|
|
Veteran
Posts: 160
 
| Looking to do an outdoor arena but when i try to research i find a 1000 different ways to skin a cat..lol..so im curious what type of footing, how deep, and anything else you can tell me to give me an idea to get this done. |
|
| |
|
Miracle in the Making
Posts: 4013
| the best way is just plow a big section up no fence use a couple of tires for your alley way that way your horse never get alley sour and u
you can change up ur approach to the first barrel |
|
| |
|
 I Chore in Chucks
Posts: 2882
Location: MD | don't bother fencing it if you can avoid it. we don't run horses on patterns here (i'm also not a serious racer anymore) we have a sand clay mixture in one arena and the other is some sort of dressage footing. I use the dressage footing arena most, I feel like my horses are working so hard in the other arena because it's so darn deep. I can make a run on the sand/clay arena if I want to but it gets shifty and it's a pain to keep up so I very rarely bother. |
|
| |
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 307
Location: Florida | We just disked up a big section of pasture and let that dry then disked it again. We did that for about 2 days until we had the ground good and chopped up, had 2 loads of clay brought in to mix and left it at that. We already had a fence up but we didn't disk all the way to the fences. the gate is at the top corner so I used tires, like someone else suggested for a makeshift "ally," and we drug after using it about every 2 days. I'd switch the way we approached the barrels every few weeks. My dad ended up putting team roping chutes in on one end too so that changed the arrangement a little, lol.
Only thing I wish we could've done differently, (but we already had that little area available and convenient), is put it further from the barn. We were right alongside the barnyard and she was CONSTANTLY trying to get back to her buddies. That was frustrating but manageable. |
|
| |
|
Veteran
Posts: 160
| Good to know you can just disc it and keep working the ground i always wondered wjy cant i just plow some ground up and add sand. Does the clay make it slick? |
|
| |
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 307
Location: Florida | paturninburnin89 - 2015-04-01 6:11 PM
Good to know you can just disc it and keep working the ground i always wondered wjy cant i just plow some ground up and add sand. Does the clay make it slick?
We didn't put much, red clay. No it didn't make it slick for us :) But like I said it was just a little to add some texture- probably 1 part clay to 5 parts dirt! It worked really well AND BONUS, if you need to work on muscles and don't have hills, like us down here in FL, disc again and go crazy in the deep ground  |
|
| |
|
Veteran
Posts: 160
| Thanks! Good to know i have no hills so that would be a major help! |
|
| |
|
 Blaines and Beauty
Posts: 1431
| We have really sandy soil and we sprayed where we wanted the arena and let the grass dry up. Then we disked it up and then drug it. We have a fence on one side and the rest is open. We didn't even have to bring in any other dirt BC it holds so well and dries great. I didnt want the ground too deep but that is a personal preference. |
|
| |
|
 Having Smokin Bandits
Posts: 4572
Location: Woodstown, NJ | It depends on what kind of dirt you have, whether you have to add anything to it. I've lived in a couple of different states so I've experienced some different situations. In OK and VA we had a lot of clay. It got sticky and slick. It also dried hard. If we didn't move, I was going to have to add sand to it. It was also rocky and I had to pick those out. Here in Jersey, I have a lot of sand and it's wonderful. I don't have to add anything to it. It's soft and dries fast. It's also rock-free.
We've used a tiller to dig up an arena and we've also used a box scraper with teeth/shanks attached when we didn't have a tiller.
I like my arenas fenced in if possible. I feel safer on some horses.
I like to make them wide enough that I can set up poles and leave them up with barrels also set up at the same time. If I have to put them away because there's no room, I don't use them.
We're in the process of building another arena now. I can't wait till it's done! |
|
| |
|
| paturninburnin89 - 2015-03-31 7:35 PM
Looking to do an outdoor arena but when i try to research i find a 1000 different ways to skin a cat..lol..so im curious what type of footing, how deep, and anything else you can tell me to give me an idea to get this done.
It depends on what kind of dirt you have now .. if you have the sticky black gumbo mud that cracks and turns to concrete when dry, slick red or yellow clay or caliche type soil ... there is not enough sand in the world if you plow it up or disk it first ..
Two ways have worked for me when I have had terrible dirt ...
You want to contain the area you want for an arena with a boundary like a pasture terrace around it by using dirt from outside the arena for the terrace or place railroad ties around it ... just like a cornbread pan that you are going to put your cornbread mix into ...
then haul in what sand companies call infield sand they use on baseball base lines ... it has enough red / orange clay in it to not blow away and it will crust over and not wash away when it rains. 10-12 inches of the sandy clay is all you need ... you want it to be more sand than clay
By having the boundary around it higher than the floor of the arena ... you will trap water and it may look like a lake after a heavy rain... ... look at which is the deepest end the water drains to and build you a couple of simple French drains or 20-30 feet just like you would a septic line to drain the water out of the arena ...
Just make sure you use a simple shallow chain drag or even an old wire cattle panel with a couple of railroad ties riding on it or old tires work ... just drag the surface to loosen 2-3 inches on your arena floor ... just keep in mind you are never going to disk or plow your arena .. just add some more infield sand over the years or another French drain if needed ... GOOD LUCK
|
|
| |
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 307
Location: Florida | Yeah we're lucky, the pastures around us have GREAT ground under them and this one in particular was a watermelon field 2 years ago so its extra nice. |
|
| |
|
 Certified Snake Wrangler
Posts: 1672
Location: North MS | How to determine your soil- the good ol mason jar test.
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/mg/gardennotes/214.html |
|
| |
Folks on-line