Arena Surface research....what do you have on yours?

Equus Leather

Equus Leather

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www.virtualdressage.co.uk
Seriously looking into surfaces now and as lovely as they all sound, it's comments from people that actually have and use the surfaces that I'm interested in.

We've come across Flexiride http://www.equestriandirectltd.co.uk/index.php?page=flexiride
A new all in one surface, sounds too good to be true....

Ideally we would use some form of sand and rubber combination. It needs to not blow away as the school will be in a very windy spot, not be extortionatly priced and be able to be delivered in huge bulk so we can spread it ourselves...

So, what do you have on yours?
 
I'd be interest to see what answers you get on this as I am currently looking at building a school and the Flexiride sounds ideal, might ask them for a quote!
 
Check out martin collins surfaces - is it an indoor or outdoor arena? At our old house we had a rubber flake kind of surface - was square kind of shred stuff, very thin to look at but once it was all down it was fabulous - springy but not deep, didn't ever get dusty and it never ever froze.....

Happy hunting
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It'll be an outdoor, hopefully 50x30. We're going to be doing most of it ourselves and want to stay away from the big companies really, as we've found that as soon as it's for something equestrian they stick a whole heap of extra cost on.

We have a quarry locally (adjoing the site actually) so hopefully the aggregate is cheap...any experience in how much the stone costs?
 
I quite like Springride & Softrack surfaces, have tried both.

A friend has a Pasada arena which is very nice.

I think if you are starting from scratch then an all in one could work but I don't believe these can work if you are adding to an existing arena.
 
I've got cushionride cos of planning issues. They wanted something 'natural', blah de blah. No probs so far, except that the horses *love* rolling on it... I did get proper drainage put in.
 
I've got sand and PVC granules but hope to top up with Springride rubber shred or something similar before the winter. I had a lesson a couple of months ago with a dressage rider who had a new school built and the surface was just lovely- unfortunately I'm not sure what the surface was called but it had bits of stuff in it that looked like cloth ?- I wonder if anyone knows what it might have been?!....
 
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I've got cushionride cos of planning issues. They wanted something 'natural', blah de blah. No probs so far, except that the horses *love* rolling on it... I did get proper drainage put in.

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The school near us with cushionride has proper drainage too (about 5k worth of drainage pipes) - never floods etc, just when the wood gets wet with rain it is as slippy as anything, completely lethal. Would never recommend it to anyone else, especially if they wanted to jump in the school.
 
I contacted that company a week ago - i am considering what to put on my school next spring and they told me all about flexi ride. Basically, it is little bits of foam backed carpet! They said it would compact really well and it gives a really good 'return' underfoot, yet is still solid enough to jump on it. Needs minimum maintenance, cannot bog as it won't hold water like sand can, and never freezes and won't blow about or get dusty. They also sent me a list (2 sides of A4) of people in UK who have this for their arena.

I was really impressed - low maintenance did it for me, and I have also ridden on schools where the rubber smells really strong!

The quote I had (not including haulage) was 5k for a 40x20 arena.

When I do my school next spring, I think I will use flexiride (unless I hear anything bad about it on this forum,that is!)
 
Thanks for everyone's responses.

I'm wary of companies who say their surface won't freeze/get waterlogged/move/get deep/doesn't blow away etc. I'm suspicious!

Need to see it in action really. Where any of the people who have it up north?
 
Yeah a few were, just looking at the list now
Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire, Derbyshire, Matlock, North Mundham, Donnington Lincolnshire, Wilmslow, Loughborough, Selkirk Scotland, Norton Disney, East Bridgeford

Most other places on list were in the south though. Also Lucinda Green has it on her yard!

If you ask the company for a quote, they should let you have the list (Jobs of Reference its called). Perhaps they could let you go and look at an arena?
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Springride chippings are really nice, larger pieces than other chips and didn't cost too much. I would have liked the Shred but I needed something straight away and there's a really long wait for the Shred. Even so the chips are staying on the top and are lovely to ride on and no more puddles when it rains. Hooray!!
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I have the Flexiride...............got it free as Spring-Tek delivered the wrong stuff at first
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so I have Flexiride on the horse walker and round pen (with slicia sand) and silica sand and Spring-Tek rubber on the arena.

Both are FAB!
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My suggestion is to ring Spring-Tek, as they sell it to Equestrian Direct!!!! who then mix it with a bit of sand and then sell it on!
 
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