what arena surface to use!?

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ahorseyreality

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Hi. We are looking to put a new layer of surface on our arena as at the moment we have that awful orange builder's sand that turns into mud in the blink of an eye. Probably looking for a fluffy sort of layer which doesn't create puddles and go like mud basically. Needs to be cheep.
Any suggestions/thing to avoid.
Many thanks!
 
Nothing much is cheap but recycled carpet stabilised my rubber/rotting wood fibre mix quite well. And it doesn't need grading, once you have rolled it well, it seems to settle itself. I bought mine from Carpet Gallop before they became Carpet Gallop and they were about half the price of someone else I got a quote from. Nice people to deal with too

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=carpet gallop

DON'T get wood products - mine began to rot as soon as it got wet. I gather some don't but perhaps they have been treated, so won't be cheap.
 
When we bought this place, there was wood bark on both schools, and very old as well. The indoor was horrid the bark over the years and ground down to powder in a lot of places and when you rode round it became so dusty and went down your lungs, despite watering you came out with burning throat and brown moustache. Outdoor to was horrid and mushy and the membrane was coming through and again not pleasant to ride in.

I got samples from many types of surface, from martin Collins but derided on sand and pvc, as it was cost effective and was nice to ride on in another yard I was at. Sand was horrid as the legs came out orange once you came out the school. Chopped up material was way to pricey as was chopped tyres.

It depends on your budget and what your doing in there as if you have high performance horses and can afford I would check out http://www.martincollins.com/. and go for one of the ones with fibre materials blended in but it is not cheap.

the only one I would say no to is sand (if yellow/orange) Silica is not so bad as it is paler and you don't get staining and wood bark for reasoning's I mentioned and also weeds grow well in it
 
I've got sharp sand that came from a local quarry (haulage for silica sand was ridiculous) with carpet fibre on top. It's great. The sand on its own was hopeless (although it didn't ever colour anything!) but with the fibre it is very stable and rides well.
 
NOT fibre sand. It’s awful.

I know there’s lots of different grades/mixes etc, but our experience of this has been terrible. No idea what area you’re in OP but if you want to drop me a pm, I can tell you which company we used (who supplied a terrible surface and appalling customer service 😡 )
 
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