Small outdoor arena minimum size

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pinkypug1

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Hi folks. Have an opportunity while my hubby has some ground work guys in to put in a small outdoor arena/winter turnout area for personal use only. Will be for long reining/ loose schooling & backing my young horses and pottering around on my old girl once a week. Not needed for much jumping so room for 2 jumps be perfect. Genuinely what size minimum could I get away with as want to keep costs down. I have plenty of fields to work in most of the year but an all weather area for winter will be so helpful. Any photos or videos of small arenas be very helpful ☺️
 
A friend of mine has a 30x15 but it is only for lunging and breaking to drive/all weather turnout. I rode a green 5 yo clydesdale in it. Walk and trot were ok, canter was pick up and after about 4 strides we had to hit the breaks.
Another friend has 25x25 as that was all the space she had but she does do quite a few arena hires too.
I have a 20x40 and that feels small for my 17.2 clydesdale but spacious for my 14.2
 
abbijay said:
A friend of mine has a 30x15 but it is only for lunging and breaking to drive/all weather turnout. I rode a green 5 yo clydesdale in it. Walk and trot were ok, canter was pick up and after about 4 strides we had to hit the breaks.
Another friend has 25x25 as that was all the space she had but she does do quite a few arena hires too.
I have a 20x40 and that feels small for my 17.2 clydesdale but spacious for my 14.2
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This is what I was thinking size wise. I’ve only got 15.2-16hh and have an international size indoor & outdoor 10mins drive away. It’s not for daily schooling or jumping literally an all weather contained space to work the horses that’s not wet muddy grass in winter time.
 
Considering your horses size, doing more than 1 jump in anything smaller than 20x40 is an absolute no-go really, unless your horses are schooled to perfection and completely sound.

Although, you’d probably be able to do w/t/c comfortably in a 20x30, as long as the horse isn’t green and unbalanced. Even then, it’s probably a bit optimistic. ETA: Cantering too regularly wouldn’t be the best idea, as it could put strain on the joints.
 
It’s literally for backing young horses and long reining walking around getting them used to start stop turn. I will long rein in it and lunge and pop them over a x pole then they are sold on for new owners to school/produce so not used for schooling, jumping courses etc. my old horses just likes a mooch around and a trot about to keep her entertained over winter when I can’t use the field to ride in. Will prob also be a surfaces turnout area for them mostly
 
Could you peg out an area eg 15 x 15 on grass and then see what it feels like to ride in - does it feel too tight, or plenty of room?

The surface might make a difference too
I have a 20 x 20 woodchip turnout and have never ridden on it as I worry it would be too slippy although they manage fine tearing around on their own
 
pinkypug1 said:
Hi folks. Have an opportunity while my hubby has some ground work guys in to put in a small outdoor arena/winter turnout area for personal use only. Will be for long reining/ loose schooling & backing my young horses and pottering around on my old girl once a week. Not needed for much jumping so room for 2 jumps be perfect. Genuinely what size minimum could I get away with as want to keep costs down. I have plenty of fields to work in most of the year but an all weather area for winter will be so helpful. Any photos or videos of small arenas be very helpful ☺️
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The first arena years ago now was 15 m x 32m, our horses worked very well in there, Inc youngsters to more advanced
 
pinkypug1 said:
Thanks but far too big for what I need and I don’t have the space where I want it to go. When I liveried we had a 20x40 and 30x60 both huge. I just need somewhere to long rein wtc a little and pop a x cross pole or 2 thats all weather
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From experience, if you have anything bigger than 13.2hh, you need 20x40. Well…just for lunging you could have a round pen instead I guess? A friend of mine has 15x30. You can do the odd jump in there in the very middle of the long side or on the diagonal. Not too big though if pony is young. She has 15-16hh horses and she barely ever jumps in there because by the time you have turned the corner, taken off and landed, you’re nearly in the opposite fence. Equally for dressage the pony continuously learns the wrong size of circle so when you get to a competition it makes the whole thing harder.

I backed a couple of ponies in there - 12.2hh and 14.2hh. The 14.2hh decided the corner was too tight when lunging in canter and jumped out. 12.2hh did fine.

If you have no space I would get a round pen instead.
 
The one at my yard is 20x30, it’s perfectly fine for walk trot and canter and a couple of jumps! It’s mainly ponies that use it but it’s fine for ours, we go to arena hires for jumping courses or practicing for dressage tests…but for exercising it’s absolutely fine x
 
maya2008 said:
From experience, if you have anything bigger than 13.2hh, you need 20x40. Well…just for lunging you could have a round pen instead I guess? A friend of mine has 15x30. You can do the odd jump in there in the very middle of the long side or on the diagonal. Not too big though if pony is young. She has 15-16hh horses and she barely ever jumps in there because by the time you have turned the corner, taken off and landed, you’re nearly in the opposite fence. Equally for dressage the pony continuously learns the wrong size of circle so when you get to a competition it makes the whole thing harder.

I backed a couple of ponies in there - 12.2hh and 14.2hh. The 14.2hh decided the corner was too tight when lunging in canter and jumped out. 12.2hh did fine.

If you have no space I would get a round pen instead.
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Thanks for this. Think I’ll put in as big as I can manage. It will be larger than lunge pen. Will be used for turnout too when fields are very wet etc
 
Tiddlypom said:
OP, you still haven’t said just what size area you have available. There’s small, and then there’s tiny…
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I havnt measured it yet. Hubby is putting a load of solar panels into a small paddock beside my stables and when the grounds work guys are in levelling and putting up fencing I thought I would add a bit of extra work for them and make me basic arena/turnout area. Not sure how much space I will have left after panels in but will be enough for an decent turnout and hopefully big enough to do some basic work in too
 
Bobthecob15 said:
The one at my yard is 20x30, it’s perfectly fine for walk trot and canter and a couple of jumps! It’s mainly ponies that use it but it’s fine for ours, we go to arena hires for jumping courses or practicing for dressage tests…but for exercising it’s absolutely fine x
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Thanks so much for this. I think some form of all weather riding area is always better than having none. I also have great arena hire near by if I need it
 
pinkypug1 said:
Thanks so much for this. I think some form of all weather riding area is always better than having none. I also have great arena hire near by if I need it
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Yes exactly! It’s absolutely fine to get them exercised if you need a surface particularly in winter x
 
I had my ponies for years where the indoor was about 12 x 24m and they trained young showjumpers. Everything got well balanced very quickly and were loose schooled over fences in there.
 
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pinkypug1 said:
Thanks so much for this. I think some form of all weather riding area is always better than having none. I also have great arena hire near by if I need it
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My friend with her random bit of ex car park does just fine even though its small and an odd shape. I'd do the same if I could
 
pinkypug1 said:
Hi folks. Have an opportunity while my hubby has some ground work guys in to put in a small outdoor arena/winter turnout area for personal use only. Will be for long reining/ loose schooling & backing my young horses and pottering around on my old girl once a week. Not needed for much jumping so room for 2 jumps be perfect. Genuinely what size minimum could I get away with as want to keep costs down. I have plenty of fields to work in most of the year but an all weather area for winter will be so helpful. Any photos or videos of small arenas be very helpful ☺️
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Mine is 16 meters wide by 42 long. Was done before we moved here.
 
my yard has a 30x10-15, but one long side is curved outwards so the furthest part is 20 metres, it’s bl**dy awful to ride an unbalanced horse in and hell to try and jump in, it’s usable but if you’re going to the trouble of building one i honestly don’t think it’s worth the energy to go smaller than 20x40.

also worth thinking about if you ever plan to sell, most people would have to factor in the cost of making it larger and might prefer to just buy something with a bigger arena!
 
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