Who has a manege that has been useable throughout the cold spell?

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lilaclomax

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As the titles says really...

How much snow did you get?
What has the temperatures been like (did they get above freezing)?
What surface has the manege got?
How frozen did it become?
Is it waterlogged now?
 
And to go first :D

We are on the Herts/Beds border, very little snow after the first fall of 3cm.
Temperature below freezing until yesterday morning, then 2-3 degrees, up to 4 now, -1.6 last night.
The surface is fibre sand.
Rock solid until lunchtime today but still not safe to ride on as although top .5cm in softer the sand underneath is still solid and slippy.
Very waterlogged now as drainage is all frozen.
Guessing it will be a few days until it is Ok to walk on :(
 
lilaclomax said:
As the titles says really...

How much snow did you get?
About 2'6''
What has the temperatures been like (did they get above freezing)?
anywhere between -2 and -14C
What surface has the manege got?
sand
How frozen did it become?
Pretty much solid, but I have harrowed and rolled it before the frost, so flat as a pancake
Is it waterlogged now?
Nope, it's still under snow, but no doubt it will be flooded when it melts, IF it melts before the next freeze, that is
Click to expand...

Basically, I just get on with it on top of the snow, the only problem I've had in the last couple of days is getting to the menage itself - the yard is incredibly slippery, so the horses have been confined to barracks yesterday and today.
 
How much snow did you get?
About 4 inches
What has the temperatures been like (did they get above freezing)
As low as -10
What surface has the manege got?
Sand and large rubber crumb (high percentage of rubber)
How frozen did it become?
Not at all
Is it waterlogged now?
Never gets waterlogged

Very happy with my arena...not very happy that i haven't been able to get the horses down there (on hill, yard at top, fields in middle, school at bottom) and then when i could they have been stuck in their stables and need a good few days of hacking before venturing in the school (they are all youngsters ranging between 4 and 6!)
 
I've not even bothered to look at the sand under the snow! I know it will be frozen.... even the stables with that funny sand with like vasaline grease stuff is frozen!
 
How much snow did you get? - up to my knees

What has the temperatures been like (did they get above freezing)? - when i snowed, but we've had temps of -13

What surface has the manege got? - woodchip (out door school)

How frozen did it become? - still is

Is it waterlogged now? - No still covered in snow. :(
 
ours is sand rubber mix and has been frozen until today. Theres a couple of puddles but nothing major.
Weve had couple of inches of snow but freezing temps for days, minus 8, minus 4 in the day for a couple of days.
YO had loads and loads of drains put in when it was built and its def paid off as its never has more than a puddle or 2.
 
As the titles says really...

How much snow did you get?
- hardly any

What has the temperatures been like (did they get above freezing)?
- temps as low as -8 overnight and rarely above freezing in the day. (But today is warmer it's 5 degrees today! horrahh)

What surface has the manege got?
- sand

How frozen did it become?
completely frozen solid, and has been unusable for 3 weeks. It's still like rutted rock and today is the warmest it's been for a while.

Is it waterlogged now?
- it's still frozen
 
lilaclomax said:
As the titles says really...

How much snow did you get?
What has the temperatures been like (did they get above freezing)?
What surface has the manege got?
How frozen did it become?
Is it waterlogged now?
Click to expand...

Bout 15" of snow at its deepest.
Temps as low as -17 overnight, & today is the first day above freezing for ages, has been around -3 during the day usually.
Woodfibre surface, with no bark.
Didnt freeze at all, although i didnt check everyday under the snow!
Snow hasnt melted yet, but dont expected it to become waterlogged as we have masses of drains.
 
lilaclomax said:
As the titles says really...

How much snow did you get?
What has the temperatures been like (did they get above freezing)?
What surface has the manege got?
How frozen did it become?
Is it waterlogged now?
Click to expand...

1. 8 inches

2. -8 to 0 (until yesterday when we reached 4!)

3. Sand

4. Totally rock solid

5. Nope still rock hard!


Our school always drains well, never floods. But the snow melted when it rained, but it was still below freezing when that happened so it's just froze in the sand and it just hasn't been warm enough to thaw it. In fact there are still patches of snow/ice on the sand.

I'm a RI and every school I teach in it frozen. Sadly not just ours.
 
lilaclomax said:
As the titles says really...

How much snow did you get?
What has the temperatures been like (did they get above freezing)?
What surface has the manege got?
How frozen did it become?
Is it waterlogged now?
Click to expand...

Not my arena, but a friend's that we are lucky enough to be able to use.

Got about 8" of snow, but heavy rain on Sunday washed most of it away. Temperatures have been below freezing all week, with thick ice on the water trough, but school has been perfectly useable. It is sand and rubber. Not waterlogged.
 
we've been able to use our the whole time...............


...........as an ice rink :(

the sand/rubber froze solid, then it rained so filled up with water as it was unable to drain through frozedn sand, then froze over again and have a 60x 40m ice rink! Its been SOOOOOO much fun!!!!
 
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We had about 5-6" snow, with temps down to about -8 or worse, yard taps have been frozen up for 2 weeks.

Once the snow had gone, the school was a little crusty on top, but perfectly ok to ride on, and no problems with it being water logged since the snow has thawed.

Its a sand/rubber mix, and has been a life saver through all this unbelievable weather.
 
Thanks, it seems like there is some variation of usebility even with sand or sand/rubber mix...

I am just wondering if there is such a thing as a true all weather surface and what is the best maintainance to do at this time of year to try and keep a useable surface?
 
I think there are other factors that affect useability apart from the surface type. Drainage is an important factor, because if there is a lot of water retained in the surface before the cold hits, then the surface is much more likely to freeze solid. Also aspect - whether the arena gets much sun (therefore thawing more quickly) and whether it is sheltered from the coldest winds.
 
According to an arena contractor I know of there is no such surface as one that won't freeze at all, even waxed ones will!

We had an inch of snow.

Went down to -12 at night and most days was -2 until yesterday when it got to 5C.

Arena is 60 x 40 silica sand and rubber.

Was fine for the first week, didn't freeze at all as it was dry from 10 days of no rain. Then we had snow which melted and soaked the surface making it freeze solid so it's been unusable for last 10 days until yesterday.

Never gets waterlogged thank the lord :)

We're hoping we'll have an indoor with waxed surface in the next year or 2, so once that's up I won't care about it going cold again :p
 
We had about 6" of snow which is now all gone.

Temps as low as -12 but today its about 5.

Last year we had a mixed sand and rubber surface and it froze solid very quickly.

Just before the cold snap we had something very similar to clopf mixed into it and it is really amazing.

The surface no longer rides deep and has not frozen once. Even with the snow and -12 temps we could have scraped the snow off and still used the surface.
 
Ours has been usable the whole time! :cool:

It's big rubber pieces with sand underneath, and the rubber stops the sand from freezing. We had about 10 inches of snow which we scraped off using the bucket on the tractor to make a figure of 8 track to ride on.
 
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