Building your own area - help

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Ranyhyn

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Posted somewhere else by mistake! Eep

Looking for some advice please, as forum search is useless!

We have been considering putting an arena in at home and considering doing it ourselves. OH was a project manager and quantity surveyor by trade, so he will take the reins on it. We have a good local guy who will do our groundwork for us.

So basically looking for some guidance on where to start?

Obviously PP first so what size would you go for?

What groundworks need doing?

Surface (we're thinking rubber sand mix?)

OH and a few useful mates do our fencing here so I imagine they will do the arena fence.

What kind of price are you looking at for self-build does anyone know? Any help very gratefully received!!
 
about 3 years ago we put in our own arena, other half is a contractor so did most of the work himself. It was an odd size due to location (25 x 45) but it worked well. We used just a sand surface, make sure draining is good, ours never water logged and even in the big freeze of winter it was still like powdery sand! I think at the time it cost around £5000
 
We put ours in but we paid a local company to do it for us.

I would go for the biggest size you can sensibly fit in. Ours is 25x50, but I wish I'd had the extra 10m and gone for a 25x60. If you go for 25m or more on the short side you can jump across as well as down the long side and diagonals.

Also we've found that having a solid fence for the first 2 feet or so really helps stop the weeds. We have boarded ours as an after thought and its really helped.

Also with regard to surface, decide which ones you like at local arenas and then ask them exactly what it is.

We sand with a layer of rubber on top and it can be a little deep, but I am reliably informed by the nice people that run Moreton (which has a divine surface that started out as the same as I have), that I can add some fibre to it to make it nice and springy like theirs. so I am now saving up for that!
 
Thanks guys, prices seem reasonable enough! We have an unlimited amount of space really and would like to be able to jump in it too, so might look at a larger size. We have good access too which is a stroke of luck as I know most farms don't!
 
No expert, but from observations :
I think ideally you need to start with a level rectangle, [20 by 60], surround it with a drainage ditch to be filled with aggregate approx 40+mm
The topsoil is scraped off and levelled and rolled, make sure the roller / tracklayer goes in to corners rather than round and round.
Usually a non woven terram membrane is put on top to stop stones coming up
Then 40mm agregate,[not sharp whin] 4 to 6 inches is laid and levelled again with backwards and forwards not round and round.
Then a woven [permeable] membrane to stop mixing of layers, but to allow drainage.
Then sand or sand /fabric mix base.
I would swerve a free flowing, light mix in an outdoor arena as it might blow away one day.
I always wonder why people have rectangles, I would curve the corners.
The fencing depends on the use, is it to keep out animals in a field, or to keep horses in when loose. Fencing is not essential in all situations, but you can consider a loose jumping lane along one edge [needd to be higher and more solid
I am no expert, but here in bonnie Scotland very few arenas are in use 360 days per year if they have no proper base [clay soils] and use woodchip type of surface. They work in summer but are prone to flooding and freezing, and the surface rots down in a few years.
 
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