Spreading Washed Sand in an Indoor Horse Arena - How?

[GPintheMitten]

I want to spread about 18 yards of washed sand in my arena. I want to get it 1 1/2 inches thick. So far the plan is to have it dumped on a concrete pad outside of the barn. Then use loader(s) to bring it through the aisleway of the horse barn and into the 50 x 80 attached indoor arena.

I have a Kubota B2620 with a loader but we might rent a skidsteer to make better time.

Any better ideas?

I have a 5 ft back blade and eta 6 ft york rake and a couple bigger tractors with no material handling tools and a couple of flatbead trailers.

 

[tcreeley]

Just curious- what is the surface under the sand? Your tractor should work fine!

 

[RedNeckRacin]

Bucketing it in is the easiest way if you dont have something larger than can dump inside the building. Getting it perfectly 1.5" is tricky. Best bet is to order some extra and spread it around. Most likely if its in an indoor arena, its not level anyways, so close should be fine. I would suggest two machines though, one to spread while the other makes the trips back and forth. If not just take your time and spread the bucket fulls out.

 

[GPintheMitten]

My sil has a 40 hp International that I could put the york rake on if you think that would work while one of us buckets it in with the loader on the Kubota.

 

[sailfast]

1.5 inches isn't very deep.

Hopefully there will be more than that.

Have at least 4 inches deep on mine.

It will tend to move to the edges too.

 

[GPintheMitten]

My daughter is a trainer and she said 2 inches of sand is the most for the top layer of footing. If its too deep it can lead to tendon damage. Maybe it depends on what discipline you practice. She suggested you want to leave a footprint but not more.

 

[GPintheMitten]

Just curious- what is the surface under the sand? Your tractor should work fine!

It is a mix of sand and clay. The previous owner built the arena and brought the fill in. Not sure what he ordered. Im going to run the york rake over it first to be sure I remove any rocks. This past spring we took out some stalls and concrete the previous owner had in part of the arena. Then we spread the sand that was there around.

 

[BeezFun]

Any better ideas?

If you can rent or borrow a dump trailer that would really speed things up. Mine holds 4 yd for reference.

It's not easy to get something really flat, and I think you want uniform depth for horse footing. The cheap way is to string lines across the floor and use them for reference. I'd rent a laser level and have a helper walking around while you spread to help keep things flat.
If you plan to rent a skidsteer, you might try to find a small excavator and have him do it. I pay $125/hour for a retired guy with a large skidsteer, he could probably do that in a couple hours. When he's done it's as flat as concrete. By the time you get done learning how to use the machine, it will cost you about the same.

 

[WM75Guy]

Footing is everything in an arena. Bad footing is the easiest way to get a permanently lame horse. The footing varies greatly depending on the discipline, English vs Western, dressage vs jumping, roping vs running barrels, etc. Like Sailfast said 1 1/2 inches isn't much and it does move around. You need to drag it to level it and you can get in the base material quickly with that little of depth. I use a Red Master II harrow with adjustable tines to drag our dressage arena and it would be difficult to not get into the base.

I think you have the right idea on equipment to move it in to the arena. A 4'X4' drag harrow with short tines would work good in that small of a space for final leveling. TSC has them but the tines are 5" long. A small section piece of chain link fence works pretty good as well.

Loyal Drag Harrow, 4 ft. x 4 ft. - Tractor Supply Online Store

 

[BeezFun]

My daughter is a trainer and she said 2 inches of sand is the most for the top layer of footing. If its too deep it can lead to tendon damage. Maybe it depends on what discipline you practice. She suggested you want to leave a footprint but not more.

Your daughter is right, anything deeper and you'll have all kinds of leg problems, ask me how I know. You don't ask about keeping the dust down, it's a real problem with any kind of sand or dirt. The chloride products are bad for the horses to breath, especially if they also live in the arena. We're trying a product now called ArenaKleen, it's completely safe and works indoors or out.