Flexiride / Clopf Fibre / Rubber

I_A_P

I_A_P

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Hello,

My silica sand has been down in my arena about 18 months, I am now in the position where I can finally put a topping on it.

I have ridden on an arena with clopf fibre and one with flexiride and both seem good. Just wondered if people on here have either down, how long they have had it down, what the maintenance is and generally thoughts on either please. Its only going to be used for 1-2 horses 4/5 days a week and would do a mixture of schooling and jumping.

Other option is rubber - if you have a rubber surface where did you get it from and what type is it (strip, crumb etc)

Thanks
 
We put Clopf down 5 months ago and omg its amazing!!!! Our arena now rides like an expensive waxed surface.

I was a little worried putting it down in summer as it meant we wouldn't have much rain. Well just before we put it down I was putting the sprinklers on our old surface every other night and levelling it most days..............since we've put the Clopf down I haven't put the sprinklers on once and we have had NO rain at all until last week. I also now only have to level it twice per week. This is with around 15-20 horses using it everyday.

A top pro dressage rider I know, had it put down on his and he said he hadn't levelled his arena for 5 months!!! To be honest I could get away with only levelling ours once per 10 days but Im a perfectionist :p I expect you wouldn't have to level it very often at all!!! Prehaps once every other month??

So yes highly reccommend!!! Just remember to lay it EXACTLY how Martin Collins tell you to.

Oh and btw we have Flexiride on our round pen and although its good it is no where near as good as Clopf :)
 
MillionDollar- Thanks, did you put it down yourself? I have the instructional dvd and looks a bit of a tricky task to be honest!! Did Martin Collins give you any idea of how long the surface would last before needing to be topped up/replaced? I have asked them directly for my usage but no reply as of yet.
 
We have clopf, and yeah its great! It was hard to put down as we didnt pay the manufacturers to do it, as were trying to save money! But it wintered well and has settled in great, It is tonnes better than sand, go for it!
 
Leg-end - Hello, yes he is well thanks. Had a very quiet year as with his tb feet he started to feel the hard ground and now has gel pads and wedges. Started show jumping him last week - have just been extra careful really. :)

hayleyshep88 great thanks :) Definatly can not wait to get something with my sand :)
 
I have been hiring lots of different surfaces and chatting to yo's as about to do my own school and def want to get it right :p
Narrowed it down to two, clopf and flexi ride,
The main difference between the two for me is that the clopf needed watering in the summer or dry weather and the flexi ride doesn't.
As i don't want to be watering i have gone for the flexi ride :D
 
_Fran_ said:
Leg-end - Hello, yes he is well thanks. Had a very quiet year as with his tb feet he started to feel the hard ground and now has gel pads and wedges. Started show jumping him last week - have just been extra careful
Click to expand...

That's great news :) I do love him!
 
We have Clopf as well, put it down a couple of months ago on an unsuitably deep sand arena and I have to say I am really surprised at how well it has worked!

It was a b&^%£ to put down, we needed a fork lift to move the bales into the arena, it took 10 people a whole day to spread the fibre by hand (we owe all our friends huge favours!) and a rotivator to mix it in. The rotivator mixed it in unevenly and then it took a couple of days of going over it with the (specialist) leveler to sort it all out.

Having said all that, it works really well so was worth it.

Fibre vs rubber, it depends what you want it to do. If your sand is too deep, fibre could help. If you want it to freeze less rubber could help.
 
I've ridden on a few of these fibre based surfaces (Clopf or equivalent). I have found in general they are either very good or very bad. Unfortunately I don't know enough about different manufacturers and base sand layers to be able to know which combinations were the good ones unfortunately. The good ones far out perform sand/rubber.

We have had a fibre based added into waxed sand (which was too hard before) to one of our indoor schools. I find it can get uneven and patchy pretty quickly (high useage school mind), but straight after levelling it is very nice indeed.
 
Yes we put it down ourselves, being farmers, we have all the equipment ;) we didn't find it that difficult.....took us a day to do our 60 x 40 with 4 of us.

Re. watering, interestingly our ;round pen with flexiride needs watering in summer but like i said the arena with clopf didn't at all!
 
people with clopf or similar, if your arena was really really windswept (mine is!) do you think it would blow away?
i've lost a lot of the rubber on mine and need to top-up, not sure what to go for...

_Fran_, if your arena isn't the most windswept in the world (as mine is) then i highly recommend Springride Shred, it was perfect for 6 years at my last place (perfect when I moved out!), never tracked, wonderful to ride on, really secure, never froze. It's still good here but too much of it has blown away unfortunately, hence top-up requd...
 
Thank you to everyone for the replies.

Booboo's sand is just a little deep in the summer really, obviously it freezes as well. My silica has now really, really settled though and is regularly harrowed and rolled. Was never an intention to have the sand on its own just could not afford to put a topping on it when we put the arena in.

Ihatework -thnk you. The two arenas I have seen do not seem to get patchy - it seems with the clopf its getting it mixed right to start with which is the main issue.!

Milliondollar - although I live on a farm unfortunatly I would have to hire in a compact tractor and the correct machinery to lay it was our machinery is too big and the arena is only 20 x 40. Should not be a huge problem though.

kerilli - my arena is not too bad - the field is hedged most of the way around with one side being right against the arena. Sand is blowing around when it is dry but think rubber/fibre would be ok. I did have a sample of that shred sometime ago when we first put it in. Such a nightmare!!!
 
Yes, the equipment makes a huge difference! We had to rent the forklift, tractor and rotivator which does add to the cost. Also had to buy a new leveler as old one was for sand or sand/rubber.

I've hardly had to water it at all
 
We're also in a very windy place, we haven't lost any Clopf but we did also put a similar product to Gale Break on the fence (which was £800 cheaper at around £200) and this has saved a HUGE amount from leaving the arena....

(the day before we added Clopf)

016-2.jpg
 
Thanks :) Anyone had any more experience of Flexiride?

MillionDollar said:
We're also in a very windy place, we haven't lost any Clopf but we did also put a similar product to Gale Break on the fence (which was £800 cheaper at around £200) and this has saved a HUGE amount from leaving the arena....

(the day before we added Clopf)

016-2.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Becareful with Flexiride - It is a recycled product and its quality can not be guarranteed. I put down a flexiride surface last year, whilst the surface rides great now, I was constantly finding pieces of shredded metal coming through to the surface. it took nearly a year to resolve with the company and thankfully I now have a usable school. not an experience I would want anyone else to go through!
 
Pebble Hall fibres are also suppliers of shredded carpet (Clopf equivalent). Polly Taylor has it on her surface (of Little Tiger fame) and we were able to ride in her menage last winter when everyone elses was frozen. And I dont htink you get more exposed than the Ely fens !!

Plus its only about £1000 to do a 20x40.

http://www.pebblehallfibres.com/equestrian/surfaces/testimonials.asp
 
I have flexi ride and we laid it ourselves about a year and a half ago. I certainly havent found any metal in it whatsoever. It is pieces of recycled car interior fo mainly sponge and squares of carpet. I love mine. It gives just the right amount of spring for jumping and is easy to maintain. I only ride two horses on it about 3 times per week but dont harrow it very often at all. It hasnt blown away much apart from the odd bit of sponge here and there.
We laid it just with a chavings fork and wheelbarrow as it came in a big truck load dumped in the centre of the arena.
I went to look at one first but they had all flexi-ride down without sand underneath and I thought it rode too deep. We have 6" sand and 2" flexi ride.
What I like about it is that it doesnt get hot and smelly in the summer like rubber and it doesnt stain white legs!
I found equestrian direct were really helpful and delivered as promised.
Another thing to consider is the cost of a leveller - with the flexi ride you only need a junior harrow on the back of a quad or 4x4, Equestrian Direct sold me one for £200 - a proper leveller is over £1k!!
 
We have flexiride. Chose it as seemed most low maintenace and wanted something that wouldnt freeze.
Was a nightmare when first put in as builders didnt flatten the sand so it was really really deep underneath so we had to scrape off the flexiride again and then flatten it with one of those things builders use that is like a bangy type thing? took forever!!
But now its really good! Rides well, havent experienced hard enough frosts to see if it stops the freezing.
Only negatives are that the wind blows it around so wooden round the bottom to stop it blowing out is a must and raking it from round the edges every week.
Also, when poo picking its so hard not to take half the surface out!
Since we had it put in we haven't had it harrowed at all (had it put in in june) other than raking whats around the edge back onto the track.
 
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