What kind of harrow to use in a horse rink?

[rockyridgefarm]

At least no one suggested burning the fabric off a mattress and dragging the springs around with weight stacked on it... But, trust me, its pretty common...

 

[have_blue]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Thanks for the conversation guys.. but I'm bowing out now. Soundguy )</font>

Yea, me too. Although my words were meant as friendly ribbing, I know it can be easy to hit a sore spot.

Yawn...

Uh! My tractor's out of fuel! Wonder if Doc would loan me a horse or 2 to pull some old cypress logs out of the creek? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[cowboydoc]

Sure you can use a couple of our Belgian hitches that we use to pull wagons and sleds to feed cattle in the winter.

 

[have_blue]

Thanks Richard, but I already hitched my wife to them and got them out! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Jordanbear]

Rollerskate, I'm in NH - and I think where you live and how you build your arena makes all the difference about what tools you use to maintain it.

I have a crushed stone base with sand on top - no rocks. To drag it, I use a piece of chainlink fence with a 8x8 beam for weight. All I need is to rearrange the sand- I do NOT want to touch the base, so york rakes, and harrows or anything with tines are not good.

I have friends who need to york-rake their rings because they just used the new england hardpack as their base (I had too many pieces of bedrock where I put my ring) and therefore have larger rocks that emerge and the yorkrake smooths the surface and removes the rocks.

Disciplines are different too - I don't know reining (although very cool to watch) but it looks like they prefer very deep footing. Jumpers need a slightly firmer surface for the high-impact landings. Dressage folks want something in between.

(and yes, sometimes horses DO have life insurance)

 

[Soundguy]

Hey rockyridge.. there's your 'mattress' post you were lookin' for! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Back to lurking now... I wasn't really here.. it was just your imagination... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Soundguy

 

[cowboydoc]

Actually with reining you want a very light top. Usually 2-3 maybe 4". A deep footing will ruin a reining horse just about as quick as anything.

 

[Jordanbear]

cowboy doc, 4" is the very deepest you want for dressage - when I see reining on TV the footing looks really deep in comparision to what I see in dressage or jumping, but then the horses are doing a lot more TO the footing, so maybe it's just flying around more. As I said, I know nothing about it other than to recognize those horses are talented!

Soundguy - there are always two more opinions than there are people in the room when it comes to horses!

Sort of like tractors and implements, I've noticed.

 

[Rollerskate]

I wanted to thank everybody for their input on the harrow and the ring, which is basically done. I say basically because the Misses thinks she wants it just a little wider. It started out about 85' X 185'. Right now it is about 110' X 200'. She would like to have it made about 20' wider. Checking the $$$ for that now and seeing if I can find a money tree somewhere in the nearby woods.

Regarding the harrow, I have narrowed it down to either a TSC drag harrow or some chain link fence and pipe and make my own. I'll check out TSC this weekend.

Thought I would share with you before and after pictures. I climbed up on the roof of the barn and snapped these off.

Here is the before.

 

[Rollerskate]

Here is the after. The surface is a course sand about 3 1/2" deep.