Anyone with a wood fibre arena?

[ArcticFox]

I am considering putting in a wood fibre all weather. sorry to any rubber/sand/clopf converts but I simply cannot afford to put one in so please don't try to convince me as I don't have the money.

I don't have the money for a wood fibre either, but am likely to be able to save it up quicker.

I know it needs replenishing regularly but any other info on the wood fibre would be of interest. How often do you replace? did you build it up or dig downwards? if downwards, how did you sort the drainage?

Cost of the arena/who built it (esp if you are in Scotland) would be appreciated and I don't mind if you'd rather PM me.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[measles]

A friend locally has put one down in wood chip this week but not sure where they got it from. I would be careful if you want to jump as it can move and slip.. Sorry!

How much are you planning on paying a tonne out of interest as I would be interested to see if it is a lot cheaper than rubber. We found it was the haulage that killed the price for most surfaces but I have sourced rubber closer to home and am working on OH to save up and re-do ours.

 

[tricksibell85]

hmmm - the school my YO has is woodchip. I dont have any problems with it tbh but then it isnt used that much as its only me that uses the school and jumps in it?

 

[splashgirl45]

not had one put in myself so cant help with any info , but friend had one put in and i used to have lessons there. i found it a bit slippery to ride on, and preferred to use another friends sand school even though it rode a bit deep, it felt more secure... obviously this is only my opinion and others may swear by wood fibre...

 

[loobylu]

Having landed on my face with horse doing similar beside me over 3' I wouldn't recommend it! That was a one off but have felt many similar moments on various horses and seen several other falls which I believe would have been non-events on a more true, stable surface. Said school is on a livery yard, 60x40 with 5' post and rail apparently was in the region on £10k. Surface might be 'tracey wood suppliers' but not 100% from memory. Drainage is dodgy, always useable but gets very squashy with deep heavy patches. Also sprouts randomly occurring potholes in all weathers. Nice to have but really could be alot better. If I was building a cheap work area I would really rather use rubbish old fashioned sand.

 

[galaxy]

A client of mine put a wood chip/fibre surface in last year. the surface by itself cost £2500.

It's ok... Springy to walk on.... but it is very slippery and you'd have to level it a lot as it moves around and leaves big dips easily. I haven't jumped on it, but I don't like lunging on it....

 

[bryonyjane]

We have a woodchip arena at home, built it ourselves (as also on a budget!) 2 years ago and it has been great! I do understand people saying the grip isn't always fantastic, but have jumped up to 1.15m ish (haven't had a horse that can jump bigger which limits the testing ) without any problems...but as ours in only 30x40m have never really hammered round at high speed in it. We're west coast of Scotland and have genuinely never had so much as a puddle in the school, I think doing really decent drainage is definetly worth it, it prolongs the life of the woodchip and it also means it doesn't tend to freeze untill it gets really cold for a prolonged spell...

I think ours is due to have a bit more surface in this year, but it has deteriorated very little as it doesn't get used really heavily and we make sure we level it (just use a gate attatched to the quad) at least once a week. Our surface came from Tracey Timber...feel free to pm me with any questions and I can ask the professionals ie my dad

 

[scally]

Wood fibre needs to be rolled and rolled when first put it, this way it gives a super footing and does not move, we had cushionride and it was fantastic, could do anything you wanted, after it had settled properly. There is a world of difference between expensive wood fibre and wood chippings or cheaper alternative woods so do your research on each company.

It was also the only two schools around me in the last two years that has been useable through the bad weather, with a quick harrow in the morning

 

[loveshorses]

I have ridden on a wood chip school, I found it very slippy so hard to ride a young horse on, lunge or jump also found it hard to keep the surface even ... felt very usafe and some one else's horse came over slipping behind in canter and another horse slipped over jumping - I have now moved away.

The surface was about 6months old and had not been over used.

 

[bryonyjane]

Wood fibre needs to be rolled and rolled when first put it, this way it gives a super footing and does not move, we had cushionride and it was fantastic, could do anything you wanted, after it had settled properly. There is a world of difference between expensive wood fibre and wood chippings or cheaper alternative woods so do your research on each company.

Totally agree with this - if you have woodchip then it needs to be decent, and rolled lots first to create a more solid underlayer. If it doesn't get settled properly it will be slippy and unstable to ride on.

 

[Jane_Lou]

I had a woodchip arena at a yard I rented a few years back. We bulit the school ourselves and Cushionride suppiled the surface. It was laid in July and was super to ride on, I was using it for 2-3 hours a day and it bedded in well. I started to have problems over winter when I had a couple fall over when having a bit of a hoolie on the lunge but oddly enough I had no problems with slipping when jumping but tbh they were baby ponies so we were mainly jumping small and out of trot a lot of the time. The track wore down to mulch really quickly despite regular levelling and me manually raking the edges in back on to the track every day. By the following late summer it needed a top up really but I ended up moving to a new yard due to a change in work. It had been an incredibly wet winter so that may have had an effect. If I was going to do it again on a budget I don't actually know if I would bother paying for a surface but would be more inclined to contact all the local tree surgeons for their waste chippings (one local to me regularly drops me off a trailer load into my garden for mulch - he is pleased to get rid!) as a friend did that and hers had worked really well, she has also used it for her corrals which has stood up to a winter of turnout on clay soil.

 

[horseywelsh]

We have a wood fibre surface (own private use, so only used lightly). It has been down 5 years and is just getting ready for topping up. For the amount we use it (twice a day max) it has been fantastic. Use a hand rake to level and never had any problems. Also never had a puddle on it, the wetter it is the better it rides. It isn't deep going, and rides on the top. The wood fibre is quite fine pieces, not at all like wood chip, so has knitted together realy well. Yes when one has a mega hooley on the lunge, it can move and needs raking, but it's never gone down to the base layer, or resulted in a horse falling. Jump on it fine. With the lie of our land etc, we didn't need any drains in. We have been realy suited with this surface, although we are looking into topping up with equistride (a product which has been seen to work well as a top up for wood chip and doesn't dgerade as quickly so unlikely to need topping up again as quick). However at the moment relucant to change, so may stick with Easiride for the top up, which was the original surface.
Fir planning permission to be granted it was looked upon as more favourable to have an environmentally product, hence why we went down this route originally. Also if your arena is for private use/minimal use I thin it is a great surface.

 

[eggs]

Hate them. Have ridden on a few including Cushionride and found them to ver very slippery when wet.

 

[jumptoit]

We have cushion ride it's been down 4 and a half years we topped it up after 9 months and after this winter I think we will get it topped up again in the summer. As a surface I really like it and for the price it is even when you include topping it up it is very good and provided you get the drainage right it rarely freezes (only if it snows otherwise you can break it up with a lawn spiker ). I have jumped lots of horses and decent heights (for me anyway so 1m 20 and 30 on occasions) and it is used on average 2 and a half to 3 hours a day and it is flattened weekly unless we lunge all 6 in which case it needs raked out. To flatten it we use either the dumper or lawn tractor with just a sort of homemade metal rack thing.

Any more questions feel free to ask .

 

[EventingMum]

I have wood fibre down in my indoor arena. It gets a lot of use so we do level it each day and water it regularly especially in summer. I like the ‘spring’ in it and as long as we look after it’s not too slippery and do jump on it regularly (1.20 – 1.30m). It is definitely easier to remove droppings from than the sand and rubber we had down previously. I have had to top it up once in the three and a half years it has been down but that is probably due to the number of horses using it each day (we have 33 horses on the yard).

If you do go decide to go down this route I would choose your supplier very carefully. Our initial supplier wasn’t good; the wood fibre was heavily contaminated with glass and nails and although they claimed this was unusual I have heard similar stories elsewhere. After a lot of complaining they did send a team of workers to spend a day raking it and removing the contaminants from it but we still had to do a lot ourselves afterwards which left me very angry. They wouldn’t do anything else except offer me a discount on my next top up - by this point I had lost all faith in them but couldn’t afford to change the surface. (This company may well be in the right area to supply you so do beware - their sales pitch was good but the product didn't match it!)

When I did need to top it up I used Jenkinsons and found them far better. They offered a choice of 4 types of wood fibre: indoor and outdoor each available in two grade qualities. We took their grade one indoor surface which is made from clean wood (not recycled) and the difference was amazing – completely clean. I think the difference between the indoor and outdoor is that the indoor has finer fibres to enable it to retain more moisture where as the slightly coarser outdoor surface drains better. Jenkinsons were more expensive than my first supplier but the additional cost was definitely worth it and still much cheaper than sand and/or rubber.

 

[ArcticFox]

Thanks everyone. I knew there would be a mixed response as there always is when talking surfaces!

I have to weigh up the fact that it will only be me using it, with a maximum of 2 horses and probably only 2-4 times a week, mainly flatwork with a bit of grid work.

Thank you everyone.

 

[catembi]

My Cushionride has been down just over 3 years. It has been really good re not ever getting waterlogged - it's built on top of my field rather than in it. It also very rarely freezes and I've jumped up to 1 m 15 on it. It's only me that uses it but I'm out pretty well every day on it. I harrow it with a compact tractor & chain harrow, & then roll it.

It's pretty well ready for a top up, but I'm saving for a combi ride surface as a local equestrian centre has one & I really like it.

My school is fine as long as it's harrowed & rolled regularly.

 

[Tempi]

I've not read the replies but i do not like wood fibre arenas, no matter how much they are rolled and maintained they still move and are slippery. Have seen numerous tendon injuries due to schooling on wood fibre.

 

[carthorse]

We have a cushion ride that they did completely, it was great for the first couple of years but then went quickly downhill. I asked them about a top up and would it be as good as new but the after sales was rubbish and they would not say how good it would be. They were running a stand at Your Horse Live and I asked if they would come and look at it and tell me what to do as it was so boggy at one end [ we only live a few miles away ] but they were not interested. If I knew a top up would work then I would have one but not sure how good it would be. It is very deep and boggy now accept the centre

 

[mrussell]

dont get me started on wood fibre !! I had 3 different types and all of them were a nightmare. Slippery and unstable.

I now have a huge pile of decomposing Cushion Ride sitting at the bottom if my arena that I had scraped up. I cant even sell it as garden mulch. Its been sat there for 7 years and is now about half the size it was just through sitting there in the weather. We tried to use some of it for a walk way for the horses but it was a blimmin nightmare.

Arctic Fox, I understand where you are coming from as wood fibre was all we could afford when we set up our yard but its been a very expensive lesson getting to where we are now.

I wouldnt put it directly onto soil...and the very least get a membrane down between ground and fibre. Be prepared to roll it between every use to begin with and do not try to lunge on it as I had my old fella fall over twice on ours when he spooked.

Goodluck !