What Surface to Put on Top of an Existing Sand School?

MrsMozartletoe

MrsMozartletoe

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I ask on behalf of one of my YOs :D

She has a school, self built (her hubby is a builder).

It's hardcore, then ash, then sand.

Currently drains very well indeed.

YO wants to put something on the top as the sand blows about and it's been down for about ten years, so she thinks it needs something doing with it, but does not want to have it all dug up.

It rides a bit deep in places, but that's mainly off the normal tracks, so we just stay off them for now.

I've suggested the rubber strips, but wondered if you guys knew of anything else that would be a good option.


As a reward, I can do you *roots in desk drawers* one sticky toffee, only slightly covered in fluff; two pence; five cents; and a stapler.

:D :D :D
 
if it's very windy where you are, beware certain types of rubber. at least half of the (very expensive) rubber on my arena is now spread over the surrounding countryside. argh. last night i saw some pics of it when it was first down and got a real shock, i'd forgotten it had a proper covering at first. (same rubber was put down at my last yard and never moved an inch.)
so, go for heavy pieces of rubber if it's windswept... wish i had!
or, fibres are the new thing, i'm waiting for a sample and will let you know how it goes. i think they have to be carefully rotavated in (or similar) but they bind it all together... but, a good rubber covering will insulate against frost and keep moisture in in droughts, which is invaluable imho.
 
Ours used to be sand, and we've now mixed it with rubber. Does get deep in places and a bit dusty in summer. Last week we had the person who built it in originally and bought a digger and moved the surface around and evened it out again.
 
Thank you kindly folks :D. No idea how you're going to share the stapler... :cool::rolleyes::D

I'll tell her to get a copy of Your Horse :D

Where does one get the rubber from? It can get windy up there, but there is a fair bit of shelter. Will suggest it and see what she thinks :D. How heavy is heavy rubber...?
 
MrsMozart said:
Thank you kindly folks :D. No idea how you're going to share the stapler... :cool::rolleyes::D

I'll tell her to get a copy of Your Horse :D

Where does one get the rubber from? It can get windy up there, but there is a fair bit of shelter. Will suggest it and see what she thinks :D. How heavy is heavy rubber...?
Click to expand...

i think of heavy rubber as being solid lumps (made of aviation tyres or car tyres, i think) which would drop to the floor if thrown in the air on a windy day... the rubber i have is lightweight flat soft pieces which get picked up by the wind... gggrrrrr.
 
I'm currently looking for a top up for our arena too.

We have silica sand and rubber at the moment but a lot of the rubber has blown away. I'm thinking of having Parkways Rubber Fibre which is what Prince33Sparkle has on hers.

I was undecided whether to go for Fibre or Rubber. Problem with fibre is that the surface must be kept damp otherwise it won't knit the surface together. Where my arena still has a lot of rubber on top, such as the corners, it rides fab so I'm hoping a rubber top up is the answer.

We are putting Galebreak all around our arena fence to stop us losing any this time ;)
 
We've just bought Clopf (fibre) to add to our sand surface which rides too deep. As far as I could see when I researched this fibre is the only thing that helps deep surfaces. Rubber may solve your blowing away problem (we had sand and rubber chips not strips in Shrops in horrific winds and they never moved), but they won't solve the too deep problem. If anything as the horse's hoof goes in too deep in the sand in some places, the holes will unevenly fill up with rubber causing an overall unstable surface (I think!).

However:
- have a look at the how to add Clopf DVD before you buy. It's sold as a DIY product but really it's DIY if you happen to have 3-4 handy blokes around and a serious amount of agricultural machinery (roller, rotivator, spreader, a specialist harrow/roller) sitting around doing nothing. If you need to rent all that, the cost goes up.
- Clopf will blow away in windy areas unless kept watered so you might be back where you started with the wind situation. We need to water all the time anyway so it doesn't add to the costs (also in a windy area now!).
- Clopf may come up to the surface again and need rotivating in again. You will also need a decent leveller designed for fibre surfaces.
 
Right, I'm having the stapler please (or even just the staples as mine has just run out).:D

I have just topped up my silica sand surface, after much research and debate! My arena has always drained very well, and the original surface was down 8 years without too much maintenance or bother, but recently bits of membrane had started to appear occasionally, and on dipping the whole surface it was interesting how the depths differed in various places.

We considered topping up with sand and then harrowing in fibre, but:

The sand would come from one supplier and cost £x and the fibre would come from another supplier and cost £y plus the hire of the equipment and labour to lay it.

A friend who added fibre to her sand surface has an arena that looks like a litter of puppies has destroyed a mattress on it :confused:

In any areas which were shallow and which had not had enough extra sand on top ran the risk of the harrows lifting the membrane and a potential disaster arising :(

So, we added approximately 2" all over of a sand/rubber/fibre mix for the same money as buying and laying the fibre (and not counting the extra sand). It took 3 of us (one on the tractor/bucket and 2 girlies with rakes) about 7 hours over 3 days to lay the surface, and it was perfect to ride on after one harrow and roll. It's been down several weeks now and the horses love it, we all love it, and I wish I'd done it ages ago (kept putting it off).

The gale break is a good idea. We have close boarded fencing all round which does the same job and is a necessity up here on our windy hill!

Do I get a staple?:D
 
The puppies shredding mattress is true, my old yard had fibre on her indoor school and we watered it once a day and it still was awful, we still got deep bits and the none deep bits were solid with fibre so got a nasty uneven surface.

Another yard got shredded plastic beady things which were brilliant though not sure about the wind!

Yard I am currently on is sand and rubber and is very good, no blowing away, even surface.
:)
 
Earlier this year we had rubber (chopped tyres) but on the top of our sand school. The school before did get deep in placed when jumping etc and froze very easily.

So far it has been fab. A far better (less dead) surface to work on, less dusty and did not freeze. As I say so far we love it but it has only been down 5 months.

We have it levelled once a week, that seem pretty essential as the rubber need "putting back" on the tracks as such.
 
When i was at Austins last year i helped put down shredded carpet that almost acted as fibre. It just came in big bales, and yes was a mamouth task to spread out, but now rides really well :)
 
Interesting post. We are on top of a hill - views to die for but a tad windy in winter. We too have a disappearing sand school.

In Scotland we had rubber on top of sand which never moved but I have not seen chopped rubber for sale here. The Cadre Noir have sand and fibre on their external arenas which looks interesting but is I think expensive.

At both Cadre Noir and Lion D'Angers they have box hedging around sand arenas. Hubby isn't keen on planting that lot though!!! So we have just put a ring of large bay haylage around to protect from the prevaling wind as we won't use it till December that will protect from the autumn storms.
 
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