Should I be removing the leaves from my arena?

[Fat_Pony]

Not quite competition related, but since more of you will have your own arena...

i have a nice nice arena with a sand and rubber surface. We moved in very late last winter and the place had been empty for a good few years. The arena is edged on two sides by ancient oak trees - it is lovely, but now my arena is covered in a sea of fallen leaves.

i take as many off as I can, but there is still a layer over the rubber as if I rake any more I'll take the rubber off too. Do I leave them? Or is there some clever way to remove them?

 

[Meowy Catkin]

I rake as many leaves as I can and remove them from the sand school. When I lift the bottom layer by hand, I try to take as little sand as possible. It's time consuming, but I haven't found a better way yet.

 

[kat2290]

Could you use a leaf blower to either blow them all in to one big pile or to suck them up as you go?
Something like this http://www.stihl.co.uk/STIHL-Produc...26/Electric-blower/vacuum-shredder-units.aspx

 

[DuckToller]

I borrowed a leaf blower and it didn't work, annoyingly. The leaves just got stuck in the little dips and where they had been blown by the wind and were all along one side, by the time I had finished they were spread everywhere!

Try using a shavings fork - turn it upside down and 'harpoon' the leaves. It's the only way I've found that gets most of the leaves with very little surface. I stab at the leaves until I have half the fork full, then pull the leaves off the prongs into a wheelbarrow. But I have plastic granules so not sure that would work on rubber. Worth a try?

 

[St Nicnaclaus]

I take as many as I can off as have oaks on one side and birch trees on the other. They don't tend to be over the surface so much as around the sides and in the corners where they get stuck due to kick boards. I use a shavings fork to lift from the sides and a pooper scooper and rake that comes with it to pick off in the main part.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

What have you been using this far?

If you use some type of tractor, have you tried using something like this

Or if you've been doing it by hand with a pitchfork, have you tried using something like this

Or have you used some sort of rake or similar, like e.g.

?

(Photos found through Google image search.)