suggestions for improving school

[dilbert]

I love my yard (its great! lol) however I really wish we had a better school.

The one we have is overun with grass and weeds and a few bushes in the corners, it floods / freezes and where the sand has washed away there are rocks and lumps and bumps. Its also very uneven eg there is a lovely round circle (currenlty looks like a moat ) at one end where repeated lunging has made its mark.

YO is not involved (we are completely DIY), has been promising to "sort it out" for years but its not a priority.

Does anyone have any advice of relatively simple / cheap ways of improving it?

 

[maza]

Wood chip? U can get it for free if u contact wood surgeon type people who take down trees and shred them there often looking for somewhere to dump the stuff??

 

[galaxy]

get out there a weed it. This is the right time of year to do it, in the summer is a loosing battle!

Have you got something to level it? Maybe if you all get out there and do some work on it, your YO may be more inclined to spend some money to top up the sand. But until it is weeded etc there's no point topping it up. Needs to be clear and level underneath.

 

[dilbert]

Cheers

Yep weeding it asap is on my things to do!

Can you put wood chip on top of another surface?

How would I level it out? Also, is there any way of improving the drainage?

Sorry for all the questions !!

 

[Jingleballs]

If you're looking for something to level it with and don't have a harrow then get a pallet, two lead ropes and tie it to a small car and level it that way.

At my old yard we didn't have a harrow and I used to go round it a few times in my micra and then the other liveries would finish it off by just raking the bits I'd missed/couldn't get to by hand - worked a treat!

 

[galaxy]

you don't have a tractor/quad and harrow/chain type thing?

Otherwise do it by hand with a rake to start with. Heard of people using a 4x4 and a wooden pallet before.

Unless there is not a lot of sand down I wouldn't put woodchip on top. Could you presuade the YO to buy you more sand?

 

[dilbert]

I reckon a rake would be the best way to go . Hoping YO will buy more sand or maybe we'll buy it and then bill him hehehe

 

[helencharlie]

Our sand school is in a similar state. We have put good weedkiller on and this has worked. The sand school was built on top of grass in the corner of the field. There is no drainage in the school and like yours regularly floods. To get in through the gate you first have to go through the lake. We use a rake on the surface and this takes about 30 mins to go round and do it properly. But you do have to keep on top of the maintenance. In the summer when it is dry (very few dry days in wales!) it is an excellent surface. Good luck

 

[dilbert]

Thank you

What weedkiller did you use?

 

[MiCsarah]

Moving the surface around by hand is the best way. I find peoples surfaces are always in the corners or in banks around the edge. If you then have enough sand you can put something like shredded carpet in. This can be orders and put down yourself if you have the equipment to do it. But worst thing you can do in a ménage is lunge! If you really want to then you need to walk around aswell so your doing circles everywhere and not just one spot. I do alot of ménage maintenance at work and it takes alot if hard work

 

[much-jittering]

Agree with the above, weed it, and then all get out there and rake the whole thing over properly (shavings forks will do the trick!), break the solid bits up, fluff everything up, flatten the lungeing dent etc - and then once you've done it the maintaining it should just be a case of raking the edges in every week to recover the track and as somebody above suggested, dragging a pallet round or something equally low-tech.

I used to look after a horse kept on a yard with a similar sounding arena, neglected, wet, weedy - the liveries got together and had a work party to sort it out, and then just stuck to maintaining it and it was much, much better without spending any money on it at all. If you've all put the effort in then you'll all be inclined to keep looking after it, and while you're using it too (i.e. not all lunging on the same circle all the time!)

You won't be able to improve the drainage without spending money/making it a big project - BUT as they found on the yard above, if the arena is good to use when it's dry, then you don't mind if you have a couple of days after heavy rain where it's not usable. When it's naff all the time, it's a waste of time it being there.

 

[maza]

Our school was the same, all weeds and stones coming up through the sand I spent ages strimming the grass and weeding and then put the wood chip in bit by bit, it worked really well along with the sand and don't freeze half as much in winter, it's lasted about 4 years needs re done again now!

 

[dilbert]

Thanks all, thats really helpful and makes me feel a bit more optimistic!