Schooling on Rubber Grass Mats

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VictoriaSue

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Don't shoot me down here people!

We are looking at buying a house with land. There is no school nearby and given the land backs on to houses, PP for a school is super unlikely. Plus my hubbie is already having kittens at the cost of putting up stables ek! I need to be able to school (both ridden and lunge) approx 4 days/wk. Flatwork only.

Given the lack of PP whatever we do needs to be discreet and non permanent. Land is chalk, well drained and on a slight slope. I don't want to trash the grass, and I know it can be pretty darn hard if you kiss the ground (ouchie).

Has anyone ever laid lots of the grass reinforcement mats down and schooled on the top of them? The ones that are honeycomb and allow the grass to grow through? I was thinking I could pins lots together and sprinkle top soil over the top and grass should hopefully come up. I could then pick them up and move them if need be. Hopefully they wouldn't disapear into the ground but worse case scenario could scrape off top soil, membrane, grass mats then top soil back on. I guess it would be trial and error but given they are suitable for playgrounds I hope this could work out. Not cheap mind.

Thoughts???
 
I think they would be quite slippery. I have them down in a gateway and when I let one through for his breakfast he does appear to slip a bit. I wouldn't want to school on them
 
I agree , my first thought is they would be slippery , but I've no experience with them so looking to hear others thoughts.
 
They wouldn't be suitable for schooling on. They would be slippy and don't have much give.
When we haven't had access to a school we have just cordoned off a corner of a field and used it as a paddock to school in
 
Hmmm they are advertised specifically as non slip and I'd hoped once they were integrated into the soil they would provide a bit of give and stability. Absolutely we can school in the field but in summer it's going to get hard as rock..... Any other solutions? Someone had suggested sprinking rubber crumb into the soil over months to provide a bit more spring.

Ps these were the type of mats I was looking at....

http://www.matsgrids.co.uk/rubber-grass-mats/56-rubber-grass-mats.html
 
Yep those are the ones I thought you meant. Too slippy in the wet to ride on. Wouldn't stop the ground being hard in summer I'm afraid.
I was also at a yard that put down rubber crumb without the membrane etc... That was an absolute disaster. Just turned into a rubber swamp in the wet.
 
I managed to get pp for an arena which was semi-rural but backed on to a lane of houses. I just put a lot of thought into its construction, keeping it simple, very kind on the environment (I.e no chopped rubber surface) and had no lights (light pollution) Yes, the neighbours opposed it, but their reasons didn't stand up and the pp sailed through. Did it ourselves and cost about £7k and never flooded. So don't write off an arena as it may be possible :-)
 
We use grass mats in the field - even if they were suitable to ride on (which I don't think they would be - you would struggle to secure all the ends / sides down enough - they only come with ties for each corner - you would find that bits of the edge of the mat would lift up, and if your horse got his hoof caught then this could be dangerous, also if you were trotting and cantering they would move under the horses weight
 
Simply laid on grass I would say not suitable either I'm afraid, they are indeed non slip but there are limits

If you could use them 'properly' I think you'd be ok

That is that you lay them and allow the grass to come through properly so effectively you are riding on grass growing in stabilised soil

The rate at which they settle could be variable though and may result in an uneven surface but if left for enough time and maintained correctly could be ok

It would take a good year of sitting on your hands though

It may be worth looking at some of the big companies such as Solway Recycling that supply bigger areas of similar stuff, scrape away some soil, lay those, soil and seed or turf on top for a more consistent result and as it doesn't involve digging drains you may be ok reference planning

In saying that if you wanted to make a grassed area that was drained I don't expect that would involve planning anyway as you are replacing the area with grass but it goes without saying to phone and ask!
 
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