Horse arena

rob1

Member
Location
wiltshire
I have a few for other people but always refuse to use a membrane as everyone i have sorted out for other people they have had problems with it coming through. Best base is rubble two/three ft deep followed by a bit of type one to level it off, if it is above the surrounding ground you will never have puddles. The last one i did i used galebreaker type net from @greatingrass . It was made in one piece so no worrys about edges coming up and it doesnt rip, I put bassalt on top and then mixed in wire strippings, IMVHO this is far better than Silica sand and rubber and cheaper, there are only a couple of quarries who do proper silica sand and they arent near you Will
 
I have a few for other people but always refuse to use a membrane as everyone i have sorted out for other people they have had problems with it coming through. Best base is rubble two/three ft deep followed by a bit of type one to level it off, if it is above the surrounding ground you will never have puddles. The last one i did i used galebreaker type net from @greatingrass . It was made in one piece so no worrys about edges coming up and it doesnt rip, I put bassalt on top and then mixed in wire strippings, IMVHO this is far better than Silica sand and rubber and cheaper, there are only a couple of quarries who do proper silica sand and they arent near you Will

Really? Cardigan sand and gravel reckon they had it but not.looked into great detail about the sand yet
 

Matt L

Member
Trade
Location
Suffolk
We drain ours, then membrane, then 150mm Norwegian granite, then second felt type membrane glued together, then the riding surface the client wants. Never had a problem yet!
 
We're just putting planning in so anyone with anymore tips/do's/don'ts etc I'd love to hear them.

Sorry to hijack.
As a planning consultant my advice would be to be totally honest about what you intend to so, get decent plans drawn up, all elevations must be to scale and have a scale bar. All plan views must have a scale bar and a north arrow.
Any other questions or queries drop me a message.
 

Bradders2175

New Member
Hi All,
A bit late after the last posting on this thread, but I have just joined and am after some information.
A bit about us. We live in South West France, having moved from Essex eleven years ago. I decided to build my wife an arena as we had enough land and she had been talking about one.

Firstly, shredded rubber is banned here in France for schools. Might that happen in the UK? I believe it is something to do with the run off water. I had heard that you must have containment for the run of water in the UK to prevent pollution of the soil.

I found some very good plans on the internet and good advice about not scrimping when it came to installing drains. I followed that advice after getting a very good digger driver (not cheap, but worth it) in to level the site as it sloped about 50cm from one end to the other. (40m x 20m). I then hired a mini digger and a friend to dig the trenches for the drains as I had never used one. He showed me how and we completed the trenches. I laid perforated drainage pipe wrapped in geotextile on a bed of gravel stones, in trenches 3.5m apart. They were then infilled with more stones and then the soil from the trenches was put back and levelled. The cost for the drainage materials(including digger hire) was about €1600 (about £1300). I then surrounded that with oak sleepers. Geotextile was laid on the ground and secured to the sleepers followed by .20-.30 stone. We have just laid geotextile over the stone and also secured that to the sleepers. The geotextile had an overlap of 50cm.

We have bought new shredded carpet bales from Pennine Blending. Unlike some companies, the carpet is new, so there is no chance of nails being left in it.

We had found a source of silica after a lot of research and examining other sand schools. It appears that most people with arenas here use whatever sand is available locally, as some seem very rough. The cost of silica sand is about €10 per ton. Our closest quarry for that is 45 miles away. The delivery charge will be about three times the cost! However, we have just been promised (for free!) the sand they are using for the jousting and horse display at our villages Medieval Fete which is currently on. It is fine, but nothing like as good a quality as the silica sand. It won't be enough, but it is a start!

Now for the information request ('At long last!' you cry). I would like to know from those of you with fibre mix schools, what machine you use to level them. There seem to be a few on the market but I wonder if some of the less expensive work as well as the dearer ones? The most expensive seem to cost about £2-2500. We have a compact tractor as well as a ride on mower that could tow something.

Thank you.

Paul
 

RhysT

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Swansea
Hi All,
A bit late after the last posting on this thread, but I have just joined and am after some information.
A bit about us. We live in South West France, having moved from Essex eleven years ago. I decided to build my wife an arena as we had enough land and she had been talking about one.

Firstly, shredded rubber is banned here in France for schools. Might that happen in the UK? I believe it is something to do with the run off water. I had heard that you must have containment for the run of water in the UK to prevent pollution of the soil.

I found some very good plans on the internet and good advice about not scrimping when it came to installing drains. I followed that advice after getting a very good digger driver (not cheap, but worth it) in to level the site as it sloped about 50cm from one end to the other. (40m x 20m). I then hired a mini digger and a friend to dig the trenches for the drains as I had never used one. He showed me how and we completed the trenches. I laid perforated drainage pipe wrapped in geotextile on a bed of gravel stones, in trenches 3.5m apart. They were then infilled with more stones and then the soil from the trenches was put back and levelled. The cost for the drainage materials(including digger hire) was about €1600 (about £1300). I then surrounded that with oak sleepers. Geotextile was laid on the ground and secured to the sleepers followed by .20-.30 stone. We have just laid geotextile over the stone and also secured that to the sleepers. The geotextile had an overlap of 50cm.

We have bought new shredded carpet bales from Pennine Blending. Unlike some companies, the carpet is new, so there is no chance of nails being left in it.

We had found a source of silica after a lot of research and examining other sand schools. It appears that most people with arenas here use whatever sand is available locally, as some seem very rough. The cost of silica sand is about €10 per ton. Our closest quarry for that is 45 miles away. The delivery charge will be about three times the cost! However, we have just been promised (for free!) the sand they are using for the jousting and horse display at our villages Medieval Fete which is currently on. It is fine, but nothing like as good a quality as the silica sand. It won't be enough, but it is a start!

Now for the information request ('At long last!' you cry). I would like to know from those of you with fibre mix schools, what machine you use to level them. There seem to be a few on the market but I wonder if some of the less expensive work as well as the dearer ones? The most expensive seem to cost about £2-2500. We have a compact tractor as well as a ride on mower that could tow something.

Thank you.

Paul
You won't go wrong with the carpet fibre. In the last year we have sold approx 35 manages worth of fibre and everyone has been really happy.
You want to get a proper ménage Harrow with the tines to dig down and front and back rollers, we bought ours from browns equine, the design they use is very good but I wouldn't recommend purchasing one from them, it just feels a bit to flimsy. I think the best is made by Martin Collins but it is very ££££. What ever size you get, get it wider than your tractor so it covers the wheels.
 

Zetor

Member
Location
Northumberland
Hi All,
A bit late after the last posting on this thread, but I have just joined and am after some information.
A bit about us. We live in South West France, having moved from Essex eleven years ago. I decided to build my wife an arena as we had enough land and she had been talking about one.

Firstly, shredded rubber is banned here in France for schools. Might that happen in the UK? I believe it is something to do with the run off water. I had heard that you must have containment for the run of water in the UK to prevent pollution of the soil.

I found some very good plans on the internet and good advice about not scrimping when it came to installing drains. I followed that advice after getting a very good digger driver (not cheap, but worth it) in to level the site as it sloped about 50cm from one end to the other. (40m x 20m). I then hired a mini digger and a friend to dig the trenches for the drains as I had never used one. He showed me how and we completed the trenches. I laid perforated drainage pipe wrapped in geotextile on a bed of gravel stones, in trenches 3.5m apart. They were then infilled with more stones and then the soil from the trenches was put back and levelled. The cost for the drainage materials(including digger hire) was about €1600 (about £1300). I then surrounded that with oak sleepers. Geotextile was laid on the ground and secured to the sleepers followed by .20-.30 stone. We have just laid geotextile over the stone and also secured that to the sleepers. The geotextile had an overlap of 50cm.

We have bought new shredded carpet bales from Pennine Blending. Unlike some companies, the carpet is new, so there is no chance of nails being left in it.

We had found a source of silica after a lot of research and examining other sand schools. It appears that most people with arenas here use whatever sand is available locally, as some seem very rough. The cost of silica sand is about €10 per ton. Our closest quarry for that is 45 miles away. The delivery charge will be about three times the cost! However, we have just been promised (for free!) the sand they are using for the jousting and horse display at our villages Medieval Fete which is currently on. It is fine, but nothing like as good a quality as the silica sand. It won't be enough, but it is a start!

Now for the information request ('At long last!' you cry). I would like to know from those of you with fibre mix schools, what machine you use to level them. There seem to be a few on the market but I wonder if some of the less expensive work as well as the dearer ones? The most expensive seem to cost about £2-2500. We have a compact tractor as well as a ride on mower that could tow something.

Thank you.

Paul

The sand is the single most important factor of an arena, I find customers way over engineer the drainage and scrimp on the surface.
I have lost count of the flooded/boggy arenas I have visited and it is always the surface that is the problem and never the drains usually caused by using sand with a high silt content but you're in a different climate to us.
You need something with tines to tickle the top 2" to loosen it, equestrian surfaces do a nice simple machine.
 

Woolgatherer

Member
Location
Angus
Regarding sand, a friend of mine bought sand cheaply for her arena, it worked great except that it was too abrasive and wore away the front of her horses hooves. She ended up having to get special shoes with a sort of steel toe cap on them. Very expensive every 6 weeks.
 

ADbeefboy

Member
I built an arena for my daughter, made it 30m X 45m. 20m is fine for dressage but if you're jumping horses 20m is tight. Put in 110mm twin wall pipes in 5m apart with approx 18" fall over the length of the arena and ground graded towards each pipe. Whole lot was then covered in graded stone, approx 15" deep and made level, luckily only had to pay for screen as had the stone, never had an issue with drainage no matter how wet the weather. Surface is recycled wood fibre from jenkinsons. Didn't use a membrane as it can come through and surface can also move on it if jumping. Topped it up this summer after 4 years, looked at sand/rubber but cost put me off.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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