Has anyone ridden in a 20x30 arena?

With the weather as it is I would be grateful for any size!

Honestly, my mother's RS has a small indoor school which is less than that, sufficient for lunging and stretching legs and teaching the children and ponies but IMO if you can build bigger I would.
 
We have a small indoor school on the yard I'm at, approx 15 x 25 (I'm guessing) and its fine for lunging and leg stretching. We do ride in it although its not really big enough for canter work or jumping though with the weather as it is at the moment we are grateful to have it.
 
ride in Portugal :p most arenas are not standard size and will have several horses at a time in them. I've used a 16m x 25m indoor before now and it was fine-lots of transitions. Will have one put in here and it will be 20 x 20m but with a fenced off septic tank hole off centre lol. I have small equines and school on hacks-it will be fine.
 
Place I had a loan pony at had a decent outdoor arena and a tiddly indoor which was useful in foul weather (so quite often up there!). It must have been about 15x20m. It was OK, wouldn't have wanted to do much with a bigger horse in there though if it was regular. I did jump a few times in there but didn't like it that much, pony was a whizz so not much room for manouvering lol. I was riding at approx 13.3.
 
I rode at a yard with a very small school, you could jump a small double down the long side if you were brave. Fine if you have it to yourself but a complete pain if there's someone else in it!
 
We used to work two big horses (16.3 and 17.1) together in a 17 x 35 school. It makes going to do a test in a 20 x 40 very spacious and effortless :)
 
Thanks for replies. It would be for light work with a 17hh. Hopefully at some point would be used for jumping but prob on something much smaller. I'm no pro though so nothing too fancy! Just want something I can ride regularly in.
 
We have a small Indoor school at our yard - I reckon it's about 25 x 18! Isn't great and the surface is quite deep but I use it for turning out in at the moment and occasional schooling. Comes in useful when it's raining though! :)
 
Good point! The one I ride in is about 24 x 45, so it always feels like a bit of a squeeze going into a 20 x 40 - hadn't thought about the size of arena at home making a difference!!
jemima*askin said:
We used to work two big horses (16.3 and 17.1) together in a 17 x 35 school. It makes going to do a test in a 20 x 40 very spacious and effortless :)
Click to expand...
 
Yes, regularly. My stupid spooky horse will regularly only work at one end of the 20 x 60m arena at my livery yard so we rarely cross the B-X-E line to the scary end! There are monsters down there. Not quite the answer you were looking for OP but you can do quite a lot in 20 x 30m
 
Our outdoor is truely tiny, I doubt it is much bigger than about 20m by 10m. However I have managed to do set up 4 jumps and pop round them on Pie who is a very forward whizzy 15.1 medium weight.... It's not easy but it hasn't half made me balance him - and it's done wonders for our jump off!
It does feel cramped but much better than nothing!
 
Can't say that I've ever measured the length of the outdoor school at the share horse's yard but it definitely seems smaller than the 20x40 at my old riding school so it's probably more like 20x30. Perfectly rideable though and you don't feel like you're spinning round in circles all the time. Maybe if you're used to something huge it'd feel small but if it's all you've got, you'll be quite happy!

We do have an indoor but it's in an old cow shed so maybe 15x15? More like a lunging pen really and the surface isn't as good as in the outdoor, so I tend not to use it.
 
Cortez said:
My arena is approx 18m X 35m, it's just fine and I've trained horses up to PSG in there, plus all the other non-normal things we ask them to do. I do also go to other, larger arenas, and ride in the field when it's dry enough, but the small, off size arena is my main workplace.
Click to expand...
Can you jump in it?
 
I've seen a demo of classical riding in Bolsover Castle in this arena, with bleachers at one end for the audience, which is a good bit smaller than the area you are thinking of, Popos.

bolsover-castle-manege.jpg
 
I usually only end up using half of our arena anyway I don't like constantly going around depending on a fence, I actually like schooling in a really big field bit mud can be a pain!
 
I’m going to be devils advocate and say for the first time in my life I have access to a 20m x 40m to school in and I love it! Maybe hire a 20m x 40m and block the extra space off with poles and see how you get on.

I’d be concerned it would be too small for such a large horse but I suppose it depends on his stage of training and what you want to do.
 
ycbm said:
I've seen a demo of classical riding in Bolsover Castle in this arena, with bleachers at one end for the audience, which is a good bit smaller than the area you are thinking of, Popos.

bolsover-castle-manege.jpg
Click to expand...
I’ve just started watching a documentary about clsssical riding featuring Bolsover. It is fairly local to me and would love to go!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top