Dressage arena marking out string - where to buy?

[SpottedCat]

Ok, so at a RC event I ran recently someone had a really useful thing made of string and tent pegs for making sure your arena was square and marked out correctly. I want one! I know I could make one but frankly I would rather throw money than time at the problem. Trouble is I do not seem to be able to find one anywhere - can anyone help?! Person who had it could not remember where she bought it from, and all I am getting on google is how to place the letters round an arena, which I know!

 

[Weezy]

We have one of those - I will ask the YM at lunchtime if no one else has replied by then

 

[SpottedCat]

Thankyou! Loads of people seem to have them, but no-one can remember where they came from. It's like they just appeared in people's tack rooms....

 

[only_me]

Dressage trainer has a garden hose reel that ordinary rope is attached to and coloured to different lengths - so all you do is walk till the colour runs out, turn repeat and volia, a perfect arena!

 

[SpottedCat]

Dressage trainer has a garden hose reel that ordinary rope is attached to and coloured to different lengths - so all you do is walk till the colour runs out, turn repeat and volia, a perfect arena!

That can surely still be skew-wiff though? Because you need the diagonals to be correct and the corners to be bang on 90 degrees otherwise the arena isn't quite square, which annoys me..... If I can't find one to buy I will make one over the winter, I do know how to do it, I just CBA

 

[Saf]

http://www.silktree.com/p16.html

Is this it, expensove but looks like one I have seen

 

[SpottedCat]

http://www.silktree.com/p16.html

Is this it, expensove but looks like one I have seen

That is exactly it....but surely the decimal point is in the wrong place?! There is no way the person who had one that I know paid that kind of money for it, she reckoned it was £25-£30 from a tack shop somewhere. TBH at that price I'd want it to ride the tests for me too!!

 

[OneInAMillion]

it surely can't be £225?!! My friend made hers, but I know someone else who bought one so I will try to find out where she got it

 

[OneInAMillion]

You could try this
http://www.localriding.com/diy-dressage-arena-layout.html

 

[SpottedCat]

You could try this
http://www.localriding.com/diy-dressage-arena-layout.html

I found this site too, thanks, and I own builders measuring tapes for work, but it isn't as easy or accurate as the strings (I did the arena with the tapes then she checked with the strings as she'd arrived a bit later) - and it's the laziness aspect that I am struggling with. I do know how to make the strings, I just don't want to! Although if the alternative is £225, or even $225, I will not only make them, but I will make several and sell the flipping things for a fraction of the price!!

 

[Sagittarius]

You need a chandler - boat supply shop. They do rope in all sorts of weights and it is normally non stretch - which is important.

For a 20 x 40 arena you need 105m of "string". 20 (short side) + 40 long side) + 44.7 (diagonal).

 

[Orangehorse]

On the same subject, can anyone suggest some markers I could put out in a field where cattle graze - so nothing they could hurt themselves on, or blow away, or mangle.
Someone suggested painting letters on rocks, which I thought was quite a good idea!

 

[LEC]

I use the ones you put into the ground which are metal. We have beef cows and they have never hurt themselves and they can be bent back into shape! Now I normally pull them put them into a pile and leave them flat in a pile and put them back out just before I ride.