Areana Gateways?

[lizziebell]

Our new arena has just been finished, but I can’t get to it

Due to planning and logistics, the location is a short walk into the field. We have ordered some grass reinforcement mesh to create a track to the entrance for horses, and quad, but with all the rain and the construction the entrance is a big muddy mess, and if we lay the grass mesh down now it’ll just sink in. We are thinking of just laying some hardcore down – will this work?

Those that don’t have a neat concrete path up to their arenas – what do you have to stop mud getting traipsed on to the arena?

 

[H's mum]

You'll have to dig out/scrape off the topsoil (mud) and then put something down to such as hardcore/woodchips - otherwise whatever you put down will just sink - even if you wait until the mud dries out - as soon as it rains again the mud will just eat up whatever you've laid on top of it (as we've found out this winter, and we did scrape the top soil off - just not put enough road planings down!) hohum!
Kate x

 

[Mainland]

Would recommend digging out 6 inches below bottom of Grasscrete (Grass Reinforcing) and filling with compacted road planings or type 1. Then lay the mesh on top and fill the holes with topsoil and seed allowing grass to grow. Looks nice and is nice and firm.

 

[I_A_P]

Hardcore would work well. Especially if you could lay it and get hold of a vibrating roller. We have a track of it along one side of our paddock which is a walkway and have sewn grass seed through it. Takes a while to grown through and is not as firm as it would be concrete but should do the job

 

[lizziebell]

Thanks. The area had already been cleared and dug down fairly deep, so yesterday afternoon I spent several hours with the wheelbarrow full of hardcore loads (we had a few piles of the stuff stacked up from something else, so good to use that). My back aches now - typically I wanted to get it done asap and couldn't wait for OH to come home to help !