Soggy field to 'arena' is it possible?!

[silvershadow81]

Bear with me!!
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Background
Having just made the move to 'live the dream' and buy a house with land so horses can be home with us, im starting to panic if it was the right move!!

Yes, its been (well still is!) an awful winter. The flat, grass 'arena' the house came with I daren't ride my youngster in, as just her walking across it, ploughs it up, so my veteran goes in there to nibble & leg stretch.

As I am used to riding more or less every day, im starting to feel like im going stir crazy. Im now spending around £50-70 per week in hiring a local arena, so I can ride a couple of times a week. The hacking is non-existent as the bridleway I was told about goes no-where

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So, I wanted to know what peoples experiences are of making a field rideable?

Im all for chucking a surface on it so I can just crack on and ride (plus I would need a loan to build a proper arena!) but other half said I should look at how to get it done properly....

So area is on peat, it has had water sat in two small places when we have had really bad rain.
It is level and flat
It has a ditch at one end

can you just build up on this (lay stone and compact it down then build up) or would it need drainage doing

it would only be used by me and to have the odd jump. Im not after an Olympic surface, if it freezes, then It freezes, if I get a little puddle in it, I wouldn't care, I just need to be able to get on and have a decent ride and not slip over in mud

Would throwing stone on top of the grass require PP? (Neighbour has just been granted PP so I don't think it would be an issue, im just thinking timescales!)

Has anyone done this, and what was the outcome? How much did it cost? I am happy to try and get a loan to get something in place (im already spending £3-400/month hiring arenas and I guess ultimately it would add value to the property??)

am I mad, is it possible, or should I not look to cut corners?

 

[whiteflower]

Put in a planning application and build an arena properly with drainage that you can use all year. Trying to do it cheaply often ends up a false economy. Some of the arena companies will help with the planning process. Summers coming (supposedly) so that gives you the drier ground to ride on whilst you get things in place for next winter.
Good luck on your new adventure, once you have been there a few years, know the lay of the land and have things sorted to work for you, you won't look back.

 

[Notimetoride]

I had a boggy part of a field which was useless for grazing so we built an arena on it. (On top of the ground). Scraped off the top soil to make banks down each side and filled it full of rubble. Then stone, then surface (obv there was a little more to it than this). We had to get pp for it. As it was build above ground it absolutely never flooded. I would certainly do it this way again.

 

[Asha]

We used our worst paddock to make an arena . It was horrendous, the mud would be knee deep. The grass was scraped off, and the area built up to be level . Drains added, then stone etc. The drains run into the ditch at the end. Never had a problem. Just use a good land drainage company. Oh and definitely get pp.

 

[Equi]

If you want an arena, do it right the first time. Its not an arena, but the bottom of my field use to flood awfully, like half the field would be water some days and it would then go over the road too making a huge flood zone. We (maybe not correctly) started gather loads of **** from construction sites etc and basically filled the area with it and then put a thick layer of soil on it...never flooded since and the road doesnt flood anymore either. The soil can be a bit boggy, so its no use for anything and the horses tend to avoid it a bit but in dry weather its fine and they love it more cause its usually the "ungrazed" area. My point being, good drainage is the key to anything.

 

[brighteyes]

Start by draining it? Maybe you could make an 'infinity arena' with no fencing, just retaining boards. Draining an area shouldn't need pp., and you can decide the extent of it.