Building a Menage

The company who installed my arena last year, silica sand plus rubber topping, said that there are only two quarried they would use in the Uk (North) for sand. They only use the best so that customers don't come back with complaints.
They did an excellent job here and are lovely people as well. (Pearts arenas)
 
My daughter and I are just starting to construct our menage and would be very interested in visiting you. We live near Boston, so not too far away.
 
soloequestrian said:
The only negative I've heard about it is that it can be abrasive but my horses are barefoot and so to me abraison is a good thing!
Interested to hear any opinions on here, and it might be worth your thinking about it too as likely to be more easily available than silica.
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I would worry even more if your horses are barefoot and riding on sharp sand, as I've known it to be so abrasive that you literally end up with no foot, thus a very foot sore horse. Known riding schools that have always had ponies unshod, especially behind, and had to start shoeing them all just to protect their feet.

Also known it to ride really deep when dry, yet completly the opposite when wet, unless you get loads of rain then water just sits on top.
 
Cassy, We are literally just finishing and have added our top surface. You are more than welcome to come and have a look PM me and i'll give you my contact details.

I find there are very contradicting theories on this as i know several schools with silica sand and they have to water them during the summer, the reason why most people add rubber or similar to stop them getting deep.

One friend constructed their menage out of top silica and rubber and it took them 6 months to get it to ride well by their standards. All i know is its a compromise financially to what you are using the arena for and how much use and care it gets.
 
I have just been to view a horse, the young girl has a school which has a sharp sand surface. It was awful, really, really deep. They used it to keep the cost down. They have added a number of products to it, to try and stabilise the surface, all of which have failed, so now they wish they had used silica sand. If I was you. I would wait until I could afford the right surface or you are wasting money.
 
Agree that you need rubber on top of sand. We're doing a refurb and have silica sand but have now been advised that membrane not necessary if arena rolled sufficiently. Does any one have any views on this.

Thanks
 
No membrane would allow the sand to migrate into the hardcore base as the sand molecules are very small. For the price of a membrane approx £400 is it worth omitting?
 
Would never use Sharp Sand - as per previous posts, it's very abrasive.
My mums old horse would go lame on sharp sand (and he was shod).
A neighbour built her own using sharp sand, and it rides deep, the surface moves and my mum describes it as pretty awful.
Our Arena was original 'Trackright' surface (silica / coke mix). After flooding the original surface was levelled and we had 4 inches of Silica & 2 inches of rubber on top - it rides beautifully.
We also have a friend with the rubber strips - my mums found it slippy on the corners when wet.
 
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