Very excited!! My new school is ready to use.....

nikicb

nikicb

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Was Surrey, now West Berkshire
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Sorry, very self indulgent, but I'm so happy that my new school is ready to use. Just a little tidying up and all the heavy machinery to leave tomorrow. Can't wait to wave goodbye to them and return to peace and tranquility, and of course lots of schooling. :)

A slide show of the construction process from beginning to end, including lots of puddles in the middle. :D

[video=youtube;SINduRclYMs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SINduRclYMs[/video]
 
How exciting. My husband tied a big red ribbon across the gate to mine when it was done and I cut the ribbon from horseback. A bit of fun but when you've dreamed of having your own arena it's nice to make a special memory out of achieving it. Enjoy!
 
How exciting. Have you ridden on it yet? I was so excited when mine was finished but I then had to wait two weeks for enough rain to bed it in. They hadn't mentioned it to me before hand so I thought I could ride in it straightaway but I guess that depends on the surface. I still get a buzz riding in my own arena after several months. Have fun :0)
 
Thanks everyone, it is amazing and will make a massive difference to my life. Our hacking is non existent (unless I want to face the boy racers on the country lanes for a mile to get to a bridle path and when I get there I can just go to the end and back), and our well draining field means that a lot of the time it is just too hard to ride on (although I'm not complaining as we have pretty much no mud!). So the number of hours I spend driving horses around will greatly reduce. :)

Aspire said:
How exciting. My husband tied a big red ribbon across the gate to mine when it was done and I cut the ribbon from horseback. A bit of fun but when you've dreamed of having your own arena it's nice to make a special memory out of achieving it. Enjoy!
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I'm thinking of having an official opening party in the Spring - any excuse for a knees up. :)

LynH said:
How exciting. Have you ridden on it yet? I was so excited when mine was finished but I then had to wait two weeks for enough rain to bed it in. They hadn't mentioned it to me before hand so I thought I could ride in it straightaway but I guess that depends on the surface. I still get a buzz riding in my own arena after several months. Have fun :0)
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Not yet. My horse has been staying at my instructors for the past 6 weeks as my whole turnout routine has been disrupted with all the building work. He will come back on Tuesday. I took the ponies in today, kind of in hand (short lunge line with me running round a bit). It's pretty deep in places, but only to be expected as it needs to bed down a bit, but in theory I can use it straight away. It's 'light' deep though, not heavy sodden sand. Like powder snow I guess. :)

Tiddlypom said:
How exciting! I still get a thrill out of using my school and it has been down 2 and a half years. It was part of the 25 year plan for the property - and I did indeed wait 25 years to get it.

Enjoy.
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Yep, pretty much a 30 year wait for me, not for the property, but the 'life plan' to have a place in the country with horses at home I made when I left school. I'm not sure my husband knew about that plan when he met me 25 years ago, but little by little it has fallen into place. If you never abandon your dreams, they eventually come true. :)
 
You'll love it. Never regretted a second having mine built. We also did the red ribbon bit and then drank champagne whilst riding round for the first time (in plastic flutes before any elf & safety bods tell me it's dangerous!)
 
Thank you all! :)

Charmin - it is 22m x 42m so I can put my dressage boards down inside. I don't really jump these days, but there is room for my son to do so on his pony. :)

Tiddlypom - in theory I should be able to use it straight away, although it is a little deep at the moment and could do with some rain. I think a fair amount of slowish work on it will help bed it down.

MerrySherryRider - I'd forgotten how many stages we had to go through until it was finished. Glad you enjoyed the slide show. :)
 
It looks fantastic! And a great slide show of the building!

What kind of sand is it that doesn't need bedding down with water? I've never heard of that option before. All my sand arenas took about 6 weeks to bed down with a lot of rain at the time.
 
Booboos said:
It looks fantastic! And a great slide show of the building!

What kind of sand is it that doesn't need bedding down with water? I've never heard of that option before. All my sand arenas took about 6 weeks to bed down with a lot of rain at the time.
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Thanks Booboos. :) It's silica sand mixed with a fibre additive which from the construction company's website.....

"helps bind the sand together and gives a firmer ride. The advantages are it can stabilise loose sand and reduce tracking."

I'm not going to go mad on it, but it's already feeling more stable even after a couple of days.
 
Mine is similar surface and didn't need bedding down either; just don't go mad first few weeks. Mine was power harrowed and then rolled before it was signed off so guess this helped with the 'bedding down'. Enjoy!
 
nikicb said:
Thanks everyone, it is amazing and will make a massive difference to my life. Our hacking is non existent (unless I want to face the boy racers on the country lanes for a mile to get to a bridle path and when I get there I can just go to the end and back), and our well draining field means that a lot of the time it is just too hard to ride on (although I'm not complaining as we have pretty much no mud!). So the number of hours I spend driving horses around will greatly reduce. :)



I'm thinking of having an official opening party in the Spring - any excuse for a knees up. :)



Not yet. My horse has been staying at my instructors for the past 6 weeks as my whole turnout routine has been disrupted with all the building work. He will come back on Tuesday. I took the ponies in today, kind of in hand (short lunge line with me running round a bit). It's pretty deep in places, but only to be expected as it needs to bed down a bit, but in theory I can use it straight away. It's 'light' deep though, not heavy sodden sand. Like powder snow I guess. :)



Yep, pretty much a 30 year wait for me, not for the property, but the 'life plan' to have a place in the country with horses at home I made when I left school. I'm not sure my husband knew about that plan when he met me 25 years ago, but little by little it has fallen into place. If you never abandon your dreams, they eventually come true. :)
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Wow this is my dream plans how long did it take to put down?
 
Looks fantastic - hope you are enjoying it! We finally had one put in at the end of the summer, sounds similar to yours in that it is fibre and sand. Like yours was a little deep to start with but it rides beautifully now and I don't know how we coped with out it for so long now!
 
ktj1891 said:
Wow this is my dream plans how long did it take to put down?
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It was 6 weeks start to finish (after getting planning permission which took around 3 months). But that included a 2 week gap in the middle due to copious rain resulting in several inches of standing water on the site (clay subsoil). So around 4 weeks of work altogether.

TGM said:
Looks fantastic - hope you are enjoying it! We finally had one put in at the end of the summer, sounds similar to yours in that it is fibre and sand. Like yours was a little deep to start with but it rides beautifully now and I don't know how we coped with out it for so long now!
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Thank you - I am. It's amazing, it's already beginning to settle and in the photos below, it looks deep, but it's so soft that it isn't proving a problem to work in.

Booboos said:
I see! My fibre rode a lot firmer, a lot faster than sand alone. Enjoy!
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It really is very soft and fluffy at the moment. Even my uncoordinated, 'heavy of foot' horse is managing fine. :)

And a little update.....

I worked Cam in the school this morning, just a fairly relaxed lunge session to see how he was, and he was fab. Very chilled, in fact rather too chilled, but that's great given it was a new school that had suddenly popped up in his field (he's been away from home during construction).

A few photos.....

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Oh how I am jealous! Looks lovely!
Something we are thinking on doing but is it actually as costly as it looks?
Enjoy your new school!!
 
Wow it looks amazing,great to see it taking shape, i hope you have many years of riding enjoyment in it.
OP are you putting up any small kickboards? A friend had a sand school and without the kickboards on to about a foot the sand blew out of the arena everytime the wind whipped up, possibly the fibre in the mix might eradicate the problem, but just a thought .
 
Luciiee said:
Oh how I am jealous! Looks lovely!
Something we are thinking on doing but is it actually as costly as it looks?
Enjoy your new school!!
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Thank you! It depends what you mean by costly. I'm a strong believer with this sort of thing that you can't cut corners by doing it too cheaply. I know you can self build and save costs that way, but trying to miss out stages and use lesser quality materials is in my opinion not worth it.

mary christmas said:
Wow it looks amazing,great to see it taking shape, i hope you have many years of riding enjoyment in it.
OP are you putting up any small kickboards? A friend had a sand school and without the kickboards on to about a foot the sand blew out of the arena everytime the wind whipped up, possibly the fibre in the mix might eradicate the problem, but just a thought .
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Thanks. :) Thanks for the tip, sorry to hear your friend had problems initially. There are 6 inch kickboards at the bottom. I've used a company whose work I have seen before and they have been around for a while, so hopefully they have got it right. If not, they will be coming back (I will give them no choice!) to put another row above the ones that are there. ;)

olop said:
Wow so jealous!!
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LFD said:
It looks wonderful - very jealous! You'll need to post some photos of your first ride in it!
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Thanks! I have had school envy for years, so I know how you feel. :p
I actually rode in it today, but it was a little tentative - partly as it was the first time, and partly because it was a bit unlevel as it is still bedding down. It's just started chucking it down with rain, so that will help. When I feel more confident I will get some pictures taken and post them. :)

I should add that riding in it today was quite emotional - when you have dreamed of something for years and years and it finally comes true, it can be quite overwhelming. You lot would understand that. Not sure my husband would get why I was blubbing with my instructor. :redface3: :)
 
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Fab. We had ours put in just over two years ago. Sadly we lost my daughters horse the weekend before they started and my girl had to retire that winter too so it didn't get used for the first winter. Couldn't manage without it now as we are on heavy clay. Ours was also part of a plan. I only agreed to move to the property if I had equal or better horse facilities (we were moving for partners business). Enjoy your new arena. It looks lovely.
 
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