Horse arena construction/attachments?

[NoTrespassing]

I'm in the process of creating a 70 ft. dia. round pen for working horses myself. I started by removing all of the sod with my box scraper. That was quite a job, I had to take one side of the circle down about 8 inches to get it level. I'd say I've got about a 8 inch drop from the center to the edges for drainage. I will be putting in drainage tile around the outside edge too. I've got 27 10ft. cedar posts in and will start putting up the fence boards this weekend. For the footing I plan on putting down about 3 inches of 3/4" gravel, then crushed gravel, and then about 4 inches of coarse sand.

The leveling was the hardest part. I used a water level for lack of any other tools, and a line level with stakes around the outside.

Good Luck,
Kevin

 

[gabby]

Hey Kevin,
Are you sure you want to use the 3/4" gravel base? Round pens get dug out pretty deep in the track and that gravel will surely float to the surface. I wouldn't use it because it's going to end up on top.
gabby

 

[NoTrespassing]

Gabby,

Would you build the base of an arena differently than a round pen? Maybe I should skip the gravel and just use stone dust/screenings or limestone. I was hoping that by putting down a good base of gravel and then stone dust or limestone we could avoid soft spots. I'm reading about footing right now and I just realized that they call for more like 6-8 inches of stone dust compacted 2 inches before putting down the sand. That much stone dust should keep the gravel base from coming up I would think.

I've only been in 3 arenas around here and 2 of them were made that way. The difference is that they are both indoor arenas. The 3rd one used rubber for the cushion layer instead of sand. I'm not sure how the base was made.

Kevin

 

[gabby]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Gabby,

Would you build the base of an arena differently than a round pen? Maybe I should skip the gravel and just use stone dust/screenings or limestone. I was hoping that by putting down a good base of gravel and then stone dust or limestone we could avoid soft spots. I'm reading about footing right now and I just realized that they call for more like 6-8 inches of stone dust compacted 2 inches before putting down the sand. That much stone dust should keep the gravel base from coming up I would think.

I've only been in 3 arenas around here and 2 of them were made that way. The difference is that they are both indoor arenas. The 3rd one used rubber for the cushion layer instead of sand. I'm not sure how the base was made.

Kevin
)</font>

Hey Kevin,
I wouldn't use a gravel base for either an arena or a round pen because it will work its way to the top due to hoof action and grooming. I have a round pen and three stonedust dressage arenas and I am so glad I didn't use any gravel. I use plenty of stonedust (M-10) and nothing else.

If you put two inches of sand on top of stonedust, the sand will gradually get mixed up with the stonedust so you could just skip the sand. Stonedust is excellent footing. It just needs to be worked up occasionally if it gets pounded with rain and then gets too firm as it dries out. On the plus side, it doesn't get as soupy as sand when it's wet.

Avoid soft spots by compacting the base properly and periodically adding new stonedust where puddles form. You will have to do this on a regular basis. Also you need to knock down the ridges that form along the edges so surface water can drain away.

Arenas are like women - high maintenance! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

gabby

 

[Poncho]

Well.... guess I'm not as complicated as a lot of people here. Where I live in N FL a lot of people use the round pen panels made out of galvanized pipe and put it on a piece of ground. We trail ride and have run speed events as well as western pleasure. I do have a lot of sand, and it gets dusty... that washed sand sounds like a good idea... will have to look into that.