we could avoid soft spots. I'm reading about footing right now and I just realized that they call for more like 6-8 inches of stone dust compacted 2 inches before putting down the sand. That much stone dust should keep the gravel base from coming up I would think.

I've only been in 3 arenas around here and 2 of them were made that way. The difference is that they are both indoor arenas. The 3rd one used rubber for the cushion layer instead of sand. I'm not sure how the base was made.

Kevin
)</font>

Hey Kevin,
I wouldn't use a gravel base for either an arena or a round pen because it will work its way to the top due to hoof action and grooming. I have a round pen and three stonedust dressage arenas and I am so glad I didn't use any gravel. I use plenty of stonedust (M-10) and nothing else.

If you put two inches of sand on top of stonedust, the sand will gradually get mixed up with the stonedust so you could just skip the sand. Stonedust is excellent footing. It just needs to be worked up occasionally if it gets pounded with rain and then gets too firm as it dries out. On the plus side, it doesn't get as soupy as sand when it's wet.

Avoid soft spots by compacting the base properly and periodically adding new stonedust where puddles form. You will have to do this on a regular basis. Also you need to knock down the ridges that form along the edges so surface water can drain away.

Arenas are like women - high maintenance! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

gabby

 

[Poncho]

Well.... guess I'm not as complicated as a lot of people here. Where I live in N FL a lot of people use the round pen panels made out of galvanized pipe and put it on a piece of ground. We trail ride and have run speed events as well as western pleasure. I do have a lot of sand, and it gets dusty... that washed sand sounds like a good idea... will have to look into that.