I thought I would ask the experts - I am over here from the Dressage/event world so bare with me in my question.
We have someone who wants to come here to board and my big question is do reiners need a different type/depth of footing? Will it damage my footing if the top footing is not too deep?
With our arena footing we like it not very deep - about 2" max - thanks for help.
Reiners usually do need a deeper footing. Yours is 2 in max? That really isn’t deep enough when they are sliding and spinning it may tear it up some. It’s been a long time but I believe when I barrel raced we had it 3 or so in for the racers and reiners showing
Reining trainers around here don’t like deep footing, makes the horses work too hard and stick in the footing too much.
Now, cutters, they want deep footing.
I think your footing will be fine, let the ones reining tell you if not, don’t worry…
To me the trick with good footing for the reiners is the base. You need to have a nice solid base that won’t get torn apart and then a bit of fluff on top that is easy to break apart without being sticky. I would think 2" would be plenty for the top if the base is good. Where it would get torn up is if it is lacking a good base.
Usually about 6 inches of hard packed lime dust with about 3 inches of a sand/clay mix on top - 80% sand and about 20% clay. Reining footing is rather difficult to maintain properly and the ends of the arena take a beating.
Reiners are pretty particular about footing. It’s hard to teach a horse to stop hard in poor footing.
While you want good footing at home while training, a good reiner needs to deal with less than ideal footing, or footing that the horse is unfamiliar with. Not every show pen has the same footing you have at home, nor is it maintained properly. Sometimes you just have to deal and hope for the best.
Pretty sure OP is more worried about the health of her footing than if the potential boarder will like it. We board at a hunter/jumper/dressage barn and we are not even allowed to turn our horses out in the rings because a horse playing and running around (roll backs, sliding stops ect) can and do ruin the footing. They get into the base and then its finished. It happened already and they replaced it and put in the no turn out rule. We had a much deeper base than you as well and it still happened. If you do allow this person to board they need to be responsible if they mess it up, perhaps in contract?
OP-What is your base like??
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