doushiedoo
Member
we have a sand school at the min and it rides deep ish and freezes in winter. Would like to top with something economical like carpet fibre or rubber. The choice is really doing my head in. Rubber or carpet.......help please!!
aaarrrgghhhhh!!!! menage surface choice is doing my head in!
- Thread starter doushiedoo
- Start date
doushiedoo
Member
anyone??
Ranyhyn
Well-Known Member
I would choose rubber myself 
showqa
Well-Known Member
Well, I had a carpet fibre/sand manege put down in April and I must say I've been delighted with it. It needs grading about every 8 sessions, but it's springy and has compacted really nicely. It was also one of the more economical surfaces that we found.
kerilli
Well-Known Member
i'd go for rubber, definitely. the only concern really is if you are in a very windswept place (i am) then this will affect which type of rubber you should choose. i had Springride Shred at my last place on top of sand and it was fantastic: never tracked, never froze, never needed topping up, couldn't fault it. Had the same thing here and probably 1/3-1/2 of it has blown away, leaving far too little, so it tracks fairly badly, really annoying. I need to top it up with much heavier rubber pieces, obviously.
soloequestrian
Well-Known Member
I have a sand surface that rides a little too deep. I got a ton of rubber and put it down to see if it was the right thing for the whole school, and if anything it made it worse. I wish I had used a smaller test amount - it's taking a while to get the whole ton back off!
I'm now experimenting with carpet and this other stuff that is like black cotton wool. I have a one metre square bit with carpet mixed in, and it seems to work well to stabilise the surface, but it looks like a small rubbish dump. The cotton wool stuff needs a power harrow to mix it in properly, so I'm currently waiting for one of those to arrive so I can experiment properly with it - at the moment I can't tell what effect it will have, but if it does the same job as the carpet I will get it because it will look much smarter!
Probably a good idea for you to carry out some similar experiments - I was fairly sure that rubber would solve my problem before I started testing things and I'm now REALLY glad I tested before getting the whole lot topped up!
showqa - how have you found the look of the carpet, and what do you use to grade it?
I'm now experimenting with carpet and this other stuff that is like black cotton wool. I have a one metre square bit with carpet mixed in, and it seems to work well to stabilise the surface, but it looks like a small rubbish dump. The cotton wool stuff needs a power harrow to mix it in properly, so I'm currently waiting for one of those to arrive so I can experiment properly with it - at the moment I can't tell what effect it will have, but if it does the same job as the carpet I will get it because it will look much smarter!
Probably a good idea for you to carry out some similar experiments - I was fairly sure that rubber would solve my problem before I started testing things and I'm now REALLY glad I tested before getting the whole lot topped up!
showqa - how have you found the look of the carpet, and what do you use to grade it?