Arenas!

Equus Leather

Equus Leather

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1 May 2006
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Up North
www.virtualdressage.co.uk
I've a few questions about building arenas.....

Those of you that have had an outdoor arena built....

1. Did you do most of the work yourself or did you get a company in?

2. How much did it cost you? (Feel free to ignore this if you don't want to say!)

3. What surface have you got and why?

4. How big is it? What influenced your decision on size?

Thanks!
 
A "JCB man" did the work for me, rather than a specialised arena company

For manege and all post and rail, about £18k (approx 6 years ago?)

Sand and rubber

20 x 60 - Wanted it to be as big as I could afford at the time as was advised to do this by people who regretted going for a short arena. If money was no object, would have preferred it to have been 25x60 but couldn't afford that at the time!
 
1. Did you do most of the work yourself or did you get a company in?
Company called Mallow Arean's from Soham

2. How much did it cost you? (Feel free to ignore this if you don't want to say!)
£18k (2 years ago) all work including post and rail, no alot of ground work on ours though as level already (fens) and built up rather than put in drains - soil very free draining and can honestly say we have never ever had a puddle - in fact it rides best after it's peed down for days

3. What surface have you got and why?
Silica Sand and rubber chunks - really didn't want wood xchip, cost was a factor, only 2 of us use it and had rubber chunks as I've never ridden on a shred that I've liked nor has OH

4. How big is it? What influenced your decision on size?
20 x 50 - we wanted 20x60 (do dressage) but planning restrictions on proximity to road and main drain lost us 10m - council wanted us to go down to 20x40 but we agreed in the middle!
 
Advice we were given is make it as wide as you can as well - you won't regret it.

We got a guy and his JCB in as well..
 
I paid 7k for a 30 x 50. A local contractor did it for me . I didnt do drainage , just built it higher than the rest of the land. Im lucky to live near Lough Neagh so we used the sand from there as it drains really well. All the materials were locally sourced - like within a few miles. Also i was able to use the soil on other areas of my land so no cost for removing it. I think this is why we got the price so low.
 
Our school has got sand and rubber mix surface. It's been great up until this year when it's frozen and got quite soggy a few times, as I think a lot of the rubber has been lost. It drains very quickly though.

It's a 45x45m school because the YO's son does a lot of showjumping.
It's a fantastic size, and means that at least 4 of us can go in at the same time and have space to work. I can mark out small dressage arenas without any problems, and there is space for lots of jumps.
It also means you can really get the horses working forward down all the long sides
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Mine is barely 20 x 40 and I wish I'd made it bigger. We did a lot of the work ourselves, but we live on a farm with an obliging neighbour who kindly lent us diggers etc. I think Jim Woods (?) from Haltwhistle is the person most people use round here - he put the arena in at Angerton. I would guesstimate at about £20K if I was putting a new one in now.
 
Ours is very small because of cost and Planning permission. Its 30 x 20. We had a friend dig out the base and pack it with stones etc for cost price. The membrane and sand were most expensive. We put the post and rail up ourselves so that was cost price. We managed it for £6,000 but we were quoted about £13,000 for a sand 20x40 by a company, so I guess we did quite well costs wise....although not sure how 'just sand' will hold out over time as arena is only 6months old now.
 
Its been in around four years - last year we had to top the sand up a bit. That cost around 600 pounds. Thats all we have had to do with it. I have a grader and a rake for it so it keeps it in good condition. I dont have a quad - i just drive my jeep round it with the rake on the back.
 
1. Local contractor who had done them before and have done all our other work.

2. £55,000
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3. Silica sand (the posh white stuff
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they sent the wrong one
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lol) and Spring-Tek rubber. Best surface for the price. If I had buckets of money I would have got a Martin Collins or Equestrian Direct waxed surface.

4. 60m x 40m. It is for a livery yard with up to 30 horses, so needed to be big.

And this is it...
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