Arena kick board question

[btswass]

I’ve searched and read as much as I can find but still not sure what to do. My outdoor arena is getting built next week now that we’ll finally have a week of no rain. Its small only 60x120 and a 3’ incline along the long side. The guy is going to cut and fill so the arena will be built up above the ground with a nice gradual slope on the edges so rain water will easily drain out.

Question is if I need a kick board to keep the sand from washing away. I keep reading conflicting information that putting in a kick board will prevent water from draining and I definitely don’t want that to happen.

I’m also a little worried about riding too close to the edge of the arena. I was going to put a fence on the outside of the ring to keep my horses from getting into it (as it will be built in one of their paddocks) but now I’m thinking maybe it would be better to put the fencing in the arena so I won’t ride too close to the edge.

Will pounding t posts into the arena ruin it? Yes or no to a kick board?

I’ve had a hard time finding any pictures of arenas being built above ground level but this area can get really wet and would become a swamp if we didn’t build it up.

[mellsmom]

I found used railroad ties and used them along the edge of my arena. They helped with the wash issue. Also, any area that you build up will settle. If you have the option of building the arena and letting the base settle before you add the top footing, that would help you in the long run as you may need to rework it a bit after the winter

[ToTheNines]

In an outdoor arena, you will hear them referred to as “footboards”. I have a fence around my arena. The posts are 4x4’s on about 8’ centers. The footboards are 2x6"s attached to the inside of the 4x4’s. As is the fence rail. That is standard practice… you do not want your knees or horses’ hooves to be knocking into fence posts.

Here is what I did, and my thoughts.

My arena is not crowned. The entire arena is graded so that one long side is lower than the other. The grade is about 1%. The low long side is very level.

I put in most of my base, then the fence posts and the footboards. Then more base, then my footing. At present, the footboards are about 3" above the top of the footing.

When it rains, water collects evenly along the entire low long side. It hits the footboards and stays until it reaches the top of the footboards. Then, it spills over the top of the footboards. If I had it to do all over again, I would set the footboards so that they were not as high over the surface of the footing. Then not as much water would collect before it spills. If needed, I could then add a second footboard with a space between the lower one.

I wouldn’t mind my footboards being a bit lower down into the base either. After my first few very hard rains (Hurricane Harvey) I had a bit of tunneling under the footboards, which I solved by piling granite gravel against the footboards on the outside of the arena.

I tried drilling holes in the footboards, but I made them too small. I might revisit this, and make them bigger, but the thing I like about my footboards is that water spills so evenly over the top along the whole low long side.

[Lucassb]

My arena is raised with the same kind of gentle slope you describe. It is a fiber/sand mix over M10, crowned to improve drainage. When it was originally installed, I was told not to install footboards because it would impair the drainage. Then we had a pretty heavy rain and the water drained off in several spots… taking a bunch of my $$$$ footing with it. Given I had just invested over fifty grand in that arena, I was not happy, to say the least. I had my fencing guy install footboards, which we then backfilled (on the outside) with 57 stone (small rocks, basically.) It works beautifully and my arena is rideable the day after even heavy storms.

You can see a picture at the top of my blog (where I also chronicled the construction process) https://hedgerow-farm.com/

[btswass]

@Lucassb

My arena is raised with the same kind of gentle slope you describe. It is a fiber/sand mix over M10, crowned to improve drainage. When it was originally installed, I was told not to install footboards because it would impair the drainage. Then we had a pretty heavy rain and the water drained off in several spots… taking a bunch of my $$$$ footing with it. Given I had just invested over fifty grand in that arena, I was not happy, to say the least. I had my fencing guy install footboards, which we then backfilled (on the outside) with 57 stone (small rocks, basically.) It works beautifully and my arena is rideable the day after even heavy storms.

You can see a picture at the top of my blog (where I also chronicled the construction process) https://hedgerow-farm.com/

What a beautiful farm you have! I couldn’t tell in the picture did you install the footboards all the way around or just on the sloped side?

[CHT]

We did a fairly economical arena, and we did not put kick boards around the arena. We do loose some sand in strong rains, but I theorize that it is the light/worn out sand that we are losing mostly, so maybe not a bad thing. (I don’t know if that is true, but makes me feel better). There is a bit of a grass border that seems to contain footing for the most part.

I would only really worry about loosing large amounts of footing if I had a fabric or rubber crumb type footing.

For fencing, we just have one rail along the top of wood posts. The rails are built in a couple inches. The top of the fence post is flush with the board. I would not want the rail on the outside as I am sure people would lose knees on the posts.

[Lucassb]

@btswass

What a beautiful farm you have! I couldn’t tell in the picture did you install the footboards all the way around or just on the sloped side?

Thank you! It is definitely still a work in progress, but we love it. The footboards go all the way around the arena; the only gap is where you see the little “bridge” at the entrance to the ring. The bridge into the arena is sloped up a bit so we don’t lose anything there even in severe storms; there is a pipe drain below it to carry water underneath the arena entrance and toward a landscaped area where it waters the plants

[btswass]

So I was thinking this morning of the possibility of doing a geo textile fabric at the bottom of the fence which would keep the footing in but still allow for some drainage of water at least more so than wood. I’m not sure if it would work but I think its at least worth looking into. I just paid the down payment today and the work officially begins tomorrow! I haven’t been able to ride my horse since the end of september and I’m so looking forward to getting back on!

[LockeMeadows]

We have a large Dressage ring that is 66’ x 197’ and have kickboards all the way around. Our main ring is 200’ x 350’. We also have kickboards around it.