Posted 2017-09-01 3:13 AM Subject: RE: Bringing in sand to ride on - pattern work etc
dISK your area no more than 4 inches in both directions and use
that dirt as a dike around the outer edges to keep the sand from
washing away .. then lay a couple of sewer pipes or small
French drain under the dike on the end that puddles ...
Sand with some clay in it holds well ... look at the infield of a baseball
diamond ..
J&I Industries build a road maintainer to drag dirt/gravel roads with to
restore gravel and level them out ... and works great in an arena ..
you can set it to drag like 2 inches deep to get the job done on both.
Use while dirt is still damp from a rain ...
They are located in Madill Ok .. so look on their website or call them
to find it ... cost is cheap ... around $1200... best money you will ever
spend to also spread sand or gravel ...
Posted 2017-09-01 8:02 AM Subject: RE: Bringing in sand to ride on - pattern work etc
Experienced Mouse Trapper
Posts: 3106 Location: North Dakota
we made our arena in stages. First we chiseled the entire area probably 6" deep and disced that for a few years-we have a lot of loamy clay in ours. When we were able to afford to put sand in we just leveled off about 5-6" of sand over the original soil and we use a rototiller to work it=about 5" deep. We are in need of some more sand now that we revamped our arena for roping-but it sure has made a difference in how much quicker we can use the arena after we get some rain. Also, we use a hot heels to practice a lot which compacts the edges quite a bit and the sand sure makes it easy to work up and get it back in shape. I do wish we could get our friend down with his big road grater to crown our arena in the middle so we would have even run off as there is a slight rise on the one side-we get pretty wet in the end where our roping boxes are and I think the crown would help that considerably -hopefully some day that will happen. The one thing that will make a difference is when you get to ride in the spot-you will know if it should be deeper or not-how well your horses stand up in the stuff! Definitely not rocket science but sure takes a lot of time, effort and fuel. Good luck! Having your own place to ride is great!
Bringing in sand to ride on - pattern work etc
