What kind of harrow to use in a horse rink?

[cowboydoc]

That's the whole point is that a good arena isn't dirt. It's a clay base with sand, crushed stone, rubber etc. Read rollerskates post. This is exactly what he is going to go with. You can't run a disc over this or just a straight harrow and expect it to stay in top condition. If you are working a horse everyday in a performance event don't expect them to stay very sound either working in a dirt arena where just the top is roughed up a little with a harrow.

As far as Kerry goes I wouldn't cross the street to play polo with him or anyone else. I have team roped with George Strait, the late Ben Johnson, and Wilford Brimley. We also go to alot of cuttings with Joe Montana. He's even bought a nice Peppy San Badger filly from us. And if it would really trip your trigger that much you're more than welcome to come walk on our "golden" dirt. It isn't dirt though. It's a mix of sand and shredded rubber. Although I will tell you it doesn't look very much like gold.

 

[Soundguy]

Don't take this the wrong way Cowboydoc.. but I think you are missing ( our ) the point a bit as you try to hammer /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif in the 'best' approach method into us.

I think as a consensus.. everybody agrees that the few thousand dollar rotary harrows are a great way to keep an arena healthy.

What a couple of us are saying.. is that with a bit of work.. other methods do fairly well.

You keep mentioning that a disc more or less always and absolutely will ruin a good areena???? I can't figure this one out. If you have your good base.. and then 4" of loose material fluffed on top.. If you set your 3pt disc so that it only cuts a MAX of 3" deep.. it will never contact the base material. Same with a smoothing drag...This seems like a 'workable' soloution to those of us that only have a 600$ disc and/or a 150$ pasture drag.... and not a 3500$ rotary harrow... that pretty much can ONLY be used for a few limited duties.. unlike a disc harrow or a chain drag which is very multiple purpose.

We don't get out and do kentucky derby work.. probably just some excercise lunging, and an occasional ride around to keep the skills up.

Like i said before... 100 years ago.. they didn't have rotary harrows... and lotsa people maintaind areenas with horse drawn equipment and hand tools... obviously it must have worked...

My areena's dirt.. our local aqha center is clay.

(edit )

Well I see the difference now... Some of us are talking about pleasure stuff.. and dirt areena's.. and others are talking about million dollar stables.. derby winner priced horses and daily training tracks...

Two completely different classes. I think I'll just go hang out with the dirt farmers... and the local feed store people. they don't rile up as much, and its a bit more relaxed.

thanks

Soundguy

 

[Trailblazer]

I agree with Doc and would add that even if you only have an $1800 trail horse, the cost of a good arena groomer is trivial in comparison with the total cost - year after year - of owning that horse. If you regularly work your horse in the arena, then having a level, solid base with good footing on top will help maximize your time spent enjoying your horse and minimize your vet bills.

 

[rockyridgefarm]

Hey, this is all trivial! I just typed "Parma groomer" into Google and got the Holy Grail! - just one result from two words! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Soundguy]

Sorry guys.. I guess some of us are just part time horse people. When I say 'some' of us.. I'm refering to virtually every horse person I know.. Including my farrier and a couple of the local vets.. etc. All of us have dirt areenas.. heck.. the VET has a dirt areena.

While I'm not saying that horses may or may not perfrom the best or even get hurt on dirt... it just that the group I hang with has horses from 2 - 30 years old.. many in their 20's... mid 20's for a horse is great.. 30's is fantastic.

I can count on 2 fingers the amount of leg problems I've ever heard of while talking with the guys.. 1) A mini horse I had had a birth defect.. no-knee caps.. and 2) the farrier had a horse that lost the front of a hoof in a section of fence.. both had to be put down... no other hoof, leg or knee problems.

I get the feeling that this is kinda like the difference in backyard built truck racing.. compaired to nascar... big differences in money.. big differences in expectations and two different classes of people.

My horse goes to the vet once a year for his physical, coggins and vacinations.. The vet is out during the year, and the farrier is out every 6 weeks or less. So far these leg and hoof problems havn't materialized for any of us.

thanks

Soundguy

 

[cowboydoc]

Well my place is barn and arena is far from a multi-million dollar place. I built every piece of it with my own two hands. And I'm not a kentucky derby person either. I do have good horses and I got really tired of them being lame. I heard the same speeches and said the same things you are now about my arena was good enough and all of that. Then I bought a reining horse and my eyes were opened to what a good arena really is. I always blamed the horses, poor saddles, too heavy of cattle, etc. for the injuries. Once I started to take off the blinders and listen to what people were trying to tell me I realized how wrong I had been over the years. And I don't care if you have a $500 horse or a $50,000 horse they all can benefit from a good arena. As far as a rotary harrow you can buy the original rotary harrow from Mr. Victor Ives from $730 for the 5' model to $890 for the 8' model. His # is 503-638-4839. He's also a pretty good specialist in arena management. As far as the arena groomers or my Kiser drag you will not find a better tool for one pass field preparation for planting grass seed or anything else that you have. You can also use it to level dirt, gravel, sand, etc. You can use it to maintain roads. Just about any landscaping chore you have it will do. You can also use it to spray with. It's not just one dimensional for an arena.

 

[Soundguy]

Like my last message said.. I have seen two horses go lame in the group of 'farmers' that I associate with. Add to that a heart attack and a cow hit by lightening.. and that is pretty much ALL the big animal losses in this area I've seen.

I'm surprised to here about lots of lame horses... maybee ours are tougher here in florida /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

It's hard to justify so much extra equipment when your vet and other vets don't practice it either. Like I said.. we ride with out vet and farrier. Though i have not had the privelege.. my farrier, and another friend ( who got me into horses ) have ridden with John Lyons and his (cough ) blind horse.

Local horse farm down the road just had a fence go down and had 2 car/horse colisions... killed both horses... pretty tragic.. no human injuries though...

Soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

Thanks for the conversation guys.. but I'm bowing out now.

It's apparent that this topic is destined for holy war status.. and I's rather it stay civil.

It's also apparent that many of us just plain out 'do it differently' and probably will not change.. no matter what the other says.

I respect you guys and look forward to posting with you later. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Soundguy

 

[Mark4510]

Soundguy is right....probably time to let this thread die of natural causes. But let me add a couple of things first /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif.

Richard, not sure if you have been to Montanas place but I bet your arena is nicer. He could afford to spend a few bucks more to keep his place going.

To the point here. When your horses get legged up, trained on and schooled 6 days a week in a performance event they tend to fall apart. This is particularly true when you start them to make a futurity. As a result, as Richard says, you want to do everything you can to keep them healthy. I admit I have a couple of reiners in the price range Richard is talking about but I have some that are not. Regardless, they work hard for me and I have a responsibility to give back to them as much or more than I ask. For that reason I do everything I can to keep them healthy and happy. Including spending a lot of money on arena footing.

I would not try to run a 74 caliber reining pattern in the corn field. No horse would hold up to that.....but they never were destined to do that anyway. They only do it because I ask them to.

Having said that, when I do retire a horse he tends to end up in a pasture right along with a young one, lots of dirt, rocks, grass, bugs and wildlife. They were built for that and do well once they are in pasture.

My take on this? Simple, both are right but for what they are used for. You gonna run a performance horse and want to protect that......then spend the money. If they are not being ridden hard 6 days a week then loosened dirt is probably fine. Nothing better for a horse than a long slow trail ride on the dirt.

Now lets kill this thread. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Rollerskate]

Well if nothing else we can say I did ask a good question. It brought out experience, knowledge, passion and fun. Can't do better then that. At least on a keyboard.

What I have taken out of all this so far, as well as looking at some web sites based on the equipment names you all mentioned, is that "it depends". It looks like if you have an arena with that has a loser, softer, easily worked surface you can use a chain, drag or maybe tine harrow. If you have one that is not, for whatever reason, you probably need to be more aggressive. In either case, if you have a good base and a good top you need to control how well you work the top such that you don't start working the base too.

Given there is no one size fits all solution, I will first figure out what the arena materials will be, and then I will pick the appropriate tools to manage it with. I will probably go conservative if there is any question. Cheaper to buy a more aggressive tool than it is to fix an arena or an animal.

I don't think it will be too long but I'll wake up this baby after the arena is done.

Thanks. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif