Outdoor horse arena footing?

[bazman82]

We just finished having a nice clay platform base put in. We needed to raise the area where wanted to put our arena by at least 10 inches.

We did have an idea of footing based off another outdoor riding arena that is close by (Lockport, NY). So I called up LaFarge quarry here in Lockport and hoping for a price on "Grit Sand". They of course don't have a product with that name...... Anyone happen to know what grit sand goes by for technical terms? When my wife asked the barn owner with the outdoor arena, she said she just calls and asks for grit sand.

While I can get some regular sand, we were hoping for something just slightly bigger in particle size. I am open to any other suggests as well for outdoor arena footing. Lafarge says that I might be meaning their washed screenings which are 1/8 inch stone chips. Not sure how well that would work and that is expensive at 28.89 per ton. Not including delivery.

 

[JJT]

My neighbor has an arena, he used 6"-8" of washed/screened sand. The same material our highway guys use on the roads in the winter.

 

[ponytug]

Congratulations on getting your arena going!

What are you planning on using the arena for? Dressage, jumping, barrel racing, training young horses...? Footing requirements vary enormously.
Do your horses have any special requirements?
How much maintenance are you up for?
How long do you want it to last?
What are you doing for drainage?
Are you willing to put down geotextile to seal the clay away from your footing? (Is that compacted clay? Did you add lime to the clay as you were layering and compacting it? How thick is that base layer?)

In my opinion, 10" of sand is asking for trouble. If it is unwashed, it will compact toward the stone it was made from, and if it is washed, 10" is deep enough to require special training before your horses can spend much time in it without torque and tearing tendons and ligaments.

If you get a soft stone, like limestone (dolomite near you), it will break down to finer and finer material, requiring more harrowing before and even during use.

All the best,

Peter

 

[bazman82]

Thanks! Basically just your typical riding and maybe some barrel racing. No jumping or dressage. I would like it to last forever or at least until we decide to enclose it....

I don't mind much maintenance. I have a few pieces of equipment that should make it easy.

Drainage, we had the base installed high enough to allow the water to drain to the ditches on each side. It was roughly 10" of clay fill that we needed to be higher than the rest of the area. We already plan to put the fabric down on top of the clay. The clay has been compacted with the dozer than was grading it all day. I went over it with the cultimulcher to flatten any windrows that were there. No lime added.

Right now, were thinking of a stone dust/limestone on top of the fabric (3 inches) and have it flattened with a roller. Then, call around and find an angular sand or sharp sand from what I have been reading.

I have pictures of the base layer. I'll upload them shortly.

 

[TheMan419]

10 inches of sand is way way way too much. Sand on top of clay is slippery. It is the predominant footing here in northern Indiana because we have so much clay soil. I did not think much of it until we had our footing redone.

Put 4 inches of stone dust down. Compact the living crap out of that. Put washed sand on top of that. It makes great footing. Of course I assume you have drainage already figured out.

If it were me and I needed to go up 10 inches, I'd bring in 6-8 inches of clay. then 4 inches of stone dust, compact it and then sand to whatever depth you need for whatever kind of riding you are doing.

Dressage likes 3 inches.
Reining wants more.
Not sure about jumping or contesting what they want.

The United States Equestrian Federation has a good book called "Under Foot" that does a great job of explaining footing and what you need/want.

The stone dust layer made a HUGE difference.

EDIT TO ADD: Obviously compact each layer as it goes on and if you are adding 8 inches of clay compact a couple times as you go up. Otherwise it will compact over time and sink.

 

[bazman82]

 

[bazman82]

I wasn't adding 10 inches of sand. It was 10"s of clay that I wanted. This field has been underwater before during a really heavy rainstorm (about 4"s of rain in less than 24 hours). It was about 8-10"s of water throughout the entire field. It couldn't drain fast enough anymore since the town had replaced the roadside ditch with a smaller culvert (engineers said a 3ft culvert was enough to replace the 4ft ditch) Then, the contractors that redid our road, raised it a few inches. I wanted to make sure the base was high enough and graded properly to the ditches on each side. I may plan to make this an indoor in the next decade so I wanted to make sure all the ground work was done high enough.

 

[ponytug]

+1 on USEF's book. I had forgotten about it.

While looks can be deceiving, that arena soil doesn't look terribly compacted from 2,000 miles away, if it were me, I would get a big sheeps foot roller out on that base when it was damp and compact until it stops compacting. Then go for your geotextile and base rock , and compact the dampened base rock with the sheepskin foot compactor, before switching to a roller. If you can rent a laser level skid steer grader it will make a great surface that compacts well. This is your foundation for everything else, so if it is weak, it will be a real pain and pricey to redo later. BTDT. If you can swing it, I would get a laser level on whatever you plan to use to groom the arena. That's not a small arena, and barrel racing is both quite demanding and damaging to the surface.

Rubber crumb can make a hard material more forgiving. (That is both a plus and a minus) If your finished arena gets too hard, even with grooming, I would consider adding it.

All the best,

Peter

 

[drssg]

If you can find a local arena that you like and employ the person that made it, I think that would be worth while. Just the materials used in an arena can be expensive, and it's a shame to waste money on a faulty approach.

The arena consists of sub-base, base, and footing layers. The clay you added would be the sub-base. In my area, a common base material is called 1/8x0. It is 1/8" stone down to fine dust. It will pack down very hard.

If you have an aggressive arena tool, you can just keep the top layer of the base loosened up. If you want more or less footing, you just change the depth of the arena tool. If you ignore the arena for a while, it will get very hard.

If you add a separate layer of sand, it is supposed to be angular, rather than round little pebbles. Round sand moves too easily under the horse's hoof and isn't good footing.

Good luck.

 

[TheMan419]

I wasn't adding 10 inches of sand. It was 10"s of clay that I wanted. This field has been underwater before during a really heavy rainstorm (about 4"s of rain in less than 24 hours). It was about 8-10"s of water throughout the entire field. It couldn't drain fast enough anymore since the town had replaced the roadside ditch with a smaller culvert (engineers said a 3ft culvert was enough to replace the 4ft ditch) Then, the contractors that redid our road, raised it a few inches. I wanted to make sure the base was high enough and graded properly to the ditches on each side. I may plan to make this an indoor in the next decade so I wanted to make sure all the ground work was done high enough.

Plus one on being high enough. We moved A LOT of dirt before building our indoor arena to make it a high point on the property. Thankfully we had a hill already so we did not have to bring dirt in, that would have been crazy expensive. The guy that did the final grade originally did not use a laser level. When we re-did it the guy with the laser said it did not vary by more than a half inch over the 140 foot long side of the arena.

The layer of compacted stone dust before the layer of sand for footing made a HUGE difference.