Building a riding surface yourself..

karenjj

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Hi everyone, I was just wondering whether anyone had build an all weather turnout/riding surface themselves on a budget? Someone said to me all you have to do is dig up the ground, put stones in for drainage and then put woodchip on top?
Has anyone put their own drainage in and how hard is it to do yourself?
Also does using it as a turnout area as well make it unsuitable for a riding arena?
Any advice on this would be appreciated!
Thanks
 
The one on our yard was built like that, farmer put quite chunky gravel/ stone down then some finer gravel then layer of sand/ rubber. It drains really well, we don't use for turnout though so can't help on that one, although I'd have thought as long as it's (no idea of correct wording here) smoothed over/ raked regluarly it shouldn't be affected
 
Hi, don’t know anything about building your own arena however i’m pretty sure the drainage is more than just stones.. My two ponies have been turned out daily for around 5hours on a rubber ménage since December along with two horses and a foal. It works well but the horses are incredibly bored and yard owner and I are desperate to get them out in the next few weeks. We can’t feed hay whilst they’re out incase it blocks the drainage. The foal also digs which leaves fairly big holes. They have broken out to the field numerous times and have also put holes in the back of the wooden stables with their teeth through boredom. Not only this but the rubber stains everything black, my bay and white shetland is now bay and blue and has black feet! I imagine using an arena as a temporary turnout is okay but isn’t brilliant for 4-5months!
 
my old yard had a school built in the way you describe.The school was great in summer but unuseable for at least 4 months of the year. The problem with woodchip is that it holds moisture and so clumps together.It also rots quickly and needs topping up more often.The old yard had to completely redo it after 2 years. It also needs to be harrowed regularly as it becomes deep and slippery in places.
 
the yard i'm at has a budget school - hardcore drainage topped with sharp sand - both from local quarry...
freezes in winter and can get deep - but if they bothered to chain harrow more regulariliy it would not be as bad
sometimes gets water logged but you can still ride in it then anyway - you just get covered in wet sand - nice!
does the job for lunging and schooling = i'd not want to jump much on it though
 
We have recently made a woodchip school at my livery yard, basically dug it up, used big rocks the smaller rocks and then a membrane ( not sure where YO got that, but it wasn't too expensive) to allow drainage without the stones rising to the surface, and then loads and loads of woodchip, which we rolled and compressed a lot. We will be getting top up deliveries of a ton or two of chippings regularly, because as mentioned before it rots quite quickly. Luckily we have a tame tree surgeon who is happy to oblige!
 
To do it properly it should be like this -

Dig out area with ditches arranged in a herringbone fashion with a single ditch running lengthways down the middle for main drainage. Line the ditches with membrane. put a 6 inch layer of pea gravel in said ditches. on top of this place 4" perforated land drain flexipipe. Cover over with more pea gravel to level of dug out ground. Cover the whole area with more membrane. Place a 8 to 12" layer of washed hardcore (not crusher run as this has lots of gooey dusty particles in to block it all up). Another layer of membrane. Top riding layer to a depth of 6 - 12 inch depending on your surface. This really should be bare minimum for any school. an intermediate silica sand layer with another membrane would be better. I'd never use wood chip as it rots, gets full of fungus and mould (hope your horse doesn't have any scrapes or cuts round its toesies). It forms a solid mass which takes weeks to thaw out (do a search on piecrete) and after some time stops any kind of drainage as the stuff finally forms a clay like layer underneath.

If money really was tight I'd try and get a few inches of silica sand on top. Not the best surface but at least it's a free draining mudless one.
 
Don't use sharp sand! If you do it too cheap it will cost you more money in the long run.

Good drainage is an absolute must and it certainly helps if you can get it as level as possible.

I personally don't like wood chip as I have seen too many horses fall over on it and it freezes in the cold.

The problem with turning out into a riding arena is that the horse is very like to dig big holes in it.
 
If you want something that lasts then get it done professionaly by a specialist. You also need planning permission.
 
We built an outdoor menage last autumn, to use both for winter turnout (we have clay soil!), and so I can ride whatever the weather. I have to say its been so far fantastic. We project managed it ourselves - just hired a man and his digger - took about 3 weeks to complete start to finish, and cost about £11k for a 20 x 45m. We got the ground levelled, put in twice as many land drains as required because of the soil & it seemed like the more the merrier! We used brick rubble (dirty but cheap), and just used the washed limestone for round the drains. We bought the membrane etc, and chose to put down a wood fibre surface which rides brillliantly and which the planners were happy with as we are in a conservation area. Post and rail fencing - and away you go - its been a godsend over this winter - except when the snow was balling in the boys feet, it was possible to ride, turn out as much as you want, ride when its raining/dark - honestly, I can't recommend it enough!
 
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