I’m very fortunate to have 300 acres a stone’s throw away from our house to trail ride on, so we won’t be drilling in the arena constantly. But that’s a very good point about the circles!
Thanks everyone for the feedback! I’m pretty sure I can get at least another 20ft out of it. There’s a very scraggly and overgrown tree line separating the arena space from their dry lot. Part of the $1k quote was to clear and level the tree line, leaving the mature trees but removing all the misc overgrown foliage. I’m pretty sure that with the tree line cleaned up it will be at least 120ft long. If not then I can extend it into their dry lot a bit.
Without removing the tree line, here’s how things will be set up:
I feel bad removing the tree line because of the potential loss of wildlife habitat/ food etc. I also like it as a wind break and a visual barrier for the dry lot. But calling it a tree line is really generous honestly, and as I’ve said we’re leaving the handful of mature tree lines. Any suggestions?
Seeing it drawn out, would it still be recommended to leave the arena unfenced? Or fence it in as part of pasture #1? I’m hesitant to do that because we will be putting sand down as a basic footing and I’d like to keep it contained.
Remind me why you can’t go “east” in your picture? Or put the long side the other way?
Looking back at what you want to do in it - maybe? I could w/t/c and do cavalettis in that size space for sure. I think if you have other places to ride so you’re not always in the small space that would help. I guess you could probably have a jump or two but if I’m only using part of my ring it’s often because I am on bird brains and jumping is not in the cards already 
It almost certainly feels less claustrophobic if I’m really only using a portion of my ring than if it were fenced to that size, so I can why no fence could make it feel bigger too. I ride enough bird brains that I find a fence useful 
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There’s a bank on the east side that I don’t want to mess with. Going “south” and putting it long ways would mean removing 50yr old+ trees, and it’s actually narrower going long ways
With that bank there, your arena may flood after even minimal rainfall. Any other place it could go?
Did I miss where the OP said which way the bank went?
If the OP is doing grading a swale can be added if the bank goes up from their ring. If the bank goes down from the ring it is not an issue.
I will say it again, more is always better for riding, but this amount of room will work fine for basic WTC and basic jumping.
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You’re right, I assumed! And even still, I would use that away slope to grade the arena long-ways and switch it to run the other way. A 20m circle is 65 feet. Incorporate the trees into the arena if they’re big and stately.
That’s just my 0.02! The arena as you have it planned will be fine. I’d put it in and enjoy it for awhile and then make it in the 5 year plan to expand it. Make sure to grade it long ways. Crowning is too hard to maintain, and grading to a short side is not wise (moving footing, taking footing out of the arena, etc).
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Thank you! Lots of things already in the five year plan, what’s an arena expansion on top of it 
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Your property is very pretty.
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New question for the thread. We don’t have a tractor and I would be really surprised if we got one within the next three years. My coming 5yo mare ground drives like a champ and I’m about to start working on dragging tires with her.
So, if a person has no tractor to drag their arena, but a horse that’s good-minded and experienced enough to pull things… is it a stretch to imagine training my mare to pull something to drag the arena with?
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Nope, I used to do that all the time with my Old Man. Make sure it isn’t obnoxiously heavy.
Note: A drag able to be pulled by a horse will just knock the high spots into the low spots. It won’t be able to really engage the ground.
Do you have anything that’s 4wd? I drug an arena for quite some time with a Jeep Renegade.
Thank you so much. I feel truly blessed. Having my horses at home has been my #1 life goal since I was a little girl. As I was growing up, I used to spend hours and hours drawing the layouts and blueprints for my barn and property. And now I have a place to actually build the property I’ve been dreaming of!!
It’s a modest 6 acres and was in desperate need of TLC when we bought it. We’ve done a lot of work already but there’s so much more to go. But when I look outside our windows and see the horses playing, or brush them in our big beautiful old barn, or putz around and hack on my mare, nothing else matters!
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We have an F150 but I wouldn’t describe it as particularly nimble enough to navigate the space, but maybe if I don’t fence it in it won’t matter?
What did you use to drag the arena with your horse?
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Do you have a riding lawnmower or an ATV?
There is a whole horse owner market for smaller equipment that can be pulled by a lawn tractor or an ATV for those who do not have a tractor but have horses at home.
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A baseball field drag mat. I also would use a pole before we had the drag mat.
Anything with tines or even mild ground engagement is going to end up too heavy once the sand accumulates on it. Even the ballfield drag would, when the sand was wet.
I don’t know the exact dimensions, but I leased a horse that had a very small indoor, and I imagine it being pretty close to your 100X75. It was REALLY small. Yes you could canter, but not having a very long long side felt like round pen riding. It was better than nothing, but left a LOT to be desired.
I have an 80 x 80 indoor arena. I was hosting a clinic during torrential rain and my MUCH LARGER outdoor was unusable. The clinician had a course of 4 fences, all jumped from the canter, and held lessons with up to 3 people AND spectators in the corners. I wouldn’t want to do it all the time, but nobody wanted to cancel as none of them had anything better at home and we went for almost 12 hours. It was fine.
Before that I had a 60 x 120 indoor. I certainly wouldn’t want to jump big but you could set 6 fences up in it jumped in both directions.
Anything narrow than 60 you’ll have trouble cantering.
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I used to use a 2500 to drag my 80 X 80 indoor. It worked. You can’t get deep into the corners. Well you can, but you’ll eventually get stuck and spend 20 minutes getting unstuck because the drag jackknifed.
Now I have an ATV and it is much easier, although oddly I did just get stuck in my 100 x 200 arena trying to get IT deep in the corner so maybe it’s user error.
I have a baseball arena drag mat and found it worthless as it doesn’t tear up packed footing, it just flattens things out.
If you want it bad enough, you’ll figure it out. It took us years to make equipment improvements.
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