Hey! I'm planning on putting in a small sandring, probably 25mx50m for riding. I event, so there will be a mixture of jumping and flatwork done. It would probably only get rode on twice a day (me on 2 horses) , dragged regularly. I was wondering what everybody's experience was installing such a ring? What mixtures of sand or material they used and how it worked out for them, how they built it. I'm on a budget, so I was planning on roughing up the soil with the disc on the back of the tractor and then compacting it with a snowblade turned backwards.... That should level the ground well enough, As for drainage, no water runs through that area, or sits in it so i dont imagine water will be a problem unless its the height of spring, in which case we;re still riding indoors! Im on the fence about possibly having someone come in and using some heavy machinery perhaps a roller to compact the soil, anyone have any thoughts on that?
I've searched the internet for methods on putting in a sand-ring, and some suggest removing all the soil down to bed rock, putting in gravel and clay and drainage and the whole nine yards, and it sounds expensive, is all that really necessary? Thanks for the help!
Posted 2008-04-17 4:17 PM (#82191 - in reply to #82186) Subject: RE: Outdoor Riding Arena
Location: KY
Don't know about your area but we just put up panels in the approximation of an oval ring, in the grass. So our outdoor arena consists of grass. I expect that eventually we will wear off the grass on the edge.
Posted 2008-04-17 9:38 PM (#82202 - in reply to #82186) Subject: RE: Outdoor Riding Arena
Expert
Posts: 5870 Location: western PA
When we leveled off our outdoor arena, we were well below the topsoil in a few areas. Our ground below the topsoil is clay and shale. Clay, when wet, packs and sticks to anything like glue. It will not absorb water, just acts like a pool bottom. We ground up the clay, and dumped on many tons of river bottom sand. We mixed these two until we had the drainage we needed. Now that the horses hooves have continually mixed things up, we have no standing water after a rain.
We have a rear mount blade on the tractor, and as you suggest, when turned around backwards, is an excellent tool to level and smooth the surface.
Posted 2008-04-18 4:44 PM (#82231 - in reply to #82186) Subject: RE: Outdoor Riding Arena
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 455 Location: Texas
Is all that really necessary?
That depends on a lot of things.
What is your existing soil like? If you have clay, or really silty soil, you are going to have to pay a lot more attention to drainage than you will if you have sandy soil. If you have soil that drains poorly, and you just strip the topsoil off and put in sand footing, you are basically creating a bathtub with no way to remove the drain plug. If you put the sand on top of the topsoil, you will get a topsoil/sand mix that doesn't make the topsoil better but just ruins the expensive sand.
It sounds like you will be using your arena a lot, especially compared to how often most people use their arenas. If it rains, it doesn't sound like you want to wait very long before you can use your arena again. Some friends have a poorly-drained "dirt" arena, and if we get 1 inch of rain, it's unuseable for a week. It's usually unuseable in the spring until about June, too.
I'm guessing the people who mentioned they just put up temporary panels in the grass don't use their arena as much as you want to. If they do, they must have very sandy soil and/or a very well-drained area. I have nothing against setting up temporary panels, but in most areas it just isn't going to work for something that you want to use for a few hours every day.
I like that first link that PaulChristenson posted. It may be a bit overkill in some locations, but will give you an excellent arena, even in the worst of soil conditions.
I am laying out my arena, and plan to build it slowly starting fairly soon. My area has heavy silty/clayey topsoil with silty clay underneath. I plan to use some of the methods mentioned in the link Paul mentioned. One thing you will notice about nearly every arena, is the lowest (therefore wettest) part of the whole arena is 3 feet off the fence. My arena will have a common fence with the pasture on two sides with a ditch on one of the other sides. I plan to install a drain tile under the surface 3 feet inside the fence all the way around and daylight it out in the ditch I will have on the one side.
Building a good arena is not cheap. That's why I plan to build mine slowly, as I get time for the things I can do myself, and money for the things I cannot do myself.
Posted 2008-04-18 5:30 PM (#82234 - in reply to #82231) Subject: RE: Outdoor Riding Arena
Expert
Posts: 2828 Location: Southern New Mexico
I'm guessing the people who mentioned they just put up temporary panels in the grass don't use their arena as much as you want to. If they do, they must have very sandy soil and/or a very well-drained area. I have nothing against setting up temporary panels, but in most areas it just isn't going to work for something that you want to use for a few hours every day.
I'm in the desert, there's nothing but sand, but yes, we do use the arena almost every day. For warming up, pole bending and barrel practice. Most of our "riding" is out in the open desert.
Posted 2008-04-18 9:36 PM (#82248 - in reply to #82186) Subject: RE: Outdoor Riding Arena
Member
Posts: 25 Location: Canada
Thanks for the replies!! Im not overly worried about drainage, the area I want to work with has a kinda natural shape that I think will drain well. The only thing im unsure of is when i go to level out the little dips and humps, if these might make soft spots in the footing. Im thinking what I might do is level it out, and then let it sit for a few weeks while running it over with the tractor and blade a few times a day, and hopefully we will get a good down poor and i can see how well it will drain before i put any footing down! Thanks again!
Posted 2008-04-18 9:44 PM (#82250 - in reply to #82186) Subject: RE: Outdoor Riding Arena
Member
Posts: 25 Location: Canada
and the existing soil is more heavy earth i would suppose. We are right on the Canadian Shield if that means anything anyone, Its really rich soil, could plant a garden there if i wanted.... In some spots its would be less then 1' to the bedrock and in other spots it would be many feet. I have rode in that area over the grass and the footing has been great there, even after a good rainfall, so im hoping a few inches of sand wouldnt change that too much.
Posted 2008-04-21 8:44 AM (#82347 - in reply to #82250) Subject: RE: Outdoor Riding Arena
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 455 Location: Texas
Originally written by Terri on 2008-04-18 5:30 PM
I'm in the desert, there's nothing but sand, but yes, we do use the arena almost every day. For warming up, pole bending and barrel practice.
Excellent. Do what works sufficiently well for the least amount of cost. No reason to excavate sand to replace it with sand.
Originally written by snoweary on 2008-04-18 9:36 PM
Im thinking what I might do is level it out, and then let it sit for a few weeks while running it over with the tractor and blade a few times a day, and hopefully we will get a good down poor and i can see how well it will drain before i put any footing down! Thanks again!
That sounds like a good idea. Disking and recompacting might be a better option, because you would be uniformly mixing the soil. But if you don't have a good way to recompact the soil, then it's not a better option.
Originally written by snoweary on 2008-04-18 9:44 PM
and the existing soil is more heavy earth i would suppose. We are right on the Canadian Shield if that means anything anyone, Its really rich soil, could plant a garden there if i wanted.... In some spots its would be less then 1' to the bedrock and in other spots it would be many feet. I have rode in that area over the grass and the footing has been great there, even after a good rainfall, so im hoping a few inches of sand wouldnt change that too much.
Adding sand shouldn't change the drainage much. The sand will drain much better than your underlying existing soil. As for footing, I don't know if there is grass or other vegetation in this location right now, but remember a lack of vegetation will change the firmness of the soil a lot.
Posted 2008-04-28 10:38 PM (#82775 - in reply to #82186) Subject: RE: Outdoor Riding Arena
Veteran
Posts: 151 Location: Manitoba, Canada
I think you are going to be spending far more time in your arena, and with a much more serious agenda, than I ever have. However, we did our arena quite inexpensively. We have a heavy clay soil here, and almost no level ground. Our pasture area is in river flats that flood every spring, so finding a spot for the arena was a challenge. We picked the most level area that wouldn't flood, and disked it up, then tilled, then dragged to make it as smooth as possible. It's not show ring flat by any means, but there's nothing to trip over. We could have made it nice and flat (with an bit of angle for drainage) if we had had the money to bring in a grader, but that wasn't an option at the time.
Anyway, the clay packed up pretty solid in no time flat and then we added wood shavings and fines (80% fines). We only drag deep enough to level the surface, and never dig into the clay beneath. We use a set of diamond harrows towed behind the quad. The sawdust/fines were free from a local board plant, so that was the cheap part. It dries quickly after a rain, but if you get a load with too many shavings, the arena is worthless - the shavings are all but impossible to move with the drag, they fly in the wind, they won't level, and they're slippery. The fines need to be topped up every year because they blow away. This year I'm going to add a little sand to mix in to help weigh it all down. Last year I added railway ties around the perimeter to make a sill and help prevent the footing from blowing away, and it has worked quite well.
All in all, the only things I would change is I would scrape back the surface footing and get one area graded and brought up a little higher for better drainage. I would take one wall down and make the arena 40' wider (it's 80x180), and I'd add a little sand to go with the fines. Other than that, it's great, and has only cost me the price of the posts and rails, about $900.
Posted 2008-04-29 2:37 PM (#82796 - in reply to #82186) Subject: RE: Outdoor Riding Arena
Expert
Posts: 5870 Location: western PA
TP
Once you add the sand to your clay and mix it together, you will find a very pleasant base upon which to use. We also have a heavy clay base in the area of our arena. By first grading it, we were assured of proper water run off with no puddling. Then with a few applications of sand, tilled in with a tiller behind the tractor, we were able to finally establish the surface we wanted.
In our area, we only have two types of local sand; masonry and river bottom. In clinics we've been to, we were advised that washed masonry sand contained a high percentage of silica, which is eroding to horse's feet. So we used the river bottom and have been pleased with the result.
Be prepared though. When manure gets mixed into the fray, the resulting soil will grow anything and you will have instant weeds.
Posted 2008-04-30 8:20 AM (#82836 - in reply to #82186) Subject: RE: Outdoor Riding Arena
Veteran
Posts: 151 Location: Manitoba, Canada
I agree, Gard. A little sand would make it perfect.
As for the weeds, I have the perfect fix - my daughter's mare! She founders if left out on spring grass 24/7, so I rotate her in and out of my arena to limit her grass. She eats her flake of hay and mows down any weed foolish enough to try and grow there.
Outdoor Riding Arena
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