Arena surface oppinions please!

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Hi everyone, we're getting a 40 x 60 outdoor school put in place, and was looking for some opinions
Has anyone ever ridden on just silica sand? If so how did it feel? I've heard its very deep on its own
Has anyone every ridden on sand and rubber (rubber on top) I've heard this doesn't freeze until -13 degrees and would be very useful for us
And lastly has anyone ever ridden on rubber crumb and sand? I've heard absolutely nothing in regards to what its like
 
we have silica sand and rubber and it would be my surface of choice :)

its been down 17 years, been topped up once and has NEVER frozen.

i much prefer sand and rubber(chunks or strips) as the horse can drag a little, ie drop a toe and not get stuck in. Waxed surfaces offer absolutely no drag and i firmly believe riding on one all day every day causes soft tissue injuries to legs and feet.

i have jumped out a foot of snow off mine-wasnt frozen underneath :)
 
I've ridden on both rubber and sand and rubber crumb and sand and liked both surfaces.

The one surface I detest is wood chip.
 
We have rubber and silica sand, however there is not much rubber in it which makes it really deep sometimes when it's not been harrowed or if weathers really dry. I would imagine this is what silica sand on its own would be like
 
^^ yep, only arenas I've ever used that were sand-only were deep sand dunes in the summer, froze solid in the winter and had a window of about 35 minutes when they were nice to use after a rain shower ;)

Sand and rubber is not always totally frost -proof - my old yard was very exposed and the surface froze solid most days in a hard winter.

I've got sand and fibre which is OK so far (only put down in March), time will tell how it fares in the winter. We are on top of a hill but a bit of shelter from trees... could go either way :lol:
 
I am very interested in this thread as have been looking at an arena to use that has silica sand (originally with rubber crumb) that was then given a rubber strip topping. I haven't seen that before and wondered how you maintain it? Don't think it could be harrowed as it would drag all the strips off the top - or am I being dim?!?
According to owner it doesn't freeze or dry out.......
 
Nutsaboutnags said:
I am very interested in this thread as have been looking at an arena to use that has silica sand (originally with rubber crumb) that was then given a rubber strip topping. I haven't seen that before and wondered how you maintain it? Don't think it could be harrowed as it would drag all the strips off the top - or am I being dim?!?
According to owner it doesn't freeze or dry out.......
Click to expand...

A friend has this and it is nasty to ride on. It feels really false, and the strips are deep in places and scalped in others, and it is really hard to redistribute them. The supplier has been back numerous times to try to improve it, to no effect. I don't think the deep bits freeze though!

I have sand topped with rubber that is shredded tyres. Nice, economical, usable in winter and summer.....
 
Red-1 said:
A friend has this and it is nasty to ride on. It feels really false, and the strips are deep in places and scalped in others, and it is really hard to redistribute them. The supplier has been back numerous times to try to improve it, to no effect. I don't think the deep bits freeze though!

I have sand topped with rubber that is shredded tyres. Nice, economical, usable in winter and summer.....
Click to expand...

That's what I thought, I wasn't convinced!!
 
I used to ride on a sand school with rubber strip topping and found horses had a tendency to trip/slip on it, as did other users. It never froze though, although that was partly due to the microclimate it was in.
 
I've got rubber crumb over sand. Excellent, and easy to maintain. As ever, the quality of the sand is key :). Can also thoroughly recommend an Arenamate leveller to keep it in tip top condition (c £895 delivered and demonstrated before any cash is handed over).
 
We have just sand on our school at the moment though thinking of upgrading as have a bit of cash. Its very coarse sand though rather than fine.

IMO its fine for private use as long as levelled regularly but it would get v deep on the corners if used more intensively.

You could start off with sand and upgrade if you were doing it on a budget.

Can't decide whether to go for rubber or fibre when we upgrade...

Fiona
 
i much prefer sand and rubber(chunks or strips) as the horse can drag a little, ie drop a toe and not get stuck in. Waxed surfaces offer absolutely no drag and i firmly believe riding on one all day every day causes soft tissue injuries to legs and feet.

i have jumped out a foot of snow off mine-wasnt frozen underneath :)[/QUOTE]

Can I ask what the theory is on the waxed surface? Sorry I'm new to the world of arena surfaces and thought a waxed surface was the best type...
 
We have sand topped with Flexiride (chopped carpet) it's great. It would be worth you asking companies if they have arenas you could visit, thatt how we chose our surface.
 
we have rubber chunks/short strips on top of sand and it hasn't frozen since I've been here, unlike a rubber crumb school. It is levelled with a piece of the metal you use to reinforce concrete - though probably not frequently enough as we do sometimes have to move a bit of rubber about by hand. It gets reasonable with a 10 horse yard and YO using it for teaching. Prob about 5 horses a day at a rough guess. It really needs the rubber scraping back and the sand levelling underneath now but has been down 7 odd years I think.

Frank did go a bit oddly on it to start with (barefoot so probably feels stuff and very out of arena practice!) but is very confident on it now. Nothing slips or trips on it that's for certain.
 
I have silica sand and flexiride topping. We went for flexiride as the local council aren't keen on rubber and we had to submit surface samples with our planning application. It's been down for 3.5 years and hasn't frozen and most importantly for me the flexiride keeps the sand damp in summer which prevents if from becoming deep. They recommend using a chain harrow on it but a leveller is much better and the only annoying thing is that the flexiride sticks to droppings so you are better off letting them dry before removing them.
 
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