Woodchip top up , does it work?

carthorse

carthorse

Well-Known Member
Joined
24 January 2007
Messages
11,554
Location
west mids
s150.photobucket.com
We had a woodchip arena built 7 years ago , it was great for the first 3 years and since then has gone down hill until now . We never ride Rafi in it but hire a good arena once a week and travel. Penfold can manage in it but only when the weather is dry.
I know it needs a top up and a neighbour who uses it free is prepared to pay to top it up but does it work , is that all it needs . It is quite boggy at one end and most of the woodchip [chopped pallets] is now like peat, small chips.
If anyone has revived theirs please give me advice. Thanks
 
In a word - no!

At my old livery yard, we had a woodchip school, which had a top up, but then after about 2 years became boggy, patchy and horrible to ride on, although people did still use it.

However, the surgace was never levelled, harrowed or had anything done to it, so it may well last a bit longer if you treat it properly. The yard I am now at has two massive arenas, both have a sand rubber surface, but not 'dead' rubber, and they are spot on. I don't think they cost too much to install (and we have BSJA shows on them) but they are harrowed, watererd and rolled every day.

JB xx
 
Don't think they will pay as much as a sand one would cost as I think we would have to start from scratch and do the ground work that a sand one needs. Was the school good for two years?
 
i know of a few that they have just given up on , scraped off the woodchip & got a new surface

would your neigbour contribute to that if you paid the rest?
 
Ditto what everyone else has said. Once the woodchip starts biodegrading it turns into boggy, slipper mulch. The only solution is to scrape it off and start again. If you are thinking of woodchip again Ransfords do an equestrian range that lasts a lot longer than the average type.
 
wood fibre is far superior to woodchip so it may be worth scraping remaining wood chip off, or levelling out and topping up with a wood fibre surface. There is cushion ride and easi ride that supply this product (that i know of), we used easiride, the surface has never become boggy, we do keep it level though (with a hand rake, but only gets used a few times a week). They ride over the top of the surface and it is quite springy. Have a look on here http://www.easiride.co.uk/

Oh and this website too as easiride aren't taking on new customers at moment due to demand so worth a look at cushion ride if you are interested (it is exactly the same product) http://www.ukcushion.co.uk/faq.htm
 
It is cushion ride that we have and they did the arena
No chance of us finding the money to contribute anything as completely broke at the moment and have a lot of competition expensto come this month.
 
oh that's interesting, we've not had any trouble with ours at all. But it was solid bed rock with about 12 inch of rolled road plainings on, then the surface. I noticed cushionride have brought out a new surface called green trac which looks/sounds fab, wonder if it is?

hope you find some solution
smile.gif
 
4 years - the only grumble i had with it at first was that it seemed to take a while to "knit" and settle and seemed quite loose in areas, and i do think now it rides better when it's wet than dry (especially for jumping). It's not gone deep at all or soft (it gets used 4-6 times a week, sometimes less), they still ride on the top of it. Just interested to what you used to level it off? And if you did this often or not? Also does/did yours ever get wet/puddley? I sometimes think i should use more than a hand rake to level it, but then it's so well knitted together that i don't want to rake it anymore to loosen it.

They say it should be ready for topping up between 3-5 years, but ours seems fine at the minute, again reluctant to top up as it's compacted so well. Gosh hope it doesn't end up soft and deep (can't afford either to do anything about it!).
 
We made a plank with tyres on it and I used to walk round with it tied to me or used our pony to pull it round , as I said great at first but rubbish now . I just hope a top up will work . Only ride on it every other day with two horses. It never got puddley at first as the rain drained through but as it broke down it started to get very wet, and now doesn't seem to drain at all
 
It was made by Cushionride and they take the topsoil off and level it with road plainings and build it up , then put wood fibre on top. We actually put drainage between the field and arena ourselves so that the field would not drain into the arena. As I said great for first few years but as the wood has changed the surface has become unridable. Just wanted to know if anyone had a top up and how they got on.
 
Ah I'm with you now. We looked at that method but it wouldn't have been suitable for our land as we have very heavy clay. We ended up paying extra to have the drainage, etc, installed and it's been fine so far.
 
FWIW We have a wood chip school - surface provided by a national supplier - very well known. Would never go down the wood chip line again!!

Had it put in 4 years ago.

Was very loose and moved a lot especially when jumping and in corners.

Was told to use for 6months and would be fine.

A year later, still no better.

They sent reps to look at it who agreed it was not the right size and shape of chips - SO

They sent diggers to remove it all (into one of our paddocks in a HUGE pile)

Then sent a new lot on 4 walking-floor lorries!! Dumped that in the school, and then took away the old stuff (well most of it!
mad.gif
).

We had the new stuff spread and compacted with rollers.....

Guess what .....Absolutely no better!!!!!
blush.gif
shocked.gif


Is fine for flatwork with a balanced horse, but no good for jumping/ lungeing etc. It just moves suddenly!!!

And that is three years later!!!

Won't put the name on here, but you can PM me!!

The only really good thing about wood is that it is totally recyclable/biodegradable so if I eventually can afford to put down something else, I can deposit it in the woods, or ask people if they want some for footpaths/to keep weeds down etc!!!

Your silica sand and rubber is going to be a big headache to remove in years to come and could cost a fortune to dump!!!
grin.gif
Silica sand dust is now known to be a toxic health hazard, and you can't dump rubber just anywhere without paying!
shocked.gif
 
Every woodchip arena needs topping up after 2 years as this protects what is underneath. Looking after an arena in this way saves money in the long term. If it's left without an early top up the surface just gets more and more mulched, holds water and that's when you have to start all over again. Have a look at Ransfords, they are the only surfacing company that doesn't supply minced up old pallet wood and other waste wood as all their wood is new so lasts a lot longer. http://www.ransfords.co.uk/equine.htm. Hope this is of help. Mucking out time is looming too fast for my liking (groan!)
 
Our yard had a cushionride menage that worked well for a few years. That is until it turned to a boggy mush and beggered up the drainage.
Whole drainage had to be re-done and a new (different) surface put on.
False economy IMO
 
Have 2 woodchip arenas at my yard, and there brill, really springy & my horse is not balanced & gets on brillently with jumping, schooling & lunging. Its a pretty big yard too so gets ridden on alot! Fab in wet weather to!

It gets harrowed when it needs it & in really wet weather a little trench to drain the top water off
 
I think the answer to the OP is probably not....at least not 100%.
We had wood fibre laid in spring 2006 and by last winter (after 3 monsoon summers) it was like yours:deep and mushy in places.
Ours was very well drained to begin with, and not dug out but built up with layers of hardcore then terram, then the wood fibre. It was brilliant for about 2-3 years: not slippy and the horses travelled on top of it. It didn't get frozen either.
Last spring we dug out the worst areas and replaced the wood fibre. This summer it has been great, but it's been dry...I think the rain of winter will put us back to square one.
Not sure what we will do next! Digging out the worst bits and relaying has worked for us in the shortish term.
 
meardsall_millie said:
Ah I'm with you now. We looked at that method but it wouldn't have been suitable for our land as we have very heavy clay. We ended up paying extra to have the drainage, etc, installed and it's been fine so far.
Click to expand...

Sounds like ours- we have horrible clay soil and put into tons of drainage, so we've had absolutely no problems with bogginess. The only issue we've ever had is when it's frozen over winter, as it gets really slippy (but it's really no worse than riding on most other ground, so we put up with it!).

We've had it for around 8 or 9 years now and never had any problems. We're just about to top it up again atm- the advantage being that the family business is timber/fencing, so we get family rates- we'd struggle to afford it otherwise!
 
We have wood fibre and its fine ( just in the smaller arena) also it didn't freeze in the winter whereas the sand arena did. I think you just have to maintain it. They told us that the droppings must be picked up ASAP as that is what is a big cause of the fibre breaking down.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top