I'm looking to add a covered or indoor arena to my barn and I was hoping to hear from you fine folks what you like or dislike about your arenas.

I run a fairly small boarding business on my 40 acres with at the most 8 boarded horses plus my 4. Cost is a bit of a factor, so I'm planning on keeping it around 60 X 120. What advice can you give me???  One of the biggest issues I will have to deal with is that where it is going to be built is a slope, so the first task will be to level that area.

Most of my boardesr are just trail riders, so I don't need one large enough for jumping or barrel racing, but I do want it to be practical.  I know they always say go as big as you can afford, but if I'm not mistaken, if you go beyond 60 feet wide, you will run into a much larger expense due to the tresses involved. So lets hear what you have to say.

I built an arena similar to Rose's, 102' x 60' x 14' high with a 30' x 102' shed on one side for stalls and storage. Total size was 90' x 102'.

Because it too is a pole structure, we had to place the pole footings in undisturbed ground, before any fill was added to level the arena. Other wise it would have taken almost a year for fill to settle enough to build on it.

We live in a snow belt area, and typically encounter heavy winds many times a year. During the previous winter, a nearby arena collapsed under a heavy snow fall. It was built to agricultural specifications. When I built mine, I used commercial roof loadings. This effectively doubled the costs for the structural part of the construction. It entails heavier trusses, more bridging between them, closer purlings and girts, and heavier section posts. It was a wise decision, and the building is still structurally sound thirty years later. We were once directly hit by a micro burst. It tore off all the arena doors, dropped a tree into one side wall, but other wise did little damage.

If you encounter heavy winds, I would recommend against building an open, roofed structure. The roof acts just like an umbrella, and by allowing the wind to pass under the roof structure, it can be easily lifted and destroyed. Only by the protection of the enclosed side walls, can you prevent this from happening.

I built our arena with 14' walls and a 5/12 pitch. The height was necessary to give the attached stall addition, the necessary roof pitch. It turned out to be a blessing. To level the arena, I had to import 935 tons of fill. This was brought in 25 yds at a time in tri axle dump trucks. Without the interior height, they could not have dumped the loads inside the arena. This holds true as well for sawdust deliveries. In addition, I built a 12' wide door into the arena. This also proves to be a wise decision, when hay wagons and delivery trucks can easily enter the structure. A second or third door on opposite sides of the arena, are necessary for proper ventilation. I've been in some barns with only one door, and it can be quite unpleasant in the summer time.

The size is adequate. When my wife was giving lessons and we had the Riding For The Handicap, two concurrent sessions could be conducted without interference. Against the advise of many, I poured a concrete center isle between the two rows of stalls. This has proven to be quite beneficial, and if I were crazy enough to tackle this job again, I would repeat the concrete pour.

Gard

The beauty is that in todays world you have so many choices.  You can build a traditional building with trusses.  You can build a steel building, you can build a fabric covered building etc.  With todays computers designing complex trusses has been greatly simplified and the cost of the trusses has been reduced compared to hand framing a roof system 30 years ago.

You will have to consider several options from building just a roof and adding walls later as Rose suggest, to what material, how energy efficient will it be, will it be insulated, wil I heat it in the winter and cool it during the summer. What size doors will I include, will the doors allow access for loads of hay or for you to park equipment/horse trailers in the barn when not in use.

I would definitely level the area.  With today tract hoe excavators, I can level an area that large pretty quick. I dig 7' deep basement for 2500 sf homes in 4-6 hours. I don't know how steep you land is, But you should be able to take a couple of feet off one side an add it to the other side of a 60 x100 area in less than a day.

Good luck

Several of your posts have opened my eyes up to a few different factors I didn't think of. Like if I add fill dirt first, I will have to wait a very a long time before I can build on it to give the dirt a chance to settle. Also the wind issue with just a covered arena. This one I will have to think about. As far as watering, I do plan to put in some type of sprinkler system and to also add rubber chips to the sand to help with dust.

All great ideas, so keep them coming.