Indoor arena footing

[cowboydoc]

Pete,
Yes you can just use the clay for your base. There's really no reason to have the drain in the indoor.
Everyone worries about the top of the arena but it's your base that is important, esp. with reining. You've got to have a smooth hard base for them to slide on. If you are seriously into reining and maintaining your hard work on your arenas invest in one of the arena groomers. You won't do squat with a chainlink fence. Plus they will allow to control the depth so that you don't tear up your base.

If the excavator is coming back you need to get it dug out 4" below where you want your grade for your arena to be and it has to be absolutely perfectly level. That will give you a good arena for years to come with minimal maintenance.

As far as your outdoor arena it depends on your rainfall. Back home in Idaho we never worried about drainage as we don't get hardly any rain. In the midwest it's a constant battle with rain. My arenas are all tiled with the slope of the ground. You have to get the water drained from the middle as well as the outside. For the outdoor I would crown the middle and slope it sideways very gently. As long as you you compact the base very solid then you shouldn't have a problem. The tile will drain what leaches through the ground and the slope will take away the majority of the water.

I would rent a compactor if you want to do it right. YOu can get a heavy roller but you will have to compact it, wet it down, compact, wet it down, etc. I would use the same sand in the inside as well as the outside.

It definitely would be great to mix the rubber with the sand but most arenas are sand, even the big boys don't use rubber much.

 

[cowboydoc]

If you are going to mix the crush you will need to put it down then put 6" of clay down and then 4" of sand. You can't have crushed for your base, not if you are going to be doing any stopping at all. If you really want to go all out the way to do it is dig down 14" from grade. Then you put 4" of crushed rock and tile it, then you put in 6" of clay and compact the heck out of it, and then put in your 3-4" of sand. Now some guys will only put down 2" of sand on their base because they want their horses to slide really far. Most guys though put down 3-4" because they want their horses to learn to slide in deeper sand because that's what most arenas are. Plus if they can slide good in heavy sand you will slide farther in lighter sand.

The wood material is fine but you do have to replace it faster than sand. I wouldn't mess with it. If I was going to do anything besides sand I'd do the rubber.

 

[gerard]

Not sure if cowboy doc is saying to use JUST clay for the footing. If so (if that's what you need for reining) I would agree with the groomer use as you would need something to dig up the clay and loosen it and a fence won't do that. IF you are going to put down clay and top with a looser footing on top (sand, rubber, fibar etc), then you want the base compacted and do NOT want to dig it up. In that case a fence drag works fine and smooths things well. My wife does dressage so you want a little looser footing than for reining. Re watering - I'd love to have a sprinkler set up but can't pull that kind of water from my well. If you have a pond that would be great. I use a 325 gal tank in my pickup and I rigged a 7 foot wide pvc drip bar off the tailgate. Just crack the valve and drive back and forth. Dumps the whole thing in about 10 minutes. (We have a spring down the road where I fill it up in about 6 minutes which was why I got the tank). Re compaction - we just had the dozer that spread the clay go over it and then rode the horses on it for a few weeks before putting down the fibar. Not as good as a dedicated machine but it worked pretty well and cost nothing extra! Horses will compact things quite a bit, evene when you don't want them to!

 

[cowboydoc]

NO not at all saying to use clay for the footing just for the base.

 

[gerard]

Guess I'm confused then about the groomer/ring conditioner you were referring to. Do you use that just to loosen up the sand? I would think you would not want to dig into the base? The groomers I've seen are used with dirt/clay arenas that get compacted and need to be scarified and loosened. That tends not to happen with a sand footing since the sand really doesn't compact.

 

[cowboydoc]

For reining Gerard you want your conditions absolutely perfect. The sand does compact to a degree. Not like dirt for sure but it does pack. Also it gets uneven in spots especially where you slide and spin. I've been at shows where the sliding areas and the spinning areas would get a dip in them if they didn't drag the arena after about every 10 runs. Also you want to turn your sand as well to add to the life of it. You are also going to save your base by keeping the sand even. If you don't use a an arena groomer of some type your arena will become very uneven.

 

[gerard]

that makes more sense - I still haven't seen reining so don't have a complete sense of what's involved.

 

[cowboydoc]

Gerard,
go to www.nrha.com. That is the reining website. Then go to sponsors and kiser arena specialists. That will show you the kind of groomer that i'm talking about.

 

[MikePA]

Here's the direct link to <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.kisermfg.com/>Kiser Manufacturing</A>. Be sure to check the horsepower recommendations for the size tractor needed to use these attachments.