Arena surfaces, yard surfaces and treadmill versus walker.....

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YummyHorses

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So whats best....

After many years of saving I am finally planning my yard.....yippee.

BUT not sure on the above.

What do you guys recommend for a surface (cant afford a waxed one....sadly) - should I go for sand/rubber or sand/fibre? Or something else?

And around the yard what is the best surface? Cant afford to concrete it all and am a little concerned could be slippey in the winter months. But what else? A friend has suggested a limestone dust, another gravel......

And finally, do I go for a walker or treadmill? I only have 2 horses and a pony (daughter) at the moment but expect (well hope) that this would increase when I am not paying livery bills. I like the idea of a treadmill as much smaller and I could put undercover. But then I and the horses are used to a walker.

So please advise knowledgable friends.......
 
I can't afford wax either, so have gone with sand/rubber in the past and trying sand/fibre now. The important thing is to buy as good quality sand as you can afford.

Re yard surfaces a cheap and very pretty option is rolled hardcore and a shallow layer of woodchip. It looks nice, it stays in place better than gravel and you don't have to pick stones from your horse's feet every day.

Personally I would use the walker money for a wax surface instead, but it's down to you and what you need!
 
We have sand and rubber. Ensure your sand is silica sand AND equestrian grade. On the yard hard core and road scalpings. Compressed down with the 'banger' thing so it's like concrete but nowhere near as expensive. I would buy a treadmill if I could afford it for all the reasons you said and no planning permission required as far as I know. I guess it depends on the number of horses you plan to have on the yard though.
How exciting to be getting your own place. Good luck!
 
Thanks chaps. Really usefull comments. With the woodchip does it not become swamp-like in the winter - recognising the amount of rain we have here? I was thinking of having some block paving outside the barns - would look nice with the wood chippings. Plus I have an endless supply of trees so would be able to do my own!

Thanks again....
 
No, the hardcore acts as drainage and a handy digger driver will give the whole area a slight slope towards the areas you want the water to drain to. However, it works best in areas that don't get mud dragged over them as the mud then 'encourages' the woodchip to turn into mulch. The kinds of woodchip brands you find in garden centres will also mulch very quickly, ideally you want specially prepared ones like the ones they do for equestrian use at Ransfords.

This photo of my old yard shows a bit of the woodchip (ignore the horsebox!!):

SANY0070.jpg


It's laid down very thinly so it only needs a small amount (the hardcore underneath is the same colour so that works out quite well).
 
Thanks Nigsha....love the decisioning making there. I am the sort that dwells...!!!

Booboos - that looks nice and would be very in keeping with our garden area and house. Thanks for that. I will have a look at the website for Ransford. Do you mind me asking - was it expensive to do?

Ta
 
We were doing major groundworks to the entire garden, yard, arena and new driveway, so in the scheme of things this wasn't much as we had the digger there already. I don't remember the costs exactly but you need:
- digger and possibly digger driver (depending on how big a digger you need), rental depends on how many days you need them for
- you may need a dumper truck if you have a lot of top soil or if you need to move it further away
- large hardcore, cost will depend on transport from your nearest quarry
- small to dust hardcore, as above
- roller/vibrator, you should be able to drive this, cost will depend on how many days you need to rent it for
- woodchip, you can spread this by hand, I did ours (took me a week, but I took it slowly!)
 
OOOh exciting!

First off our manege is pretty much perfect and is fairly standard equestrian silica sand with chopped rubber, never freezes. The secret is getting the drainage right. If I was building from scratch I would spend a bit extra on having the fencing angled outwards to avoid being 'kneecapped' and would have gone for the full 20x60 as am a dressage fan but it depends on your chosen discipline really

I would chose a tread mill over a walker anyday. Partly for saving space but unless they are a hefty size walkers are not good for joints, then you have space, planning, protection from the weather to consider too.

Just a thought about yard surface, some councils are now getting snotty about using non porous surfaces such as concrete because of the surface water that runs off it. Ours is mostly planings rolled flat with second hand rubber matting over the top. Laying the rubber has enabled me to use the yard as a turnout pen in winter and it's much safer than concrete, probably cost less to lay too.
 
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