Rubber manege surface - tips?

[Miss Tipps]

I've just moved to my own yard and, while I'm still on cloud nine its so great, the only downside is that the surface in the school is recycled rubber. I'm pretty sure the quality is good - the people who put the surface down wouldn't have compromised so I'm not worried about metal etc being present but......we're all black!!

H's socks are all black, my hands are black from lunge line etc., the dog is black (and so is my carpet now

).

I don't hold out much hope but is there anything I can do to make it better?

Thanks guys

 

[MillionDollar]

Sounds like tyres, reason why I steered clear of them, sorry nothing you can do really except replace it.

 

[carthorse]

Oh dear , I have no helpful solutions, my friend had black sand and her horses legs were always black.

 

[Miss Tipps]

Guess we're gonna have to get into black then :-(

 

[Llwyncwn]

Oh dear. Im so pleased I have read this as I am due to resurface and about to order rubber.

Sorry to jump your thread

but any suggestions what I can put on top of sand?

 

[miller]

Haven't got a clue - only to say ours is tyre chips and OH's mare doesn't get black (my lad is black so I wouldn't notice)

 

[kerilli]

Llwyncwn, have a look at the white Turffloat fibre strips that Equestrian Direct do, that's what Matt Ryan has with his sand and it's very nice to ride on, very clean.
OP, the black stuff coming off the rubber is carbon black, nothing you can do about it except teach the dogs not to roll in it, not let kids play in it, and have a very strict "shoes off at the door" policy! putting baby oil on horse's white socks might stop it sticking a bit.

 

[Llwyncwn]

* Llwyncwn, have a look at the white Turffloat fibre strips that Equestrian Direct do, that's what Matt Ryan has with his sand and it's very nice to ride on, very clean. *

Thank you poppet, will have a google

 

[kerilli]

it's lovely stuff, as long as you aren't somewhere mega-windswept (as i am), i think it would all blow away here! friend of mine is having an arena built very soon and has chosen the Turfloat stuff with equisilica sand. if you can push the boat out a bit more, the hydrogel stuff can also be added (Matt Ryan has that too) to stop the sand from drying out.

 

[henryhorn]

I'd second the turfloat strips, we decided they were the only way to stabilise a surface indoors we had and they came out and demo'd how and why they work.
They will mix in well with the rubber.
I also think perhaps you may have too much rubber and not enough sand if you're getting blackened, we don't get any off ours at all.