Arena rock removal

[appendix100]

Looking for someone that can remove rocks from a riding arena in Colorado. The arena is 190’ x245’, so too big a job to do by hand. Ideally would like to find someone w/ a beach cleaner or something similar, but obviously this is not the prime area of the country for that type of equipment. It is the standard small stones up to about fist sized that eventually seem to migrate up from the base over the years.

None of the golf courses locally have the needed equipment, or interest in hiring out. Can’t think of any other places to ask. Have contacted a few landscape companies, so far no luck, they don’t seem to have the needed equipment either.

Any ideas on where to look, or some way to do it that won’t take a year or a small army of children (which I don’t have access to). The beach cleaning machines are out of my price range - so far starting at about $13K & going up from there (not including freight).

Getting desperate. Started looking last year, haven’t been able to find anyone & the problem is getting progressively worse. Don’t want to end up w/ an arena that is completely unusable, but we are heading that way…

[Libera]

Same problem here. I was able to borrow a harley rake, but that’s not ideal either… we are planning on adding a layer of crushed rock and put footing on top of that. That way the rocks cannot penetrate the base

[appendix100]

A full arena rework isn’t an option for me unfortunately. have looked at york rakes, if I could even get the things into winrows & pick them up from there it would help but I can’t tell if that rake would really work & I can’t find anywhere close that rents them for me to try it. If it worked it would be a reasonably affordable option.

Honestly I would be thrilled to get someone out to get rid of the rocks now, then try & maintain w/ something like a york. We got behind on maintenance because of some family issues, & now it is unmanageable for us. If I could get caught back up, I think we’d be able to maintain from there…

[Equkelly]

I also live in Colorado and I don’t know anyone with a beach cleaner out here. There are plenty of companies that work on rehabbing arenas though… I always see ads for them in the tack shops and I’ll keep an eye out for you. I know you said it’s too big of an area to do by hand but maybe if you do a little bit at a time over weeks or months it might work. I’d put an ad on craigslist and pay someone 20 bucks for every wheelbarrow of rocks they pull out of there. (I guess it depends on the size of the wheelbarrow and how far away they need to dump the rocks for what’s fair.) I would even section off the arena in 10 foot stretches so you can keep track of what parts are “cleared”. There’s just so many people out of work right now and I think people would jump at something like this for extra cash.

[Bluey]

The fellow that prepared our arena base initially was supposed to move some gravel clear out and put only clean dirt.
He cheated, took some gravel out, then buried the rest with nice packed dirt.
When the gravel started showing up, he was sick and said he come fix it when well, but then died.
We tried all sorts of ways, even had once a line of people picking rocks as they walked along, but more kept showing up.
We built our own rock picking bucket for our tractor that picked many, but there were more where those came from:

https://www.skidsteersolutions.com/6…SABEgJyUvD_BwE

https://www.spartanequipment.com/products/skid-steer-rock-screening-bucket-attachment-80-wide-with-bolt-on-edge.html

You are right, it was very costly to have someone take all the arena dirt out and replace it with good, clean dirt, pack it all again and then add sand for the footing.

They did a great job, it has been wonderful since, no more rock picking.

I don’t think that any you do, even beach screening rakes, will get rid of other but the ones on top.
Those below will keep coming up forever.

[Simkie]

I’ve read–but not confirmed!–that a potato harvester makes quick work of getting rid of rocks. Maybe you can find someone with that piece?

[appendix100]

We had a nice clay base & ~4-6" of sand over it. Had a horse w/ a suspensory injury, & that was too deep to rehab him in, so asked DH to pull sand back from the rail to about 2" deep around the perimeter of the arena. Instead, he pulled it back about 10’ from the rail on one side, all the way to the base. (came close to killing him…) Have had trouble w/ rock migrating from that area ever since, even after the sand was put back. It has gradually moved from that one side throughout the arena, not alot new has come up but some. A chunk of it is also landscape rock that is on the other side of the fence that moves into the arena after storms.

[SuzieQNutter]

I had the same problem. I picked up Rocks before I rode but more and more came up.

Yes costly but we out in our own sand arena. It is priceless.

[Mosey_2003]

I would try reaching out to farmers, if I’m not mistaken I do believe some of ours have rock pickers they use in the fields at times.

[appendix100]

I will try that too. I think I may have found someone w/ a beach cleaner that will travel to our area…(fingers crossed)

[TB2trk]

Give us an update on the beach cleaner. If it works, I want one! 😊 Hired a guy couple years ago who arrived with some fancy rock picking attachment on his tractor. He got a huge pile of rocks out of the roping arena and dressage arena but the day he left, there were still visible rocks. Each time I work the arena, I end up walking and picking up rocks. It’s an endless chore!

[Paks]

When my daughter was in 4-H a local farm paid her club by the bucket to remove rocks from their arena. It’s an idea.

[MapleLeaf]

This is a topic I know well. I bought a property with an arena that was trashed. It had a steep grade and the water basically eroded the base. We had it harley raked and he moved some rocks into lines and removed them. That made little difference. We hired someone to use a rockhound to remove the rocks. That removed a substantial amount, but with heavy rain the rocks continued to migrate to the surface. In my situation, it’s extremely rocky and will require a completely new base (and I’ll install landscape fabric) to actually fix the issue.

If your situation is not as severe, the rockhound was a rental we hired a landscaper to use, and it was the most useful of the things we tried.