Will this work? YO's idea for a school

tonitot

tonitot

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The yard I'm at currently just has a field to ride/lunge in which is very bumpy and now that its coming into winter it's wet and slippery. The YO's idea to make the field into more of a school is to put boards around the outside and put woodchips down. He plans to roll it twice a week and top up the woodchips every 1-2 months. Will this work or is it a stupid idea? :)
 
Hmm....i'd imagine it could get expensive to keep topping it up as woodchip isnt the cheapest! saying that, overall it would be cheaper than the usual! x I would imagine he'd have to mix it with sand or rubber or something though! x Also how many horses would be using it? x I guess that would make a big difference! x

Either way, fingers crossed you get some sort of school! x
 
Sorry I don't mean to be rude but it's a very stupid idea. They end result will be as bumpy as what you have now and the woodchips will biodegrade and turn into mulch but only if they don't get sucked down by the mud first.
 
It might, woodchip can rot down and get terribly deep, but if it is managed and topped up it could be feasible. Is he planning to level the area first? Depends on the drainage, amount of use and the weather as well I guess.
 
Is he is literally just laying woodchip on the existing ground?
Woodchip on a properly prepared area is not ideal at the best of times (slippery and degrades quickly) but laying on soil will just end up in deep, sludgey, slippery mess that will put the horses limbs, ligaments and tendons under severe stress.
In my opinion it would be a complete waste of time and money.
Is there any way he would consider doing it properly? it doesn't have to cost the earth if he does the work himself.
 
I didn't think it was a great idea either. I think he's just planning on putting it on top of the grass and mud so it will probably be rubbish! Apparently at first he was going to put woodchips down as a track around the edge with two circles at each end as "that's all we do" :rolleyes: he's not very horsey. I don't think it will work at all. Not sure how many people would use it, probably about 6 a day, maybe more maybe less.
 
Absolutely won't work! It'll need a hardcore/ stonechip base, drains, probably a membrane and levelling beforehand: don't do it!
 
Will this work? No.

The ground will eventually rise and fall creating the bumps. The surface will eventually mulch into the ground. You need it properly levelling, drainage installed, base layers, hard core, membranes and then the surface.
If he isn't planning on doing things properly, it will be an expensive way to bugger something up.
Sorry for sounding blunt.
 
we have used woodchip in the field before but not for a longtime, we acquired enough free to make a track round the edge of our drain pipe arena ;) and it worked quite well for a while and was well gone by the time we wanted to hay make off that field

I do know someone who has done the same as your YO is suggesting, but they never used it when the ground was wet to keep it as it was.. which kind of defeated the object imo!

I prefer just to move round different bits of our field (depending on grass length) but then it doesn't get a lot of use as there is only two of us.
 
I don't have a surfaced arena, what I have is an acre of flat paddock that has been tilled to within an inch of it's life, harrowed, rolled and harrowed again, and harrowed every couple of days. I actually have a 2 acre paddock as well that is so sandy it is like a beach but because of the location it isn't used much it is in the middle of a forest - mosquito central - not a place you use from May to October, so pretty useless really, such a waste :( The only people that use it are the reiners and the ropers as it is good for stops.

The surface is about 4" deep, it is better than rock hard paddocks to ride on in the summer. Fortunately we don't get much rain so it doesn't get muddy. It is fine for barrel and pole practise and for a bit of training. No-one jumps here. In winter, once we get enough snow (4-6" is a reasonable cushion) after it has frozen it will at least give a safe, level surface to ride on.

That sort of dirt ring only works if it isn't going to get water logged, otherwise it will just be a bog, you have to keep working it. Labour wise it isn't an easy option, cost wise it is as cheap as chips as long as you have the equipment to begin with. Planning wise at least you don't have the council jumping down your throat - it's just a tilled field.
 
My friend, whose husband is a gardener has made a homemade woodchip menage. It's OK for basic schooling, but you wouldn't want to jump on it. However they did prepare the ground, by leveling it, digging drainage, and then having a layer of stones and compressed planings underneath the woodchips. As he's a gardener, he saves all his suitable wood chippings for topping up the school.
 
Having experienced woodchip in the past I would say it was very, very slippery and many accidents occured!!:eek:
 
The YO's at the hell hole where I used to work tried this for "winter turnout paddocks", it was bloody awful! deep and churned up if not frozen into lethal peaks. Unless you've got fab drainage, could be a bit of a disaster I'm afraid.
 
Just wanted to say I'm not offended by any of this, I think it's a pants idea too! Hopefully moving off the yard to one with a school soon anyway, so won't affect me :)
 
I have to disagree - this is pretty much what we've done and it works quite well. Only difference is that we didn't put boards round the edge in the end - we were going to but have found that the wood chip doesn't "escape" so no need.

Our field drains quite well, and we have a 20x40m area that we woodchipped. There are just 3 of us using it, a couple of times a week each, and we don't use it when it's rained loads in order to avoid it breaking down quickly. None of us jump though.

It gets raked by hand every fortnight or so and we weedkill it once a month in the summer. Woodchips get topped when necessary - every couple of months usually.

We also have a lunge pen done with woodchips and that works well too.

I'm not sure that whether this type of arrangement would work if 6 people were using it every day, and we put our woodchip down when the ground was dry, plus it was level to start with. But it can work if it's looked after.
 
I have similar to depurple1. We levelled the ground, put down a membrane and then added 4 inches of woodchip which was lethally slippy and so put in another 4 inches. It is regularly harrowed and rolled and has been in use two years now. It is in use as a turnout area for about 8 months a year and during those months is also ridden on and lunged on.

I have never seen a puddle on it. I ride on it when it's wet as it seems to retain moisture so is never fully dry.

However my new horse has made a mess of it with his antics and I now need to top it up which I hope will return it to what it used to be.
 
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