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Member
Posts: 39
| Hello Everyone
My boyfriend and I are in the process of buying our first little acreage together, 6.2 acreages to be exact. It isn't a lot but it will be ours :)
Any who we have a few horses and I do barrel race (attempt to at least lol). There is no outdoor arena currently but I would like to build a small one to ride and practice/train in. So I am looking here for any and all advice.
What size is a good size for an outdoor arena? Would like to be able to practice in it.
Best type of footing?
Maintenance?
Ect,ect
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
:)
P.S we are located in Canada lol |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 964
 
Location: Alberta, Canada | Where in Canada are you?
We're way up north in Teepee Creek, Alberta. Our outdoor is 150x300. We didnt really mean to go that big, just kind of fit nicely in a corner of our property. We have been making due with the natural black dirt for the past several years but we are bringing in sand to mix in this summer. Due to the fact that I really only have 6, 7 in a good year, months out of the year in it, we haven't sunk a ton of money into it. Biggest piece of advice I can give is make sure you have the proper equipment to dig it regularly :) It wont get as packed with just your own use as a public pen does. |
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 Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
 
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | Im not as far north as teepee creek. .im about 6 hrs se....and mine measures about the same as js...i kept the dirt that was in it..and yes have a good disc so u can work it deep...m |
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Member
Posts: 39
| Well right now I am only about 30 minutes north of the Montana border actually in Alberta but the place we are buying is just an hour north east of Calgary.
What do you guys use to work up the ground right now?
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 964
Location: Alberta, Canada | With A Rebel Yell - 2017-06-27 3:35 PM
Well right now I am only about 30 minutes north of the Montana border actually in Alberta but the place we are buying is just an hour north east of Calgary.
What do you guys use to work up the ground right now?
Tractor and good ol fashioned disc :) works better than any fancy harrow set up imo. We harrow daily and disc once every 3-4 weeks depending on weather. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 310
Location: North Dakota | With A Rebel Yell - 2017-06-27 5:35 PM
Well right now I am only about 30 minutes north of the Montana border actually in Alberta but the place we are buying is just an hour north east of Calgary.
What do you guys use to work up the ground right now?
I also live "up north" in North Dakota. Not in Canada, but I totally understand the "use it for a couple months out of the year" comment. Our outdoor is roughly 200 x 300. It's plenty spacious and I can work very good size patterns in it. We also have roping boxes and chutes. My thoughts are, if you're going to go through the work to build something, build something that won't leave you "wanting". Wanting bigger, wanting wider, wanting better ground, etc.
Our arena currently has the original dirt in it, just worked up. I would eventually like to add just a little bit of sand so that I don't have to wait two days post rain to ride. We dig with a chisel plow that has a rolling bar at the back to smooth the top of the dirt once worked up. We just adjust the dig height while driving based on what needs to be done. |
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 Born not Made
Posts: 2937
Location: North Dakota | Where I currently board, they have a nice-sized area that can *almost* fit a standard pattern in it. I've never measured the arena but I like it because I can set up a barrel pattern AND set up the poles next to it.
The one corner is a little bit of clay footing but otherwise the rest is nice plain dirt. They just disc it every once in a while. Makes for deep footing on a fresh dig but I've NEVER had a horse slip in that arena.; even if it's been a while since it got dug. Honestly, if it were my arena, I wouldn't even add any sand. I'd just dig out the clay area in the corner and replace with dirt.
Essentially, this is what I grew up with too. I never had an arena but whatever field was the summer fallow field that year for my parents, I would have my dad dig up a little corner for me with a disc. And then halfway through the year when the clover was too high, he'd disc it again. 
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  More bootie than waist!
Posts: 18425
Location: Riding Crackhead. | I'm in northern SD. I have a 200x300 arena with black dirt. We use an old field cultivator to work our arena. A disc has a tendancy to throw dirt to the outside and they will pack the ground. (married to a dirt farmer) A field cultivator with sweeps will rip the ground plus we have harrows on the cultivator to make it level behind. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 239
| Another Albertan here....not as north as the TP creek crew but just outside of Edmonton.
I would go bigger with your arena if you can. Ours is about 200 by 100 and it is just too small, it is easier to go bigger first than make a small one then try to expand it. It works but I find horses get bound up and reliant on the edges of the arena whereas with a bigger arena they learn to be more independent (we ride reiners and barrel horses). Plus if you get in a fight there's more room to school without running out of dirt!
We are lucky to be in a largely sand based area so our dirt tends to dry up quicker and is nice to ride in. I would recommend to build it with good drainage, last year we had so much rain I could barely ride in it as it wasn't draining properly.
As for maintenance, we have a custom drag that was built based on a Kiser. I think the parma groomers are pretty good too.
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