Arena Advice - Can it be repaired?

J

Judziah

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Bedfordshire
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My neighbour has a "DIY" woodchip arena (I think it's EcoArena surface but not 100% sure). He put it in for his wife (now ex) and she used it a handful of times before she left him.

Since then, it's basically just rotted down.

They didn't have any drainage system put in, it's basically just a membrane and surface. In some areas, the surface rides very deep (straight down to the membrane) in others it's very shallow and slippery. There are two places where the membrane is visible...I'm not sure if this is because it's lifted or if it's because the surface has rotted down.

Is there anyway to recover the use of this arena? As it's not mine, I obviously don't want to spend any money on it...the owner has no interest in horses so also doesn't want to invest any money into it....but if it's just a case of some hard work, then I'm happy to do it so I can use it!

Any ideas?

Thanks!
 
Judziah said:
Is there anyway to recover the use of this arena? As it's not mine, I obviously don't want to spend any money on it...the owner has no interest in horses so also doesn't want to invest any money into it....but if it's just a case of some hard work, then I'm happy to do it so I can use it!
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The only thing you could try is levelling the surface up - move some surplus surface from the deep areas to the areas where the surface is thin (wheelbarrow and shovel job!) and then level it (a pallet pulled by a 4x4 makes a quite decent leveller on a wood fibre school.)

If that doesn't work, then the only way would be spending money (and not a particularly small amount.)
 
how about contacting some local tree surgeons and asking them if they want to leave you some of their chippings. They do sometimes leave you them free of charge if they already have a pile at the place, or if the job is local to you.
Just make sure it has no nasty plants in for the horses and then you will have a free top up!
we managed it to top our old outdoor up a few years back - worked out fab.
 
I would think carefully before spending too much time on this arena as unfortunately woodchip has a reputation of being rather slippery with research possibly indicating that it can lead to injury. Therefore if you intend to do serious schooling on it (or with added woodchip) I would forget it. That's my personal opinion of course!
 
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