Best time to build a menage

mil1212

mil1212

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My mum agreed for us to finally have a menage built, back in May. We got quotes and have the spec and company we want to do it. However pony went lame and we lost the flow! Now she says it's too late to build a menage as it's going into winter and we will have to wait to next Spring. Is there any truth in this? I realise that since she said this back at the begining of September it hasn't rained and it's been lovely! But does the weather matter for building one? I have been waiting 20 years for an arena, and need all the reasoning I can get to throw at her, I'm done with all this hacking!
 
October is meant to be good and lets face it planning for a dry week anytime in the UK is a bit hit and miss
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Now she says it's too late to build a menage as it's going into winter and we will have to wait to next Spring. Is there any truth in this?

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Yes probably. We've just had one built and they couldn't start until last week as it was just too wet. Even then, they had to put a 'road' of planings in just to get the plant equipment and lorries onto the land so it really depends on the access and turning area you have for seriously heavy vehicles. I watched the sand arrive yesterday and was amazed to see a stone surface I'd seen as hard, 'flex' like a waterbed under the 20 ton lorries!

There is the other small detail of planning permission as well. People do all they can to avoid it yet it's not that difficult to get provided you play by the rules. Now is the time to apply so's by the spring you have your PP and can use it as a bargaining tool with contractors since you are a more valuable customer if you are ready to go so to speak.
 
I would argue that now is the best time! Most surfaces require you to wait for some seriously good rain before you ride on them (depends on surface) but most use sand as part of the base and the rain helps to compact and settle it. In fact we were told if we rode on ours before it had been rained on for several days that it would damage it for good.

My friends had their long-awaited menage done last spring (07), just before that very long dry spell, and they had to wait over 6 weeks before they could ride on it, and the ground was too hard to canter on a hack as well so they were really p'd off!

Also if we have the opposite, a very wet spring, all the diggers etc will make a real mess of the surrounding land. If you have it done now, you will have time to reseed and the grass will be up and growing by the spring, making it all look soooo much nicer.

Plus there is usually a waiting time, so by next spring when there is a queue you might have to wait a couple of months.

Enough reasons? Can try to think of more...
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It all depends on what type of land you have. We are on clay. I built mine last summer at the end of August beginning of september and only just got it in before the land became too wet. My friend who did hers after mine had to pay a fortune getting tracks put in and it looked like the somme. If I had owned the land earlier in the year I would have done it sooner.

But of course that wouldn't have been any good this year! Oh and do get PP first I didn't and as some kind soul told the planning dept I had the hassle of going down the retrospective planning route.
 
Thanks for your replys it seems we should definately start looking into PP, and it's a good idea to think that if we trash the land now, we can fix it all up by spring!
 
We started ours on the 2nd January, and were OK, so I would imagine that now is as good a time as any.

Only disadvantage with ours was that it took longer, the contractor had to stop for a week a couple of times (because of the weather), but they still did a fantastic job.

Whispers - we don't have pp for ours (but are in N Ireland, where planning for things other than houses seems a bit more relaxed).

Good luck

FIona
 
How long does building an arena take? We've just had PP for ours (and the change of land use) approved, so my task now is to get on to my yard owner to persuade her to get it built so we can have somewhere to ride this winter rather than next!
Don't forget it may not only be the arena you need permission for - our application went in firstly as just the arena, which then had to be withdrawn when some bright person pointed out we needed to change 'agricultural' to 'equestrian' land use... so our application took twice as long!
 
a standard 40x20 arena given normal conditions and access will take no more than 4 weeks from breaking ground to having your first ride. thats what we work to but other factors can speed them up slow them down etc so if access is ok and the site level ish we allow 4 weeks.

Giles
 
Ive just had mine extended - we are on clay- they would not have been able to get the lorries in across the fields though, so if you dont have a hard access it may make it difficult. Mine was done in just over a week - (the extension bit was 20 x 20).
 
Find yourself a local surveyor and instruct them to apply for the planning permission (if you apply for flood lighting it will be more difficult). It will take at least 4 months before you get it which will bring you to next April. So you need to get the specifications of your new menage cleared with your contractor so that they are on stand by for next May.
 
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