Anyone used shredded carpet as an arena stabliser?

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soloequestrian

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My arena is sharp sand, and is just a little bit deep - hooves go in about 1.5 inches and I'd prefer the horses to move over rather than through it. I've just got a sample of the recycled shredded carpet stuff and mixed it into a small patch of the arena, and I think it seems better - surprisingly difficult to tell in such a small area (50 cm square - difficult to get a hoof to land in the middle!).
Anyone got any experience of using this?
I've been trying to get samples of various different stabilisers, but companies seem to either ignore me or send me about a teaspoonful of their product, which is no good for experimenting!
 
It has been used in the arena at our yard which i think was silica sand and is great when it has rained hard and the surface is really wet. But, the rest of the time it makes the horses stumble quite alot. It may be different when mixed with different surfaces.
 
Ive seen a surface called Pebble Mill Fibres in action. It was the only surface (non-waxed) in these parts not to freeze during the last winter... was AMAZING !! I am told though that its a bit deep in the summer.

Not sure if thats helped !! ;)
 
tls - do you know what it was about the mix that made horses trip? Did it separate out of something?

mrrussell - off to look up that surface!

Thanks
 
sharp sand will always ride deep due to the molecule size. fibre shred may help a little. ideally replace the sand with a good silica sand then add rubber or fibre. i know its more expense but if you add fibre at x cost to sharp sand and it doesnt do the job you will have to then replace the whole surface. why dont you contact all the manege constructors and get them out to assess what you have, get quotes, and go from there. then at least you have had specialists assess what you have, and the best way forward. good luck. riding in a good surfaced manege is lovely. and safe for the horse. a manege with a bad surface is hell.
 
ofcourseyoucan said:
sharp sand will always ride deep due to the molecule size. fibre shred may help a little. ideally replace the sand with a good silica sand then add rubber or fibre. i know its more expense but if you add fibre at x cost to sharp sand and it doesnt do the job you will have to then replace the whole surface. why dont you contact all the manege constructors and get them out to assess what you have, get quotes, and go from there. then at least you have had specialists assess what you have, and the best way forward. good luck. riding in a good surfaced manege is lovely. and safe for the horse. a manege with a bad surface is hell.
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Thanks, if I was in the south somewhere this is what I would have done. In the north of Scotland it is nigh on impossible to find an arena specialist and transporting silica sand up here would have bankrupted us. So it's got to be sharp sand with something added to it.
 
As long as you can keep it wet it will be fine. We used it and were very disappointed but then we are in the driest area in England! When it dried it Rose to the surface and was impossible to rebury! It's potential to improve a surface were grossly exaggerated so just be cautious.
 
We added fibre to sand and have been very pleased. It took a lot of working in, has now been down for a year and it has made it much less deep. We got it from e bay, really good service, and reasonable price.
 
Thanks, I'll try both of these.
I will look at Clopf too, but I think I've already had a quote for it and it was pretty hefty - probably mainly the transport, sometimes it's rubbish being so far from everything...
 
We recently added Clopf to a very deep sand and it works really well. It hasn't mixed in well and stays mainly on the surface but still rides very nicely. It was a bugger to lay down and mix though!
 
Booboos said:
We recently added Clopf to a very deep sand and it works really well. It hasn't mixed in well and stays mainly on the surface but still rides very nicely. It was a bugger to lay down and mix though!
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For us, Clopf has been nothing but a nightmare and totally waste of money, Martin Collins as so far refused to do anything about it. They took away my sand and tested to make sure it would work and never has, they come up with 1 excuse after another, but the fact remains it does not work for me.

so product and company for me is stay away
 
FollyFarmEC said:
For us, Clopf has been nothing but a nightmare and totally waste of money, Martin Collins as so far refused to do anything about it. They took away my sand and tested to make sure it would work and never has, they come up with 1 excuse after another, but the fact remains it does not work for me.

so product and company for me is stay away
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I am sorry to hear that. What was the problem? Best PM so the thread is not pulled!
 
We've got shredded carpet in our round pen and it is brilliant - the round pen has proper drains underneath but we were a bit short of sand when it went in (leftovers from indoor school). We probably have a bit too much carpet - it was like a trampoline when it went down :D but it didn't freeze once last winter and we were even using it with snow on it. I has mixed with the sand now, but still gives a good stable surface (which is useful as the round pen is used mainly for backing lairy youngsters!) and very rarely needs maintaining - just rake the track in now and again.
 
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