Arena(s) for one?

[anon55755751]

Got some property last year and home construction has begun. I’d like to bring 2-3 horses home eventually, but I want to be able to actually do work with them regularly and not just have pasture pets (maybe one will be companion-only, but no more than that). I’m in an area where indoors are pretty much essential for regular training year-round, but it’s going to be just me using it if I build one on my property. Size-wise, I’m thinking 80’x150’ or thereabouts.

I feel, maybe irrationally, selfish for even considering putting all the money and other resources into a construction project like this for just one person to use. (On the other hand, I’ve boarded at more than one place where I was effectively the only person using the arenas on a regular basis anyway…)

So, those of you here who keep horses at home and are able to find time to train and compete successfully with them (at least locally), what is necessary, what is sufficient, and what is ideal in terms of your arenas? An indoor? An indoor and outdoor? Can you get away with grass dressage courts and/or jump fields? How big are your arenas?

If you have outdoor-only spaces but live in an area with real winter, do you cut your losses on the training time and just enjoy hacking out? Trailer to lessons? Board somewhere for the winter months?

I know something about what it takes to maintain a horse property, and in particular that more structure means more maintenance (and more supplies, equipment, and money), and more maintenance means less time for riding. I’d definitely appreciate any insight from the BTDT people on how to find the right balance.

[HungarianHippo]

I’m definitely in Real Winter territory and have done just fine with riding in pastures and hayfields. It’s totally going to depend on your property, of course. I’m blessed with lots of room–about 17 acres of riding areas-- and suitable terrain. Have a handful of XC jumps I’ve built in the fields.

I’m with you on the expense, there’s just no way I could stomach spending that much of our money on something that would be only for my use, and that adds zero value to the property. I try to ride correctly and seriously, but at the same time I’m not out there competing, so I don’t have any pressure to train for a specific event. So it doesn’t stress me out when there are days when the footing’s not conducive to “serious” riding. But there are pretty much zero days where I can’t at least hop on and hack around, do some trot sets in the hayfields, etc. The bad footing days are mostly in the spring when the top few inches have thawed, but underneath is still frozen. And of course I limit jumping when the ground is frozen solid (but it’s fun to do in the snow!)

[Hopeless]

When I had more horses at home I had an area I used in the summer for an arena, but in the winter I boarded at a local stable with an indoor. I prefer to do most of my riding outside anyway, but there times that it just isn’t possible during the winter.

[keatssu]

180 x 90 arena for me and my husband. Our neighbor rides in it occasionally, but that has nothing to do with why we built it. We also have fields to ride in and do trailer out to trail ride a couple of times a month in the spring, summer and fall.

We can generally ride in our outdoor all year. Of course heavy rain or the occasional spell of sub freezing weather make it unridable, but most days we can ride. I generally try to plan my days off around the weather, and don’t get as much riding in during the winter. The horses do appreciate a break from the arena, so it’s nice to have a big field and some space to just take a nice long walk.

I wouldn’t even factor “selfish” into the decision making process. If you can afford it, go ahead and build one. Life is short, and if you own horses for the sake of riding, then by all means, make it easier to ride regularly. The amount of enjoyment you will get out of it will make it worth it. If there isn’t heavy use you won’t have to spend much time on maintenance.

Perhaps it won’t add monetary value to your property, but it will make it more attractive to a horse person looking for a horse property. However, I think an ample indoor arena with lighting would add value to your property. I would build an indoor if I I were you.

My friend who is also my trainer and neighbor just completed a 80 x 160 and I think it is a perfect size. She also plans to build an outdoor, but she has boarders and also gives lessons.

[Mango20]

As far as indoor size goes, our Pony Club sometimes rents an arena that is 80 x 140’. That is a bit shorter than you usually see, but we can have group jumping lessons in there with 4 riders with no problems.

Do you have any indoors near you that you can use for a fee? I think if I had limited funds, I’d make a really nice all-weather outdoor, and trailer to local indoors 1 or 2 times per week in bad weather. Ones near me charge $10-20 for use. It would take a lot of rentals to add up to the cost of building one yourself.

[HungarianHippo]

Critical to understand that “adding property value” means adding more than what you put into building the arena. Here’s a thread on a property appraisers’ forum, which was unintentionally entertaining since it’s non-horse people talking about us horse people. Here’s one excerpt:

"There’s one other confounding factor; that’s the horse people themselves. To put it simply, they’re frequently insane and unpredictable. When they find their dream property, they’re VERY willing to pay top dollar for it; its almost like it becomes a non-arms length deal at some point. Supply and demand go out the window. The quality, condition and appeal of the house their children will be living in take a back seat to the quality and condition of the barn. There is no principal of substitution at work. Talk to realtors, they’ll tell you…crazy…sometimes. On the other hand when horse property sells to non-horse people they dont put much value at all on the horse improvements; the fencing is just a property boundary, the barn is just a place to store a car. So you’ve got this amenity that can be worth a lot…maybe even cost…or it can be worth about what a tuff-shed is worth. Just depends on which buyer you draw. I’m starting to think marketing time will be a very crucial factor on horse properties. If your market is stable or appreciating, you can wait for the insane horse person, and clock a very high sale due to the contribution of the horse amenities. If your market is depreciating or your sale is forced at some level, and you cant wait for the ideal buyer, your horse ameniteis may be worth nothing. "

https://appraisersforum.com/forums/threads/horse-arena.167742/

[NorthernHunter]

We built an outdoor riding area for me to use with my horse. A little longer than what you’re considering. We did build it over the course of two years to be certain it was done correctly - and to ensure the size was big enough for the training I wanted to do. I recommend riding in an area the size you’re considering prior to bringing in materials to ensure the size is right! It was suggested to me to go no smaller than 75x150ft and I do feel that that’s a good rule.

I have not been taking the time to clear the snow from our outdoor over the last 2 winters (due to life getting in the way), but I give my horse a break in the coldest times, focus on hacking in the trails in winter, and trailer out of town for lessons in an indoor once spring returns to get back into shape. Otherwise we have great drainage, and the ring gets used a lot over the summer and into fall! We looked into options for indoors, but the quotes we were receiving were pretty substantial that I haven’t seen the need to pursue them thus far.

[Bagatelle]

Could all weather footing in an outdoor arena at home and hauling to a covered arena when needed work? Before spending on a personal indoor I would think about how many lessons, clinics, and shows could be had for that money.

Only you can say where the best value lies.

[fordtraktor]

I have a good outdoor, though small. If I was starting from scratch here (we have 2 feet of snow right now and most of the winter is frozen) I would build an indoor right off the bat. I am going to build one myself in the next couple of years. I think I would be very happy with 70 by 120 but bigger is always better. I would think different if we planned on moving. I am waiting now because we will basically decide in the next 18 months if this is it until retirement or not. When we are sure, I am going to use some money I had before marriage to build a great indoor with mirrors and fancy footing and I will not feel guilty at all! DH is encouraging.

I am planning on putting roll away side pieces in so it can basically open up to partially covered in summer for airflow. Haven’t figured that out entirely but I am pondering it already. The best spot for an indoor on my farm is where my outdoor currently is.

i don’t anticipate it will raise the value of our place much, but losing 5 months a year to weather and then legging up again is getting super old. It is hard to trailer out when you have to dig your trailer out each time and I don’t love driving horses on icy roads. I planned to do that and have never done it even once during the bad weather. Maybe some people are better at that than me. I ride on the snow but it is hard to do serious work, like prepping for competitions, in snow. I find it somewhat unfair to ask a horse to do good dressage work in fairly deep snow. It is very tiring for them. It is good for fitness…but you have to be careful not to do too much if you are riding sporadically. And when it gets in single digits I don’t want to ride in the 25 mph wind. At least an indoor would break the wind.

i May add some length I could use for a row of stalls, so if I ever feel I want to expand the boarding or sale horses I do, I could easily do so which could offset some of the expense. Currently I am not thinking that will be necessary, with the exception of adding a project horse when my kids are a couple years older. I could ride one or two more per day if my kids were more self-sufficient in the evening.

i am so jealous when I am stuck on the ground for weeks and see my friends jumping in their indoors…

[LilyandBaron]

I have mine at home, with an outdoor with lights, access to trails and pastures. I can haul to an indoor, just 5 miles away. This winter has been horrific, so I’m just letting the horses have more down time than I usually do. With the Arctic blast, even indoor arenas had frozen footing, so unless I had a heated indoor, I didn’t lose that many more days without an indoor than I would with one. I don’t want my horses breathing hard above 20, so I’ve done a lot of walks in the pastures/on trails, but not super long because being out in negative wind chills just kind of sucks. I think an all weather outdoor with good drainage is perfect, and either scale back on competitive goals in the winter or haul out, or board the competition horses in the worst weather. I’ve also consoled myself reading about how many pros give horses a seasonal break, too. I’ve also worked out more myself and read/watched videos a lot.

[anon55755751]

@fordtraktor, this is going to be our “until retirement” place as well (assuming all goes well…), so in that sense, it’s “ok” to count all the horse-related additions to the property as a loss/just for us. I might spend a little more for a prettier barn than I otherwise would, with an eye towards resale, but other than that, if it’s not a necessity for making daily chores and care easier, I get a little lost about where the want/need boundary is.

I guess I’m conflicted in part because I’ve had the same goals for my riding for so long, and now I’m in a position to bring some money into it, but am a few years away yet from making progress on those goals beyond building up this property. So there’s this big scary void where I’m committing to something I’ve wanted for a long time, but am a little afraid it won’t pay off beyond, you know, being able to just enjoy having horses at home.

Developing a long term plan that I can keep chipping away at will definitely help, and hearing all your experiences is definitely useful to me for getting some perspective on what works and what not.

Re: can I haul out and rent indoor time - yes I will be able to do that and for the first few years probably will just board somewhere for a few winter months anyway so I can travel easily for holidays. But it won’t be practical to haul on weekdays, for example, because of my work schedule.

It makes sense most of you guys responding are in the midwest :winkgrin:. This winter has been really brutal.

[HungarianHippo]

Yes, this winter has sucked donkey balls.
:lol:

[tpup]

We just put an 80x160 outdoor arena on our 10 acre property. So far I love it but I was in angst about giving up some of my pasture space for it. I have 2 rideable horses, and the other 2 are companions. One of those is a 10h Shetland that needs exercise, so I have been enjoying just longeing him vs. him standing all day in his dry lot. And he LOVES it. We do have trails and fields I can ride in right off of our property. But I love having an enclosed space to ride. I was trailering to my trainer’s for lessons, hacks, etc but with 2 kids, work and a crazy schedule, and often managing our horses/family/home on my own when my husband travels, it’s really nice to walk to the bottom of my property to ride in the arena here. I am really happy with the size. I visited a few similar sized ones that our arena builder put in and was very happy with the 80x160 size. It feels like plenty of room for just me. My daughter also rides and we’ve ridden in it together too.

That said, it is very expensive and depending on your area and real estate market, it may not add any value to your property. In my area, horse properties are everywhere so the buyer for this property someday would most likely be a horse person based on the barn we have, our set up/layout, location, etc. But most appraisers will not give it any value as it’s not a structure. We had to deal with some slope here so that added to our cost, but we plan on being here a while. We waited 3.5 years after building our home and barn to put in the arena. We were really on the fence about it but realized we have our horses at home to RIDE. So we went for it!

[js]

Determine your budget, long term and short term. Think about all the equipment you will need to maintain your own horse property. Think about the barn and it’s cost, fencing.

Then start pricing the cost of an 85x150 indoor. Once your get past the 65’ wide span things get much more expensive.

It really comes down to how much money you have to spend and how willing you and your husband are to spending it or how willing you both are to going in debt.

[Rae89]

I’ve kept horses going in the winter both with and without arenas. We get cold temperatures (-45 C with windchill this morning) and lots of snow. When I was young and very ambitious I rode outside all winter, and managed to find a way to jump, keep the horses in shape, and show quite a bit. Few years ago I kept a young one going outside in the winter. I guess it’s possible. But not enjoyable, and hard to find footing that isn’t icy.

To me if you want to keep a horse fit and in training in the winter you need an indoor, unless you can find good footing outside. Currently I have a 60x100 indoor. It’s small and I can only jump single fences, but it’s big enough to keep a horse going. Then I can haul out to schooling shows and lessons to get into a bigger arena until I can ride outside. Works good for me. My barn is insulated and I have a portable heater so everything that is in work and clipped has somewhere warm to live.

[Obsidian_Fire]

@HungarianHippo

Critical to understand that “adding property value” means adding more than what you put into building the arena. Here’s a thread on a property appraisers’ forum, which was unintentionally entertaining since it’s non-horse people talking about us horse people. Here’s one excerpt:

"There’s one other confounding factor; that’s the horse people themselves. To put it simply, they’re frequently insane and unpredictable. When they find their dream property, they’re VERY willing to pay top dollar for it; its almost like it becomes a non-arms length deal at some point. Supply and demand go out the window. The quality, condition and appeal of the house their children will be living in take a back seat to the quality and condition of the barn. There is no principal of substitution at work. Talk to realtors, they’ll tell you…crazy…sometimes. On the other hand when horse property sells to non-horse people they dont put much value at all on the horse improvements; the fencing is just a property boundary, the barn is just a place to store a car. So you’ve got this amenity that can be worth a lot…maybe even cost…or it can be worth about what a tuff-shed is worth. Just depends on which buyer you draw. I’m starting to think marketing time will be a very crucial factor on horse properties. If your market is stable or appreciating, you can wait for the insane horse person, and clock a very high sale due to the contribution of the horse amenities. If your market is depreciating or your sale is forced at some level, and you cant wait for the ideal buyer, your horse ameniteis may be worth nothing. "

https://appraisersforum.com/forums/threads/horse-arena.167742/

OMG!! :eek::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: I love it!!! And sooooooo true!!!

[Obsidian_Fire]

Okay a serious answer now… Years ago, a friend of mine had property and there were 4 of us gals who boarded at her farm together. She put in an outdoor which was fairly usable most of the year, but being Oregon, it rains a lot… Anyway we were fortunate to have an indoor available about a mile down the road to use during inclement weather. OR, we would board out during winter months.
Back then, none of us had kids altho we all had full time+ jobs. We were also a lot younger. Now, the idea of hitching up in the dark/cold/wet/whatever to go ride, and still come home to household/kids/etc… no thanks.

One thing I remember is the amount of work that went into that place. Her hubby was a pretty tight type A, so that was some of it, but it seemed she spent more time working on the place than getting riding time in. Things need to be maintained, for sure, but there’s a line between being able to make your riding goals vs. spending all your time working on other things. It was one of many factors that came into play when my husband and I looked for a house. I was already working 60 hours a week, did I want to come home and put all my spare time into my property, or continue to board and be able to enjoy my horse?

OTOH, I am older now and altho I wouldn’t change that decision if I could go back, TODAY I would build my own self an indoor and enjoy every minute of it. I would also do like someone else mentioned - make it so you could open it up more in good weather and close it up during bad.

Another friend of mine built an indoor and she used some sort of fabric stuff that blocked the wind but you could still see out of it and it let in a lot of light. She had half-walls and this was on the upper half. I can’t recall the name of it.

[HungarianHippo]

:lol: I love that you use weeds as a fence. Brilliant.

[js]

@HungarianHippo

Critical to understand that “adding property value” means adding more than what you put into building the arena. Here’s a thread on a property appraisers’ forum, which was unintentionally entertaining since it’s non-horse people talking about us horse people. Here’s one excerpt:

"There’s one other confounding factor; that’s the horse people themselves. To put it simply, they’re frequently insane and unpredictable. When they find their dream property, they’re VERY willing to pay top dollar for it; its almost like it becomes a non-arms length deal at some point. Supply and demand go out the window. The quality, condition and appeal of the house their children will be living in take a back seat to the quality and condition of the barn. There is no principal of substitution at work. Talk to realtors, they’ll tell you…crazy…sometimes. On the other hand when horse property sells to non-horse people they dont put much value at all on the horse improvements; the fencing is just a property boundary, the barn is just a place to store a car. So you’ve got this amenity that can be worth a lot…maybe even cost…or it can be worth about what a tuff-shed is worth. Just depends on which buyer you draw. I’m starting to think marketing time will be a very crucial factor on horse properties. If your market is stable or appreciating, you can wait for the insane horse person, and clock a very high sale due to the contribution of the horse amenities. If your market is depreciating or your sale is forced at some level, and you cant wait for the ideal buyer, your horse ameniteis may be worth nothing. "

https://appraisersforum.com/forums/threads/horse-arena.167742/

This a hundred times over. We are currently trying to sell our horse property in the Deep South, we put up a fancy barn and all the nice things. So far some non horse people have looked at it, only people that want to have a few cows, one that thought the tack room would make a nice hair salon for her home business etc. Of course they don’t want to pay for the value of the barn or the fencing etc., one horse person looked at it and declared she probably couldn’t afford it, even though it is priced competitively as other properties with less updated houses and no horse barns or fencing.

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

Where I live you need an indoor. My personal plan is a really nice, all-weather outdoor and then there is this lovely barn with a heated indoor 20 miles away. [Edited to clarify, I mean board there for the winter–not haul there–who wants to haul in the winter?]
Or the horse can go to a trainer, or just have a couple months off. I would LOVE an indoor, but it’s not realistic at the moment. If you can afford it, go for it. Go as wide as you can and as big as you can. Remember you can add length, but not width (my friend added another 60+ feet of length after a few years of 140 x 80).

Fordtraktor–my favorite arena to ride in was 175/180 x 80 and had 3.5 sides of roll-up wall. Like a hog confinement or dairy has. In the summer the sides (so above the permanent kickboard) were rolled up and in the winter it gave a green house effect being rolled down. It was always 10 degrees warmer in the winter then outside. The drawback is the rollup sides are not pretty. In the fantasy where I have an arena, my south, north and west sides roll and the east side (facing the house) is big windows or something.

I just had a picture of it show up in my feed. I’m gonna tag you.