Small arenas? All opinions welcome.

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Count Oggy

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I'm thinking of building a small arena. The farms around us let us use their fields but are currently too wet or have just been ploughed so can only go out on busy road at the moment. I have a bit of a problem though as our paddocks are odd shaped so this limits the size of the arena I would be able to build, it would come in very short of the ideal 20 x 40. It would only be used for the kids to ride in and pop a couple of cross poles, no jumping big courses. Who out there has built a mini school? How big are they and did you consider it worth it in the long run or a waste of time and money?
 
Our indoor is smaller than 20x40 and is used daily by most liveries. Would be great to have an extra 10 m each way but it was a cow barn initially. Better than nothing and a god send in winter
 
A yard I've been on has a 15x30(ish) indoor and any more than two people riding at once is a nightmare. Could put up a couple of small jumps if you used 6ft poles instead of 12ft otherwise it was quite difficult.
 
Mine is 18x40 and the bigger horses do struggle with the smaller side, but the ponies are fine. I think a pony should well be able to canter a few 15m circles tbh. If I was you I'd make it as big as I possibly could, 15x30 doesnt sound too bad for a pony and you could set up a couple of jumps across the diagonals. If the kids are riding big horses I'd say leave it and spend the money on hiring out an arena every week or so :)
 
Scrooge said:
Mine is 18x40 and the bigger horses do struggle with the smaller side, but the ponies are fine. I think a pony should well be able to canter a few 15m circles tbh. If I was you I'd make it as big as I possibly could, 15x30 doesnt sound too bad for a pony and you could set up a couple of jumps across the diagonals. If the kids are riding big horses I'd say leave it and spend the money on hiring out an arena every week or so :)
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This is what I was thinking. It's only one 13.2 at the moment, but he's nearly outgrown. The youngster was supposed to make 15.2 but is already at 15hh and only rising 2! I might layout a small arena at the riding school and see how I go on a big horse. That makes more sense than doing the same here on our pony. Thanks for your comments.
 
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actually i think its more like 13x25m - I am on same yard as palomino pony - i measured it once but with normal tape measure lol!
 
Ours is roughly 15x30 and slopes steeply! We manage 2 horses in it in it at a time ok and it teaches you good balance.

We can only do 2 jumps at a time though because of the slope (and the surface is rubbish!) but it is fine for schooling. We have some liveries out BE using this (and a field to school in in summer) :)
 
Thanks for your comments everyone. I have some serious thinking and maths to do now, though I must say, pony is at camp at the moment and it's a pleasure to watch him on a good even surface.:)
 
A yard down the road from me has a small school, not sure of the size but definitely a bit short of 20x40. She manages to school and jump fairly big single fences in there but boxes out when she wants to jump a course. She is a fairly successful SJ so it doesn't seem to hold her back :)
 
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