Yep. We do use it in our indoor and love it though. I haven’t watered in years. Frankly, even when I was watering it never lasted very long. We do refresh it and spread more every year or two depending on how fast the arena dries out. We just go down to the local Co-op and buy whatever brand they sell.
How much per square foot do you use? It takes me 1 1/2 hrs to hand water our indoor, and I’d love to be able to forego that!
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Our indoor is the size of a large dressage arena. I get maybe 10 bags of mag chloride, hook up the little spreader to the back of my tractor and just start spreading it evenly. It’s very seat of the pants. I might repeat that if it’s still dusty (we have a sand arena). Fantastic.
Thank you. I’m going to check it out for our indoor, which basically has dirt footing that’s 30 years old. Holds up fine as we York rake it once a week. Used to chain drag it, but that wasn’t as effective as York raking. 20 m by 50 m or so, I’ve been watering it once a week unless it’s humid and cloudy all week. So I’ll try the mag chloride, although I think the raking will result in it being less effective.
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Once I spread I rake the arena to work it in. You may have to do that a couple of times, titrate to effect as they say. Well worth it, oh my God, huge difference. Like Wet and Forget on our white vinyl fencing.
Sort of related - has anyone used this product? https://www.chewy.com/arenaclear-hor…trol/dp/247861 Looking for something inexpensive that my barn might pay for. 
I very respectfully disagree with this.
I worked with stoparenadust.com to buy my Mag Flakes and implement a strategy for spreading them. They pointed out that the mag flakes can only absorb moisture if they are exposed to the air where the moisture (humidity) is. Thus, when I add mag flakes, I close the arena for 48 hours so the flakes can do their thing and coat the sand/fiber, without being raked in. I drag the arena, spread the flakes, then wait. This causes the flakes to dissolve and seep down. We do not have even the slightest bit of dust.
You will notice that when you spread Mag Flakes originally, you can see the glint of them on the surface, like a tiny snowfall. By the time the break is over, they are gone and the sand is noticeably wet.
I can tell if I need to add more Mag Flakes if the footing starts to get a bit deep, as the fiber needs a certain % moisture to hold well. So around quarterly, I apply mag on Friday afternoon and close the arena until Sunday afternoon.
while an inconvenience, no one complains as there is zero watering, a consistent footing, and never a bit of dust so it is worth it to all of us!
Try the delayed rake in and see if you get a better effect. Once the 48 hours is over, I go back to raking daily/every other day.
I put down 200 lbs yesterday. By this morning you could see all the water it attracted in spots, but I clearly am going to need a lot more. It looked like a lot when I spread it, but I will add another 200#. One site says you need a whole pallet to get started… I’m having a hard time finding that much in stores, but I have another 400# I can get tomorrow.
So far still super dusty, but we’ll see…
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Work it in and give it a little time. Our relative humidity here is usually pretty high also, don’t know if that is your situation or not, but the mag definitely pulls moisture out of the air.
We built our indoor arena just under 3 years ago and used liquid mag chloride and Arena Clean on the new footing. We have added mag chloride crystals twice since then. Our arena is 80’ x 180’ (1440 sq ft) and we just put down twenty 50 lb bags of mag chloride which has worked out to be just perfect for our sand and rubber footing. We have a tractor with a PTO and a seeder/fertilizer spreader on the back which we load the mag chloride flakes in. The spreading goes super fast and is distributed evenly. If you do this, remember to immediately and thoroughly hose down your tractor and implements though so that they do not rust.
Hello all and thanks for your interest in MAG Flakes for arena dust control and footing conditioning. Our company was the one that pioneered the use of MAG Flakes for dust control in indoor arenas 28 years ago. I’m a stable owner and began using it in my own arena. Over time, that evolved to commercial development of the product for equine arena use. We’ve learned a lot over the years. There are lots of supporters in the equine community and there are a few mis-statements from people who have not used it, but say negative things based “what they heard”.
To dispel a few of the things that are not true:
- MAG Flakes will not cause an indoor arena made of steel to corrode. It can't happen. The product is applied at very low levels to the footing, and unless you are throwing the product on the ceiling and walls, it will never get there as it stays on the ground, in the footing providing just the right amount of moisture to effect dust control. When you water an indoor, the water evaporates and then condenses on the interior of the building. Water can cause corrosion of a building and degradation of the wood sheathing. MAG Flakes hold the water in the footing and it never evaporates.
- MAG Flakes will not cause leg, hoof and frog damage. Calcium chloride can do that and lead to lameness. (We also sell Calcium chloride but not for equine dust use)
- If your horse rolls in footing treated with MAG Flakes, nothing will happen to the horse or coat. Again the amount of MAG in the footing is miniscule relative to the total footing composition.
- We back MAG Flakes for arena use with a lifetime warranty provided you purchase only from an authorized MAG Flakes equine distributor and do everything they say is needed. StopArenaDust.com is an authorized distributor with 20 plus years of experience.
- If you buy MAG from one of the big box stores, most likely you are not only getting the wrong product (Pellet form) but paying 30-40% more than you would pay from an authorized distributor.
We back our distributors and are proud of our success with MAG across all of the US and Europe. Please contact us if you have specific questions. I hope this note helps to allay any fears of using our MAG and thanks to all of you who have echoed your successful use of MAG for years.
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What other products have you used besides Mag flakes? I think my barn used something different when they did it. And when the boarders got sick of the dust I think they got something else even MORE different.
Despite yesterday’s rain, my town has a severe drought related water shortage resulting in a ban for all but necessary indoor use (we do get to water the horses). So I just put down 600 lbs of mag chloride in my otherwise quite crispy indoor ring, which does not count as an indoor for water use. Looking forward to seeing what it does.
