Arenas - particularly frozen ones!

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ecrozier

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It's 2 degrees here, after dark, been 3-4 degrees and sunny all day and hardly a frost this morning and all the mud on the yard has defrosted.... But the school
is frozen solid yet again :(
is this normal? How cold does it need to be for your arenas to freeze to the point you can't ride on them? And what surface are they?
And on that topic who has added salt to a sand arena? Pros and cons? And has anyone topped up an arena with rubber? Any suggestions on cost on a 20x40 sand arena to make it a sand/rubber mix?!
Almost at my wits end now.....
 
we have a rubber/fibre/sand mix and ours froze to. i think the problem was the water was falling down through it and freezing before it could drain away. so the top looked ok, but the underneath was like an ice rink. I hate this weather!
 
Paddi22 did you have rain then? Ours drains quite well, to the point of being horribly deep in dry weather, but just seems to freeze instantly! Seems crazy to be walking through soft mud then stepping onto frozen sand!
 
our school was horribly deep this summer as it needed topping up with rubber to help you ride on top of the surface rather than into it.

after much begging and pleading with the YO we got a rubber top up. I havent been riding in it due to the fact its covered in snow (we have had over 2 foot and minus 15 here!) but digging through the snow the surface underneath isnt frozen solid at all.
 
Georgiegirl do you have any idea of a ballpark figure of what that cost? Our yard owner is very very uninvolved but it's got to be worth a try!
 
as soon as the weather thawed slightly and then refroze, we got the underground ice rink effect. usually its a great arena with good drainage. the rubber fibres work fantastically well usually, it just seems that the thawing and the quick refreezing caught it out!
 
mine's still frozen solid, right through (puddles staying on top, unheard of), it has never been like this, it's like permafrost or something. it's sand and rubber, btw. if the sand's wet and freezes solid, the rubber doesn't help, unfortunately.
haven't sat on a horse for weeks. sooo frustrating.
 
A friend of mine has salt put through his. It is fabulous. He put a layer of salt over the top, then harrowed it, salted again and then harrowed it! Despite being at the top of a hill with roads so icily frozen that they couldn't be driven on in ANY vehicle all his horses got exercised!!
 
my YO is an ex dairy farmer so VERY uninvolved with horses. I took months of moaning (which i hate doing) ridden demonstrations and even a trip up to the local comp centre to show him your supposed to ride on top of the surface rather than wade through it.

No idea as to the amount he put down but chipped rubber is about 50 odd pounds per tonne. I'd hazard a guess at 2-3 tonnes for a 20x40? (could be talking rubbish though)

a few ball park figures on here...

http://www.manchesterplastics.com/

kerilli - ours is rubber/sand mix and hasnt frozen under 2 foot of snow and minus 15 temps! I'm still not going to ride til the snow goes though.... i get paranoid about tendons and things with hyperflexion due to snow balling up - I'm a wuss!
 
Amage do you know if he did any research into risk of damaging surface?
Kerrilli yes hugely frustrating! Thing is we haven't had the weather you guys have, hardly any snow, and it was fine yesterday judging by the hoof prints where friend's mare had a moment on the lunge! And it's already frozen solid again today... I was jumping on sat pm on instructors school about 2 miles away, surface was spot on. Fairly sure hers is still rideable tonight!
 
Wow georgiegirl that's cheaper than I thought! I might have a word tomorrow, guy who actually owns the property might even stump up a few hundred pounds, got to be worth a try!
 
oh well, just think yourself lucky you've got some riding in! Mine havent done anything since the 29th of november which is when all our snow first came - I was on night shift at the hospital watching it all come down and feeling absolutely gutted as i get a week off after nights and wasnt able to do a thing except try and fail to defrost taps!

I want to live in the new forest again!!!
 
Lol it's been one of the only times I have been vaguely grateful we are on a main road .... Roadwork has been all they have done since about then. Sat was first time I could get lorry out to go and use a better school. But roadwork very restrictive as I don't trot the 4 year old on roads at all yet and don't do much with older boy, and with it being so busy have to pick my times v carefully and only take youngster out in company!
But you are right I should be grateful - it's just frustrating that others round here are riding as normal!
 
I shall be donning a suit of armour when I next get on autumn (5yo) shes a beast of ISH who is by now going slowly demented despite having her hard feed reduced to just a bowl of carrots!

do you have anyway of harrowing your school? we are very very lucky to have a quad and an arena leveller to use as and when we like (as i say YO very uninvolved, we basically do as we please!) I've found it quite useful to try and harrow it as late as i can on a night when i know there is going to be a frost
 
georgiegirl said:
my YO is an ex dairy farmer so VERY uninvolved with horses. I took months of moaning (which i hate doing) ridden demonstrations and even a trip up to the local comp centre to show him your supposed to ride on top of the surface rather than wade through it.

No idea as to the amount he put down but chipped rubber is about 50 odd pounds per tonne. I'd hazard a guess at 2-3 tonnes for a 20x40? (could be talking rubbish though)

a few ball park figures on here...

http://www.manchesterplastics.com/
Click to expand...

hmm, it wouldn't be that cheap, sorry. I think it's usually 8-10 tonnes for a 20x40 (my 20x60 took about 15 tonnes iirc), and the rubber I use is quite a bit more than £50 a tonne...
 
Does it need to be special rubber kerrilli? I'm think of telling them approx £750-£1000
georgiegirl yes we have a harrow, and anyone with a tow bar can use! Thinking will do tomorrow aftrnoon and hope for the best - due to have lessons there from 4-7pm tomorrow :(
 
Ours was fine for the first week as we had 10 days of no rain befrorehand so the surface was nice and 'dry'. Then we had snow which then melted and that night it went down to -12 so it froze solid. So for 10 days we had no arena. Then when it got above freezing last Thursday it started to melt and then from Friday it has been used everyday :)

Thank god for the horse walker though.

However, on Saturday night it went down to -5 here again and it froze very hard again, but by Sunday afternoon it was useable again.

Was very wierd how solid it went though but think it must be because it hadn't properly thawed out.

DO NOT add salt to your arena you will absolutely reck it!!!! It completely destroys any membrane!!!!

I am sooooooooo not looking forward to this next big freeze............-9 at night, and -4 in the day????? Brrrrrrrrrrrr :(
 
No issues with the membrane as he didn't put a huge amount down and there is a deep level of sand. Salt would have alot of travelling to do before it would reach the membrane!
 
yeah same here
it actually unfroze over the weekend when it was colder?!
i think its because there is so much water in it and the ground is still so so cold. fields are a bit hard too. getting down to minus 3 or less at night still.........
 
amage said:
No issues with the membrane as he didn't put a huge amount down and there is a deep level of sand. Salt would have alot of travelling to do before it would reach the membrane!
Click to expand...

No the salt might not get to the membrane but the water travelling over the salt does and salt dissolves! Believe me it will be eroding the membrane.

Don't you think if there was no problem adding salt to arena surfaces that companies would be selling a surface with added salt and marketing a non-freeze surface??
 
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Other than one or two days the other week i have been able to ride pretty much every day, my arena at home is solid but its all sand and very wet so freezes dead easily,

at clients yard i have acess to a shredded carpet arena which it froze for the first time last week, it doesnt get very hard but becasue it is frsoty it almost goes slippy in places where it is a bit more compact like the track, i think it was about -5 at night when it froze, it is meant to be good up to -10

the other is an all rubber surface but with a little bit of sand at the bottom its not particualrly well maintied so where the rubber was more sparse it was frozen but had it been levelled and kept better i think it would of been fine the rubbery parts were still plenty springy

i dont think you are meant to add salt as ive heard it can damage the membrane
 
Mine is sand and rubber. As long as there's enough rubber to cover the sand up (which there is as I had it topped up just before the winter started) then it doesn't freeze.
 
yes, rubber doesn't freeze, sand does when it's wet.
if there's enough rubber on top, it insulates the sand well, BUT if the sand gets soaked and then the temperature plummets, the sand will still freeze absolutely solid.
you can't have just rubber, it moves way too much. have seen it not work, basically... it's very deep and insecure.
levelled my arena today but it's still rock hard with ice & standing water. never known it this bad.
 
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