Question for those with woodchip arenas

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jaysh

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I have just had a woodchip arena put in (only surface i could afford sadly!) and my horses are losing their back legs cantering around the corners. Its 19.5M x 35m.

I darent canter in there now and i only had it in a week. Did you have yours rolled? mine has been put in and raked so its quite loose and its about 6 or 7" deep. Its all dry and its sitting on a very dry drained place.
 
It will settle and ur horses will adjust. I can jump mine on any surface now and on wet days am often the only one at a show not losing a back leg!
 
Knobberpony used to slip going around corners,but soon got used to it and doesn't now.We haven't rolled it,but it has been down for a few years now.
 
Its quite disheartening, i was so excited about it and all my horses from youngsters to my older ones have slipped in canter this week. Maybe once its been rolled and rained on it will help.
My mother used to have one but that didnt get slippy for acouple of years until the wood started rotting underneath. I was hoping this would last me for a couple of years until i could afford something better.
 
I had to treat my woodcip arena with a great deal of respect. Lunging was a bit hair raising at times, with my horse slipping right over once. He lost his confidence on the surface and used to get in a right panic. All i can say is be very careful and dont go tearing about in there. Wood chip surfaces are a very good compromise, and mine never flooded or froze. But I just had to be extremely careful.
 
is it woodchip or a "designed for purpose" wood ? mine is cushionride and it was too loose for about the first month and then settled. Had it 3 years and its brilliant - I lunge on it, canter on it and when I turn them out on it my chap actually gallops down long side - I also loose jump him on it (good 1m height)

The only horse whoever really slipped was unshod and in the first few weeks of putting it down.

I would turn them out loose on it to get them used to it and make sure you compact it - if you dont have a roller then even driving round it may help. I grade every week without fail. Bit of rain will def. help too.
 
its just woodchip, my partner says he will roll it to see if that helps, whats really annoying is that i was riding & lunging in it empty before the woodchip arrived and it was great! Hopefully it will settle and compact down soon, if not it will be a no canter area!
 
I love ours, it has been down neary 2 years now and canter, jump lunge etc with no problems but we were advised when it first went down not to jump or do fast work until it had settled a bit as it would be slippy. Once it's been dampened down and you've ridden on it for a while it's forms quite a compact base layer with just a thin loose layer on top. We harrow ours quite regularly to keep the top of the surface fluffy but with out digging up the base layer. You'll enjoy it eventually I promise
 
Its quite deep, im not sure what depth they are meant to be, but i think we ended up having 2 load too many and its definetly loose! I wont do any more canter work in it until it settles.

Thanks middlebank, that gives me hope! Lets hope i get some rain here in wales now!
 
and that is why you should always get seasoned wood rather than virgin wood for your surface....all about moisture contents
 
I have one at the yard we are at. Hattie does slip in it and she is not as forward in it as she is in other schools where they have the Martin Collins sand or shredded rubber but she is slowly getting used to it. It does help when it's been freshly rolled though.
 
My old yard had woodchip, we used to find one half *(the sheltered dark half) was like a bog all winter, and the whole menage was slippy as hell in the summer, 5 horses slipped over on their sides whist either being ridden or lunged last summer!! needless to say everyone was very careful in there!!
 
wispa said:
and that is why you should always get seasoned wood rather than virgin wood for your surface....all about moisture contents
Click to expand...

Agree with the above, I had one arena done with wood chip because my local planners had an environmental objection to rubber, it took about six months to settle and proved difficult to keep really level, it does have to get wet before it starts to bind together and does eventually make a reasonable surface for flat work, never liked jumping on it and if I'm honest I would never do another one with that surface, but it will improve with time, don't worry about having too much surface it will settle, they all look like that to begin with.
 
I have to say I got rid of mine. It was down 2yrs when I bought the place and I tried to put up with it for a further year before I'd finally had enough. Horses slipping all over the place, even in trot, back ends going from under them. Utter nightmare. Eventually I was too worried about them falling and stopped riding on it. No amount of rolling, harrowing etc made any difference. Sorry OP but I would NEVER have wood chip again!
 
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