I don't know if this is the correct place to post this. Last summer I built an outdoor riding arena for a friend. This was built to his specs. Sod cut out, area leveled (Idea I disliked), and three inches of fill sand spread. The trouble now after a winter is that the sand is "too soft" even when dry (the puropse of the sand I thought). He has contacted me and wants to fix it somehow. Is there anyone here experienced with arenas with any ideas. My idea is to spread ag lime and mix with the sand. Will this work or is there a better fix?
I have encountered "horse owners" many times. Almost all of them knew more about moving dirt than I did. Generally, they drive me crazy. I have built a number of riding arenas and the best success I have had is to essentially build a parking lot and then spread sand instead of paving it. The problem with horses is that they mix the sand and the underlying base as they move across it. I have had very good success with compacting 4-6" of 1" road crush over the existing soil and then spreading 3-4" of sand. Unfortunately, this doesn't help you much, does it? Try to talk your friend into stripping the mixed sand and topsoil layer off and rebuilding it with some kind of hard base layer. Good luck with that.
Opinions about arena footing, in the horsemans' world, are like a**holes. Every body's got one and they all stink. If I remember correctly, John Lyons (horse professional) has published suggestions for proper footing in an arena. I agree with BDFT. A good soild base course (preferably with drainage) with some sand over it will be a good performer. Usually only SERIOUS horse folk are willing to shell out the dough for this though. Be sure to mention that regardless of how it's built it will always require maintenance.
We've only built one horse arena. The soil at the location was mostly all sand and the owner absolutely insisted we strip out the sand and haul in clay as that was only "proper" footing for horses. I was happy to accommodate.
Horse arena's, on my no go list, along with churches, preachers, and lawyers! Sad but true, horse owners are hard to please and i dont mean to sound like an a**. All you can do is let them spec what they want and try to please your customer.
Actually for us all our lawyer customers have been fine. The ones that make me cringe are engineers and teachers but architects are the worst if it's their personal home. We had a husband and wife who were both architects and it was amazing how goofy the job got - best to just smile and do what they want.
When my dad built ours, he stripped the topsoil off, put down 6-8 inches of limestone screenings then 2-3" of sand on top of that. We drag it once a week and never had problems. My dad had to have someone else final grade the base because the blade on the 450 is so loose. 15 years latter and it's no better.
I have worked for horse owning doctors, dentists, lawyers, teachers and all sorts of other horse owners but I think the ones with Phd's are the worst. Apparently a doctorate in statistical analysis means you are also an expert in moving dirt.
BDFT; The same horse people live in Australia aswell, They dress the same as normal people but thay are "so" different ,and "Guess what" they all know how to operate machinery, but they have never sat on any machines
Speaking as a citizen that lives within 30 miles of Lexington, KY USA, the "Horse Capital of the World" -according to the signs- I see that y'all ain't got no idea how crucial footing is for a POS, $50.00 horse. The shoes are worth more than a lot of the horses so what the shoes contact must be perfect. Fate paired the horse and owner therefore it is of utmost importance that everything be what the Queen of the arena feels(today) to be perfect. Since evidently -dirty fingernails cannot comprehend perfection, the Queen can always contribute the reason of any malady that this creature experiences to one of her subjects that screwed the job up for her. The person responsible for preparing the footing surface may be fully or only partially to blame for whatever need to be b!tched about here and now. We have self esteem -based solely on how particular and demanding we can be -at stake here. Less developed forms of life may not be able to understand this. How dare you question omniscient horse owners?
i built one for a customer 5 years ago.took all the topsoil of the area,70 x 30m then laid perforated drains every 4m all over the site,18 inches deep and filled with 3/4 shingle.membrane on top of this with 6 inches of 40mm limestone on top of this.then another membrane then 6 inches of whats known locally as leziate sand and rubber chippings on top of that,it was as good as anything in the uk at the time and is still perfect.can get an inch of rain on it and can be used as soon as rain stops nick..........
wrong quote
You sir, have absolutely nailed it. My hat is off to you. Around here we have two distinct equine communities. One consists mostly of old school, common sense individuals that actually breed, raise and use their animals as we would use a piece of machinary. These animals seem to be perfectly comfortable traversing various terrain in all weather conditions just as there non domesticated ancestors did. When not in use they are most often allowed to roam freely, again in all but the most extreme weather conditions. They seem to adopt the common sense traits of there respective owners as they seem to return to the barn when seeking food and shelter from inclement weather. Truly intelligent creatures. The second distinct equine community consists of individuals exactly as you describe. They seem to feel that allowing horses to be......Horses, is absolute blasphemy. They must believe that their animals are stupid and therefore should be kept in a 125 sq ft box, only allowed to come out in perfect weather conditions with strict supervision. These animals adopt the traits of there respective owners as well, they become high strung, nervous, overstessed creatures that require constant medical attention and dietery supplements. Many of these animals/respective owners also seem to develop phsyciatric issues as they seem to require huge amounts of SPECIALIZED TRAINING. Happily, the plight of the second equine community provides income for the first as well as regular entertainment. In fact, just this week I believe I spotted our local mobile auto detail van parked outside a very large barn which is located on a very small property nearby. Next to the van was a very animated horse with no less than 4 individuals quite comically attempting to calm the animal. I do not know for sure what exactly was causing the poor horse to be so obviously distressed, I can only surmise that the poor creature was not comfortable with the idea of being washed and waxed.
:lmao:laugh:falldownlaugh:Cowboy:salute
Thanks for sharing good ideas and some much needed laughs. I am planing to lay some stone and replace the sand over it. This is the owner's "new idea". I think this will work well but what do I know? I thought it might work the first time. All this is in the planing stage until I finish sidedressing corn and spraying beans. All this takes a few days of dry weather to do. Something that is hard to come by here this spring.
The sand is too soft because it doesn´t have enough fine material in it. The trick is finding something that doesn´t give off too much dust when it´s dry. If it was my arena, I´d spread a coupe loads of manure (not bedding) on it, mix it with the sand and call it a day- Try selling that to a customer, though.
Around here river wash sand is the best to use for a one call solution. Like to lay down 6"-8" over a good base of compacted road base then loose road base. You can add wrapped French drains down the middle of your anal or just proper camber and let the water run out the sides.
Here in Ocala Fl where we have built dozens of the tracks we have natrualy dry loose sand that we mix clay in with to firm it up some what but still be loose. all owners have a differnt prefrence on how much clay to add.
7120, don't know if you've already tackled the job or not but thought I'd share some links to some articles that may help. Riding Arena Footing Material Selection and Management (PDF) Footing Part 1: Arena Design and Management Riding Arena Footing Material Selection and Management (PDF)
I dont know if its a local thing but all the ones we have done indoors the sand was imported 2NS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE7d7oYFYuI
ok new to form but old to horses and dirt work. it all depends on what you are doing with the horses. pleasure riding is soft footing. cutting cattel , reining and so on means differnt footing requirments. you want a clay base with sand, silt or what ever is in you area to make a material that you can change the deepth of the base with your drag. if you want to be able to do sliding stops with a reiner you only want a few inches of fluff and then a hard surfice to slide on. if you are riding pleasure you want more deepth of material so it is softer to ride on. all this is done by how deep you tear up the surfice.
done a few of these in the UK some years ago. remove all topsoil, lay weed suppresant layer, shredded tyres with all the wire removed 8 to 10 inches depth, job done
Horse owners have different opinions that's for sure. Doesn't matter how much you know, they know more...But, it's the same with livestock jockeys, too..