Horse arena, sand run off help

[bazman82]

We put in an outdoor arena last summer and we had to build up the area before any footing went down. I have ditches on both long sides of the arena and had hoped there was enough of a buffer that the footing wouldn't wash into the ditch. Well, that happened and so I had some surge rock that I used on the arena side of the ditch to slow the water. This works most of the time but lately, heavy rains and extended periods of rain will still wash the footing into the ditch. The wife wanted to put some fabric in the few areas where it was washing away so we did that and that only diverted the water to another spot.

My thought, I wanted to line the ditch with geotextile fabric, put down some clean #2 stone and then put a pipe with holes down, more #2 on top of that and then another layer of fabric (if needed). Then i would need something on top of that last layer of #2 stone so that I can drive over it with equipment if needed. Another idea, would be to move the surge rock off the slope of the arena and put a smaller french drain right there but then I have to come up with a way to have it drain into the main ditch. Maybe I can put some "T"'s in the pipe at everything length having it empty into the current ditch?

 

[2manyrocks]

Looks like the general issue is that area is so flat that there's not really a handy low spot to divert the water into?

A friend had a yard that had that issue. Had to carefully measure the elevations and subtly regrade the yard to get the water to run off.

 

[stumblinhorse]

I used sand many years ago and stopped using it because of this problem and it blowing away. I have been just using the horse manure for footing for 20 years. Works great and it’s free and they make more every day. I harrow the arena once a week and the footing is perfect.

I wish there was a way to fix wash out and wind but there isn’t one that I found. Sand/delivery is too expensive to have wash away.

 

[bazman82]

Its concrete sand so its more pebbles than sand. It works great, and the wind won't blow it away. This is the only issue we have and its kind of a pain to shovel the sand from the ditch back into the arena. Plus, it slows the drainage of the ditch. The arena does have a small grade going to each long side since there is a ditch on the other side as well. I have one spot on that side that is doing this same thing.

 

[Rockbadchild]

The issue is the water pools 2-3 feet before the end of the pad (before the rocks), then it accumulate and will start to flow on one spot then it washes away... the sloop need to be uniformly so water flow thought the whole length... there is too much size difference between the rocks and the sand ... the way I would fix it without re-doing what you have done already would be by creating a small swell before the rocks with a permeable fabric that allow the water to go through but not the sand... The slope before that swell need to be slope evenly and not to steep like 2% to the swell.

 

[bazman82]

That's what we were discussing this morning on our way into work. The surge rock though, is built up higher than the sand. I would have to drag back the rock alittle bit to create that small swell. I could then put the fabric, stone and pipe there with "T's" draining into the main ditch. Do I use a wrapped pipe though or would a pipe with holes and stone on top be good enough?

 

[riptides]

I used railroad ties to hold everything in. Some types of sand move a lot. What kind of sand? I may have missed that.

 

[bazman82]

It is concrete sand.

 

[Rockbadchild]

That's what we were discussing this morning on our way into work. The surge rock though, is built up higher than the sand. I would have to drag back the rock alittle bit to create that small swell. I could then put the fabric, stone and pipe there with "T's" draining into the main ditch. Do I use a wrapped pipe though or would a pipe with holes and stone on top be good enough?

what type of fabric is below the sand ? a permeable one ?

Personally I wouldn't bother put any drainage pipe all the material you have in place (concrete sand and rocks) is optimum for drainages ... the whole issue is grading, the side are higher then the middle ... Push some of the stone back towards the ditch pull the sand back towards the pad, 4 to 6 feet back to expose a foot or two of the fabric, lift the fabric and remove some of the material below the fabric, put that fabric back I would add a other strip of fabric overlaping the existing one and going up on the rocks to retain the sand and put a slight layer of rocks or sand on the fabric and grade from the swell up (as demonstrated on my previous post) ... so IF it fills up again you will be able to recycle that sand... because as you know the grade will get compromise by the horses so continuous grading/maintenance will be required and lack of it will result in washout again but this time you will be able to catch that sand and use it again.


the red zone is lower then the blue ... take all the materiel from the blue and bring it towards the center

 

[bazman82]

So under the sand is washed screenings that was graded to drain with a 1% slope. I believe they did a 50/50. So the middle being the high point. Under that washed screenings is a permeable fabric to prevent any vegetation growth from the fill we had to bring in to build up this section of field (I will look for a picture of the field when hit with a lot of rain). I will also try to get a better picture, but the red circled area isn't lower than the blue area, it only looks that way in the photo.

My other thought was to try putting some pea gravel to fill in the gaps around the surge rocks and hopefully that would work as a filter. I was going to buy a couple of bags and try it out in one spot. The sand loss isn't huge, its the filling the ditches in those spots that is the problem. I need the water to drain out of the ditch.