Advice on horse arenas? 10 points to most helpful answer!!

Question

ok so i am thinking of building a horse arena at my house. we have loads of room so that's not a prob but i was wondering what size will i need. i only have 2 horses and most of the time only one will be ridden at a time. i wont be doing dressage or anything its really only to have an enclosed space for me to have a bit more confidence on my energetic 4 year old. i will be doing a bit of jumping but nothing major. i am going to have one side of it up against a wall to save costs.

So if you could answer any of my questions that would be great.. i was also hoping to not sand the whole lot but to throw sand over the bits that get puddles and mucky eg corners etc,,

1. what minimum size would you recomend??

2. What type ground would you recomend??

3. what kinf of fencing and how much of it?!

any other advice welcomed!!

i live in ireland if that makes any difference!! and my dad will be doing a good lot of the work! so all i have to buy is the fencing and sand.. does any one know much that might cost..in euros if possible!!

thanks!!

Answer 1

I can't give you exact answers, but in terms of size, you want to be able to set up at least 3 jumps in a line with enough space to have 3 strides between them and enough room after the last jump so you don't hit the fence. That is playing it safe so that if you want to do any small course or gymnastic, you will have the space and not force you and your horse to do some insane turn at a funny angle because of the size of your arena. A rectangle shape I find is best for an arena, we have a square arena and it is a bit awkward to set up a jump course.

In terms of ground, there is no doubt you want to get some sort of base and have about 3 inches of sand on top. This provides the best footing and puts the least amount of stress on your horse's legs. Too much deeper and you can start to stress your horses tendons, and too much less and well, your footing will be too hard and the impactation on your horses feet after a jump can cause some serious damage after time.

Try a few websites to get ideas: http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/features/aren...

http://www.fairhillforge.com/arena.html

In Ireland I know you get lots of rain? So good drainage is essential, and the sand will really help with that. Make sure your arena is level so that it doesn't flood and all your sand washes away.

I'm in California, but sand here is about $14 per square yard. Thats $14 for enough sand to fill a 'yard' sized box, so it spreads out over a larger area if that makes sense. You would have to measure your arena and take it to a landscape dealer to get an estimate of cost. To fill our arena, it cost us about $3,000 (I rounded) to get sand covering the whole thing 3 inches deep.

Fencing- you want something similar to your stall or pasture fencing. While strong fencing isn't necessary while you are riding, it would be nice to be able to turn your horse out in the arena to get some exercise and not have them be able to escape :) You would need enough fencing to go around your whole arena, however big you decide it to be. Of course the bigger your arena, the bigger the cost :)

Good luck!

Answer 2

No, but before you buy the stuff for it, you should check to find the cheapest one.I recommend dirt.

Answer 3

usual size is 20meters x 40 meters.  suitable for dressage and show-jumping.  build the correct size as you may need to ride a dressage test, and if the arena is wrong size it will affect your schooling.  plus it will be big enough to put up a small course of jumps.  usual fencing is post and rail to look good and be safe.

try to go to stables with arenas  and look at their surfaces.  all are different.  some are better than others, but it is really a personal choice.   as for example i wouldn't use sand.  i think it gets hard and has no give.  important is to make sure you fit a membrane.  any horse magazine will give a quote and advice on the quantity needed.  

as for price a good idea would be to phone the proffessional contractors

because then you will know it won't cost you that much.

lucky you to have such a hardworking dad.  keep him supplied with the tea.

Answer 4

Oh God! this is such a ***** of a job.  Go by this rule.  DO NOT CUT CORNERS and use the best materials you can.

I live in the UK and asked a friend to install a 55m x 25m arena.  He does ground works and I thought he was great.... until the surface I used, woodchip fibre, failed.  The horses slipped and lost confidence jumping.  When I had to change the surface 3 months later to silica sand and fibre and rubber I discovered the wrong stone had been used and it will degenerate in a few years and the membrane hadn't been glued together so it had roushed up in a ball and had I not changed the surface it would have appeared through the surface in a month or two.

So in essence I thought 12k was a bargain but it ended up costing 31k.

Had I gone for the real deal in the first place I wouldn't have been wasting time and getting really annoyed in the process.

To conclude.

Take the area you need.  Get good drainage.  Very important.  Then get good hard stone that wont break down in time. You must use a membrane and it must be glued together and nailed to the kicking boards.  Use silica sand but it must be equestrian sand not building sand.  This is really expensive but worth it.  Mix it with something like fibre and rubber.  Shop around but try looking in the back of the horse and hound it has many of sellers.  Try Leisure Ride Gloucestershire, Ross Hemming.  He won't rip you off and even if he doesn't supply you he will give you really good advice.

Do your homework and don't do what I did.  It is such a pain in the ****.

Good luck

Answer 5

Dunno

Answer 6

You probably want 50 by 30 ft. In our arena we have sand w/ clay underneath. It works really well, you just have to make sure you ride a lot, or go over it with a tractor to soften it up and keep grass from growing. we do find that about every year we need to get a load of sand jumped on it, it just seems to get more compacted and gets low. For fencing, we have jsut a wood fence w/ chain link to make sure no one gets hurt. It works well, haven't had a problem in 10 years. As for ground, you could just go with grass if you want them to be able to graze. Grass will not hurt their feet to be worked on. You just don't want it for jumping, reining, etc. If your just doing flat, then its ok

Answer 7

Here's a great article on building your own round pen or arena.  It gives you the best choices for size, footing, fencing, etc.  It depends on your own tastes as far as how you want it to look and work.  Be sure you have good drainage, or it'll be a muddy mess.  The article should help you make a decision:

http://www.liverystable.net/building_a_r...

Answer 8

A proper arena is 20X40 meters and the best type of fencing is post and rail fencing.

Answer 9

I'm in Ireland too! Well drainage will be key, otherwise you will end up with a swamp =) A friend of mine has gone for a mix of silica sand fibres and rubber it's amazing all year round. I wouldn't go smaller than 20x40 meters. That's the average size for an arena.

Here is a great link I was reading, hope it helps: http://www.independent.ie/farming/how-to...

Answer 10

100 rulers by 100 rulers

dirt

wood

Answer 11

it depends on how you are going to build it. if you ever plan on having more horses and people coming over to ride with you make it pretty big. if you are going to de the only one riding then it can be kinda small. fencing i would say the best is wood. and i don't know how much you would need.

Answer 12

My arena is 20x40 meters. It's the perfect size. It's not too big, but you can still do figure eights and lead changes and circles.

I recommend something like a sand. Get an indoor/outdoor footing if you're not going to cover it. Stay away from pea gravel and dirt.

The fencing I like is wood. Build up a fence about 4 feet high, and that should suffice.

Try and build your arena on as flat of an area as possible, and make sure the ground is level when you're done with the footing, because its a pain to work in an arena with a slope.

When we looked at building a nice arena, they ran around 60,000 US Dollars (if we covered it). I don't know how much they are in Europe, sorry about that.

Good luck! :)

Answer 13

i'm not sure