Spreading Stones Technique

[MikePA]

<font color=blue>Cut about an inch off the top of the tube that the shoe slides in. Use this as a spacer but put it on the bottom of the shoe and you lower the shoe the same distance you cut the tube. </font color=blue>
gerard, thanks for the tip. I will try that next time. The 1/4 inch makes sense now. When I was trying to figure out how to do this and thought I had gotten the blade adjusted as far as it would go I remember thinking it looked like a good setting for plowing snow, but not spreading a 1 inch layer of stone.

<font color=blue>As far as the weed things goes - good luck. I haven't found anything weeds can't grow in.</font color=blue> My wife loves to garden and I couldn't understand why she'd believe this claim for this stone. I was going to say something, or worse yet, laugh at a claim that weeds wont grow in it. But I've learned something in 26 years of marriage. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

<font color=blue>The best solution is to use the ring a lot. Those hooves do a good job tearing things up. </font color=blue>
I thnk this is why my wifes riding instructor says weeds won't grow in this stone. First, her rings get more use than ours. Second, this stone doesn't pack as quickly or as hard, so weed seeds don't have as much time to gain a foothold before a hoof comes along and rips it out.

 

[gerard]

Our ring is only 2 inches of sand on top of packed dirt. Not ideal but it's what was in our budget at the time. Weeds have no problem finding the dirt and taking root. Someone else mentioned the sand being 5 inches deep which I always thought is too deep for horse footing. Easy for them to pull a tendon or some such thing. Tell your wife to train her horses to step right on the weeds and then she accomplishes something else while riding!! BYTW - What style does she ride? english, hunter jumper, western etc My wife does dressage now but her main experience was hunter/jumper and warmbloods.

 

[MikePA]

<font color=blue>your wife to train her horses to step right on the weeds and then she accomplishes something else while riding!! </font color=blue>
Hmm, I think I'll let you tell my wife that. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

<font color=blue>What style does she ride? </font color=blue>
English.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Sounds like a wonderful opportunity to aquire a 3pt rake to occasionally "condition" the ring and annoy any weeds that the hooves happened to miss...<G>

 

[gerard]

Problem with a rake is it takes too much sand with it and still barely up roots some of the weeds. I've had the most luck with a chain harrow that's mildy aggressive. If you go over things enough times it trashes them pretty well but they still grow back. To get the roots up you have to go too deep and then your disturb the base and dig up rocks. Guess what the last thing you want in a sand horse arena is?? Catch 22.............

 

[Anonymous Poster]

What about turning the rake around backwards for grooming this flat space? (Just curious...no experience here!)

 

[MikePA]

We use a drag harrow to loosen up the surface. One of the supposed advantages of the washed limestone sand is that it doesn't need dragged (drugged? /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif) as much since it doesn't compact as easily. We'll see.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Hmm....a naked matress spring might also be an interesting tool for this job!

 

[gerard]

For grooming that would work fine but still not as well as a chain link fence which is what I use just for smoothing things. The rake backwards still wouldn't do anything about the weeds cause it would just ride over them without uprooting them. I also have guage wheels so I can set the rake high and use that for smoothing but that means the tines stay high which keeps them from dragging too much sand and then again, the weeds just laugh /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[MossRoad]

I think we use pretty much the same stuff on our T-Ball diamond. Ours was called granulated limestone. It packs down hard if you don't use it. I imagine that horses would keep it pretty fluffy. The weeds will grow in it if left undisturbed. Ours is about 6 inches thick. When we start to notice weeds we drag it with a chain link fence(can't afford a chain harrow yet) and this tops the weeds at ground level but doesn't kill the roots. Have to do it about every two weeks or so. Or you can spray the weeds and that will kill the roots. Did you post a picture of the finished ring?