Arena Plan - Have You Done it Like This?

[CupOJavaa]

I have a 100’x200’ grass arena. I have been on this property since July and have since put up fencing and a barn and have had my horse here since April 1st. I am a very dedicated rider with a young, green horse so I ride 6 days a week, weather permitting. So far the grass arena has held up pretty well. I am an eventer by heart so I love natural footing and I am creative with my patterns, never riding the same circle in the same place over and over, so there is only the slightest bit of a sign of tracks in a couple of the corners. Here in Virginia though July and August can be pretty rain-less so I worry about the hard ground. Our winters are also quite wet so I worry about my ability to ride this winter too.

Because I built this place from the ground up I am especially broke. I would love to keep the grass arena for a couple of years but I am prepared that I may have to do something with it before too long. The arena is nice and flat and drains very well. We had a week straight of rain and afterwards I only had to stay off of it a day or two, mostly because I REALLY baby it. I have a neighbor who built his own arena years ago like this (actual text from him):
“I can give you better details later but here is what I did:
I flattened the area out with my tractor and front end loader . Then I brought in rock dust. I put about 4 inches down. Then I brought on sand and mixed it in with a rake and my grader box… that is about it.
Some people don’t like sand but I was not too picky . It worked for me.”
I rode on it during said rainy week when we got a very short break in the rain and it was great! Over grown with grass and a bit compacted but a solid riding surface. So I have been trying to think of how to build mine.

So here is my plan:
Our ground here in central Virginia gets so hard in the summer it is like cement. There are literally cracks in it and you need a pick ax to get through it. Even when it rains a ton if I ride in the arena when it is still wet my horse never punched down into the ground but more slides on the top of it and creates these skid marks. So I thought that I would add 1.5" of blue stone to the top and ride on it and let it weather, maybe all winter, and compact itself down. I got this idea because I have bluestone in my horse’s shelter and outside of it and it is extremely hard and compacted outside of the shelter that no grass will even grow up through it and I rake inside of the shelter every day to keep it loose. After the 1.5" gets good and hard I would add another 1.5" of blue stone and do the same thing - ride on it, let it get good and weathered until it is too hard to ride on. Then I would add 1" of blue stone and 1" of sand on top for the footing, which I would harrow regularly to keep loose. There is a space behind our house where the previous tenants had sand trucked in and a pool placed on top and I went and kicked around it and the sand has settled very nicely right there, it stays firm even in monsoon-like rain.

Has anyone let their base self-compact like this before?

I know all of the specs and proper ways to do this but I am on a very tight budget here. I am just curious about what the other DIY-ers think and have done.

Thanks in advance!

[mmeqcenter]

Yes I know of several people that have let their bases self-settle/compact over about a year.

[mellsmom]

Both my VA farms were manufactured sand over a clay base. You clear the area and let it sit over the winter, then add your sand in the spring just an inch or so and ride on it till it gets sort of worked into the top inch or so, then add more manufactured sand for cushion. I was in Albemarle and Goochland Counties.
Do NOT add a gravel bas, it will just work up into the footing due to freeze thaw cycles.

[BoyleHeightsKid]

@mellsmom

Do NOT add a gravel bas, it will just work up into the footing due to freeze thaw cycles.

I was just going to ask about that, thanks.

[wsmoak]

I’m doing pretty much the same thing here, only with crushed granite or “M10” (which may well be what bluestone is for all I know… use whatever local materials you have, whatever they use to compact road bases. That will be limestone down in Florida, granite here in Georgia, and whatever the local quarry has where you are.)

If you can possibly swing it though, have someone come in and do the initial leveling and spreading. It will only take a couple of hours for someone good with a bulldozer to level it all out for you. Here’s what I ended up with…

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wsmoak/39407934731

If not though, just keep after it with a good, heavy chain harrow and judicious use of a box blade (or even the bottom edge of the front-loader, pulled backwards,) if you know what you’re doing and how to ‘float’ it so that you don’t end up making it more uneven. If not, you’ll learn as you go! And… it’s just dirt, you can always have someone come in and re-arrange it later if it gets too bad.

Good luck!

[mellsmom]

I did not use the bluestone base because it compacts like concrete on the red clay and if you use a round sand on top of that it will roll and be slippery. Depending on where you are in VA I can likely share a name or two for good people to do the leveling. You want a 1-2 percent crown.
Here in Indiana we don’t have clay and I put in a 5" base of limestone screenings…rode it down for about a year, then added no. 32 sand.

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

My two cents: I would absolutely spend the money to get the ground crowned first. Friend just did a 1% crown on a clay pad that was built up a couple feet over ground level (she is in a low area) and wishes she would have done a 1.5-2% crown. Just an FYI.