Arena Lighting - anyone installed their own?

Jnhuk

Jnhuk

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Has anyone put up their own lighting?

Can't afford the mega bucks that the companies seem to quote. I need to detail what we are using in our planning application so just trying to finalise things.

Have been advised that using 7.5 m aluminum poles and lights on can work well and another suggestion been using telegraph poles and the four corners of the arena fencing and putting suitable lights on and also at E/B

Any comments and suggestions welcome
 
Jnhuk said:
Has anyone put up their own lighting?

Can't afford the mega bucks that the companies seem to quote. I need to detail what we are using in our planning application so just trying to finalise things.

Have been advised that using 7.5 m aluminum poles and lights on can work well and another suggestion been using telegraph poles and the four corners of the arena fencing and putting suitable lights on and also at E/B

Any comments and suggestions welcome
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Unlikely you will be able to put your own lighting in as the planners will need the electrical work signed off by a suitably qualified person. Not worth the risk when horses are very susceptible to electric shocks and are easily killed
 
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popsdosh said:
Unlikely you will be able to put your own lighting in as the planners will need the electrical work signed off by a suitably qualified person. Not worth the risk when horses are very susceptible to electric shocks and are easily killed
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I know that sorry if my first post wasn't clear. I mean getting the appropriate equipment together and get an electrician to do the technical stuff so I am really looking for advice on what type of post etc and lights people have put up in their own arena.

Also any info regarding lighting plans would be useful but if not, then I will find out outwith the forum but I am sure there will be people who have put in arenas with lighting on here so I had hoped that I may get pointed in the right direction rather than having to troll and sift through the internet.
 
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That's great news! It's generally neighbours who don't like floodlights. If you have no neighbours I guess there would be nobody to be upset!
 
We have long poles bolted to the fences in the four corners of our arena with LED floodlights on them. We bought everything and an electrician fitted them including laying trunking for the wires and an external switch for them. They have been up a long time, nearly 20 years. We replaced the old flood lights with LEDs about 4 years ago but other than that they are maintenance free.

However, the lights are not good enough to jump by, they are ok for flatwork and lunging and bit of pole work but I we dont jump ponies with the lights on, they are not bright enough.

PS we dont have any neighbours either.
 
PonyclubmumZ said:
We have long poles bolted to the fences in the four corners of our arena with LED floodlights on them. We bought everything and an electrician fitted them including laying trunking for the wires and an external switch for them. They have been up a long time, nearly 20 years. We replaced the old flood lights with LEDs about 4 years ago but other than that they are maintenance free.

However, the lights are not good enough to jump by, they are ok for flatwork and lunging and bit of pole work but I we dont jump ponies with the lights on, they are not bright enough.

PS we dont have any neighbours either.
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Horses dont need lights to jump.
 
At the Doe show this year AgriHealth were demonstrating solar powered arena lights which you put on scaffold poles and had a remote control . All the light was directed downwards and I think a set of 6 was £999. No wiring needed and supposed to give you 3 hours of light .
 
IME the main issue with lights and jumping in home arenas is that the lights aren't good enough or numerous not to generate pole shadows which give false groundlines etc.
 
Thanks I don't jump much at home usually leave that to either competition venues or lessons where someone about to shout at me and alter the jumps!

Just want to be able to ride during the evening after work esp in winter time
 
We have 4 lights (one each corner) and they are now low energy ones. As long as it is light enough to see the arena fence then I know there are no holes or ditches to have to avoid.

We had an electrician do them as they needed cable suitable for outside, it is armoured or something (???). The wiring cost the money rather than the lights. Prior to that we just had two security type lights that I could switch to be ON as opposed to PIR, and TBH that was OK for flatwork, but I would not have used for jumping.

I am confused when Popsdosh says they don't need lights to jump. We are in a rural area, and it is bloomin dark without lights. The sort f dark where if you wake up in the night you can't tell if your eyes are open or closed. Only one streetlight within half a mile of us! With even 4 lights there are a heck of a lot of shadows and bright bits. As I understand it, horses do see well in dim light, but are not good at changing their vision from light to dark and vice versa. Therefore I would not feel safe to jump where there are shadows and bright spots, areas where the light shines directly at them and areas where it is comparatively dark. Nor would I want to try to navigate them to a fence in the pitch black!
 
Ferae said:
Last month I DIY the arena flood lights for my horse barn. It is composed of the high power and low power lighting system. Since I have a semi-outdoor environment, I add the solar powered panel to conserve the light energy and then reuse them at night.
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I like the horse barn. The setting is pretty impressive.

I just want to ask why LED is preferred by majority of horse arena owner? Just because of higher energy efficiency? How about the maintenance cost?
 
In fact, Arena recommends the use of LED flood lights. On the one hand, it is anti-glare. On the other hand, it has more beam angles to choose from to avoid troubles caused by irradiating neighbors. In addition, it has high light efficiency and has a service life of more than 50,000 hours.
 
I have 2 x LED security lights mounted on outbuildings, which illuminate the top 1/3 of my arena and on something sensible (mine is) its perfectly possible to use the entire arena for flatwork, and do polework across the top 1/3.

too dark to jump safely but like you i tend to hire courses or do farm rides anyway.

thankfully my neighbour is lovely, and our garage hides most of the arena and lights anyway but a client had massive issues with her neighbour who kept *accidentally*cutting cables to her lights when trimming his hedge......
 
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