riding ring sand made level- how?

[MrJoe]

Good Day: a friend has installed a riding ring at his farm, it has a sand mix for a surface. What's the best attachment to use level the ring out with after the horses have used it /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif He has a chain drag mat but it follows the contours of the surface. Can't have high and low spots /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif We need something that will level and groom in one shot. Any ideas?

 

[psuedofarmer]

i'd suggest a box blade - i used mine to groom the neighbors ring w/o much effort..

good luck.
pf

 

[beenthere]

I sure wouldn't be able to do well with a box blade to make it better, but I could sure make it worse with one.

If me, I'd get a long board or timber, that would drag some material from the high spots to the low spots, and be long enough (like 12-16') to smooth over that width. Also, attaching chain-drag harrows behind the long board or evener would be a way to go.

Your idea of 'one pass' seems asking a lot. Multiple passes will be the way I would go. There are likely a lot more ideas to be offered as well.

 

[Indydirtfarmer]

Not sure who makes them, and can't find the link, but there's a 3-point implement that's made specifically for your chore at hand.

I see them used at tractor pulls to level the track after each pull. I've always heard them referred to as "arena blades".

 

[RonMar]

I have never used a chain drag but I have made several out of chain link fencing. I take a 2-3" dia piece of heavy thick wall pipe, just a bit longer than my section of chainlink would be tall if it were stood up as fencing. I take a roughly square piece of heavy chainlink fence and unlace/untwist 1 strand from the end. I wrap the end around the pipe and use that single strand to re-lace the end of the chainlink to itself. I attach a long length of chain(about twice the pipe length) to each end. The center link of this length of chain attaches to the tractor drawbar. The pipe with the chainlink knocks the top off the high spots nicely in sand and the chainlink draging flat behind the pipe smoothes out the rest and puts the highs into the lows. The only drawback is that it brings any stones/rocks to the surface. I Just made one of these for a neighbors arena and she loves it except for the rocks. I am going to put together a small mesh expanded metal drag with a frame around the back and sides to strain/filter the rocks out of her arena.

 

[steveinmo]

Joe,

You might try this site: www.countrymanufacturing.com/index.html

 

[KentT]

If you could pick it up as salvage somewhere, you might want to try a 8' to 12' heavy I-beam like a piece of railroad track, with a chain attached in two spots for a "V", and one side slightly longer than the other for a slight angle. I've seen these used for final grading of lawns and they'll do a pretty remarkable job... they're heavy enough to cut the high spots and function a lot like a big, wide boxblade.

 

[LarryD]

One more "store bought" arena conditioner

I use a 5' piece of 2x4 tube steel with 1" long rebar studs welded about 6" apart on the bottom. Add a short piece of chainlink fencebehind it and it breaks up the high spots and fills in the low ones.

 

[Soundguy]

Does he have the chain harrow flippe dover? many have an agressive and a mild side.

Otherwise you have the choice of a yourk rake just to top it.. or a box to drag it smooth.. a scrape blade to top it, or a fairly expensive rota-diron type rotary ring conditioner.

Your choice.. Most of us non-comercial pet-horse owners just run a chain harrow over it a few times... the hi-dolalr horse people shell out the +$$ for the real deal.

You might try pm'ing cowboydoc.. he's a vocal supporter of those +$$ rotary ring conditioners.

As for money.. I havn't been keeping track. I've seen some models easilly hit a few thou.. however recently I have seen some of the economy brands come out with them... namely KK.. perhaps even howse. I'd expect them to work almost as good.. and be way cheaper.

Soundguy

 

[tjkadar]

As has been mentioned, you can spend a lot of money on an implement to help level your arena. The Reveal 4-N-1 is a great implement to smooth, level, and groom your arena, but it is also fairly expensive. A heavy chain drag/harrow can help even out an arena, but you really need to drag as often as possible. There are also some straight blades with a few modifications on them that are used in arenas.

Your best bet (if you wanna stay cheap as possible) is to use a box blade or straight blade type arena tool to smooth out the arena and get it level. Afterwards, keep after the footing by frequently dragging with a chain harrow/drag. By doing this, you will probably only need to box blade/straight blade once or twice a year while keeping up with day to day operations via a drag.

If your arena is sand, you'll want to turn it over every once is awhile. I usually use a disc. As the horses work over the arena, they grind the sand particles into ever smaller sizes. This is very evident when you see a 'haze' of floating dust while riding. By turning over the sand, you send the smaller particles to the bottom and bring the bigger ones up to the top. It also helps the footing, but it might take some dragging to get the depth right.

I don't know what kind of condition your arena is in, so I'm not sure exactly what you need. Some people can get very reasonable results by attaching their drag to a railroad crosstie. Others aren't so lucky... /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Hope it all works out for you.