I went back and forth on an indoor, and ultimately decided that for my purposes (and because this isn’t a forever property), an outdoor ring would suffice. I figured I’d haul out to my trainer’s indoor a couple of times a week when the weather was bad. Well, I soon realized how much I dislike having to haul out to ride. It’s a major time-suck, stressful, and a pain in the butt! On the other hand, the footing in my outdoor is either frozen solid or too wet to be used for a good part of the winter. So, in this climate your options are to haul out or to accept the fact that your riding will be very sporadic and weather dependent.
We currently have this place on the market and are looking to upgrade to a larger property and an indoor arena is a MUST! Even though it’ll be just for me, the idea that I’ll be able to ride YEAR ROUND makes it absolutely worth it.
Was in exactly your position OP about 15 years ago. Hubby and I were working full time professional jobs, 4 horses of ours at home. 2 retiree’s, my show horse and a youngster just coming along starting to be ridden. By the time I counted the expense for keeping those two riding horses at an indoor facility (not to mention not being able to even get to those farms until usually 8 or 8:30 pm at night due to commuting from work and home every day) it just made no sense to continue to do so. Our lifestyle was already committed to being on our farm property 7 days a week. AM and PM feedings and turn in and out etc.so that part of our lives was not going to change. Regardless of the additional monthly costs for the second mortgage on our farm to enable us to build this indoor arena I always thought if I could use the arena for at least 10 years it was worth the money. I don’t know if it exactly improved the value on resale ( I hope so) but honestly that could be 30 years or more in the future. I was not going to worry about it now. Turned out it was the BEST value we could have added as not one year later our Township by-laws changed to not permit an indoor riding arena on anything less than 25 acres. We have 10. Life is short…if YOU want an indoor arena for yourself and you can reasonably afford to build it go for it. It was a dream come true for me! Oh we built a 72 x 144 size. Perfect for a true 20 metre circle for the dressage horses and can easily put a 3 jump combination down the long wall. We live north of Toronto, Ontario so an indoor for year round training is essential. Not a luxury.
This is me, minus kids. Two horses, two mini donks, nine acres, just built last year. Horses have been here since Aug. I built for me to have horses at home and RIDE. It’s in my five-year plan to fence the bottom acreage and put an arena down there as well, approximately this size as well. I currently have three paddocks, one 1/3 acre for donks and one horse for wintering, and two one-acre paddocks for rotating when it isn’t wet out. My bottom acreage will be one larger, 2+ acre paddock, with the arena in the middle (it will still be more than 2 with the arena), for even more rotation or even a grass jump field outside of the arena. I work 12 hour shifts so I can only ride on my days off, and while there is an arena five minutes away I can use… It would be nice to be able to ride at home as well!
My only saving grace is my Dad just recently moved nearby, and has arena knowledge and can run heavy equipment. The guy I plan on using for my arena has zero qualms about getting us started and letting him finish or do the dirt work and him finishing, which will save hugely on costs. Materials are materials, can’t fix that, but it helps! Plus my Dad is retired military, so I can get some of my supplies at Home Depot with his discount
If you can afford the indoor arena and it is something you would love to have, then I would go for it. Some folks prefer to spend their “discretionary income” on travel, entertainment, dining out, or a hobby. Not sure there is much of a difference if you choose to spend those discretionary dollars on an indoor.
When you have an indoor, you’ll end up utilizing it more than you might have expected. Of course you’ll be able to ride in the winter months. But you’ll also be able to ride when it is raining. You’ll be able to ride during those transitional times of the year when the footing is wet and deep outside without fear of unnecessary risk to ligaments and tendons. You’ll be able to ride more comfortably on those hot summer days. You’ll be able to squeeze in a ride in the wee hours of the mornings or later in the day after the sun has set when your job requires you to be at the desk for long hours.
The naysayers will tell you you’ll never recoup your investment on a personal indoor, but your time and comfort has a value too. It isn’t always all about hard dollars and cents.The time suck that is required to trailer out to a farm with an indoor, is annoying at best. And more often than not, precious little real work is actually accomplished.
As for keeping the maintenance down, if you go with a wood structure, consider a metal roof with insulation. It is noisier than a shingle roof, but IME requires less maintenance in the long run. If you go with a wood structure, opt for a high quality stain on the outside. IME “clouded” translucent panels on the side walls are the best option for natural lighting. Clear panels or windows create sun spots which can cause even the best horses to spook.
I agree to go as wide as you can. Theoretically you can always add length. In our case, the trusses were engineered offsite and our width was limited by the length of the truss that could be legally transported over certain highways. Our stick built indoor is 84’ wide. Bigger is always better, but most indoors in our area are 80’ and that width works just fine.
I have a friend with a lovely enormous outdoor and while we don’t get as much snow here as Fordtraktor,we get a lot of rain and her outdoor freezes and is unusable.
I am in the PNW and most folks around here will tell you that you NEED an indoor. In my county, in my budget, and with my needs, it just didn’t make sense. So, we have an outdoor. We are super happy with our choice and investment. In no way do I think I NEED an indoor. There is usually a week, maybe two a year where it is frozen and I can’t ride. There are usually another 1-2 times a week for a few months where I don’t want to ride because it is raining too hard. So my horses get a light(er) winter and I enjoy the time off.
All in, including earthwork, base, sand, fencing, stain, lighting, and even the drag, we spent less than 5K on our arena. I am absolutely thrilled with it for that amount. If I had spent another 200K to cover it, I don’t think I would be much happier. Certainly not 40 times happier.
FWIW, our arena is 70x145 and I jump courses up to 1.0m or 3’3" in it, with singles up to 3’9".
I’m in the south, and a covered arena is such a plus due to the heat and the rain. It’s just me here, but I built a 95’ x 225’ steel roof over my existing arena. I had an anhydrotic horse at the time, and I don’t do so well in the heat, so it was pretty much a necessity.
I’ve had the arena for 17 years now, and just did the math in that the construction cost came down to just over $600 a month (so far), which is less than board for one horse. It has a two-board fence and a sprinkler system, but otherwise it’s no-frills. No lights, no kickwall, no viewing stands, no Big Ass fans, but it works for me as one person riding 2-3 horses.
Granted, steel prices have escalated since then, so I’m glad I did it when I did.
I’m in this camp. I have a small farm and gave up a slightly bigger than dressage ring size piece of it for my outdoor ring. In NH I don’t get to use it in the winter. But putting in the sand ring means that I can ride sometimes weeks earlier in the spring than I could just riding in the field (mud) and when it rains I have to wait maybe a day? instead of up to a week for it to drain.
It’s just me using it, and yes I feel like a princess when I ride in it, but I love having it. And an outdoor is not very much maintenance. I could probably drag it more than I do, but I don’t have to very often.
If I had the means I might build an indoor, but I also like trail riding and giving the horses some time off in the winter so I do OK without one.
Please share! How did you do a base for the PNW and footing for under 5k? This would be an amazing price. How did you build your base? Sand footing? Did you mount lights on poles?
Fully concur with the 65 foot “break point” on price. We’ve got just at 20m x 60m with 14’ at the edge (where the supporting members are the lowest).
OP, you don’t say where you are. Don’t need your street address but state and general area would help! The advantage of a cover over a full indoor is the lack of need for any sort of air handling system. If you’re not going to ride at night you don’t need a sophisticated lighting system. There is no price advantage between cover and full because while you don’t have to pay for walls you do have to pay for more steel to compensate for the lack of walls providing additional structural rigidity. We are in East TN and lose maybe 30 days per year to heat and cold. A few of those days also get lost because of “blow in” from heavy rainstorms. We’ve had the remains of two hurricanes go over us and it soaked every square foot of the arena. Rain being blown by 50+ mph wind will do that. It took several days of southern heat to dry out the ground!
How much winter wind to you get? Does it consistently come from the same general direction? If so you can put partial walls on a covered structure.
This is something where you can think about it and do some “doodling” on your yellow pad to compare the virtues of the two systems.
Has anyone built a covered arena? I live in central NY and although we do get alot of snow, I was wondering if this would work - something obviously not as good as an indoor but hypothetically more useable than outdoor. Any opinions?
I put in an 80’ X 110’ outdoor arena 18 months ago. Size was determined by the property line and buildings in the corner of my property where it made sense to put the arena. The width is good but ideally I’d like it to be 80 X 140 or 150 at least.
I financed it at a decent rate and I pay about 3X the minimum payment so will have it paid off in 6 months. Total cost was about $14k. I’m in the PNW but have the 3 feet of clay for topsoil so had to put in a lot of rock for the base. The person who built one for under $5k must live in an area with rocky soil - if I live 5-10 miles north of my current place it would have been about half as much to build. Even if I’d done the work myself, the materials were over $10k.
Before I built the arena I had my one rideable horse boarded. I pay the difference between the cost of full board and the cost of feeding him at home against the loan. So I did not increase my monthly expenses by building an arena, and once it’s paid off I’ve reduced expenses over boarding.
My Brother in law is an appraiser and he said that technically the arena will not add anything to the value of my home. However, for the person that would buy my place (a 60-yo rambler on acreage just at the edge of a bearable commute to the city) I think an arena would make the place much more marketable. Someone that wasn’t into horses could find a nicer home closer to work for the same price, the only reason to buy this place is to have a couple of horses at home.
Plus, I plan on living here until I die, so resale value isn’t that big of a deal to me.
Also, it’s no more selfish having your own arena than it is having a car instead of using public transportation, living in a house on acreage instead of high-density housing, or even having a horse for that matter. I live by myself on 5 acres, I definitely am taking more room for one person than strictly needed, and oh well!
Glenview has one at their farm in Saugerties. Obviously they aren’t there in the winter.
With a covered outdoor in NY, you’ll get a little more riding time in each year due to having rain protection, and it is nice to have the shade on those sweltering summer days. But, with New York’s winter precipitation you’ll definitely have some amount of snow and ice blowing into the arena from the exposed sides during winter storms especially when a nor’easter comes through. And of course with a covered arena, there is no protection for the rider or the horse from the winter winds.
You live in my eventual old lady house! One level ranch house on 5 acres. That’s all I want someday. Just a place to tinker and not make too much work for myself.
OP, hell no it’s not selfish. It’s your money and we only go around once. If you don’t build it, every day it rains, is too cold, or too icy, you will wish you had. Life’s to short for that!
I’m in southern MI. The last few years, the snow hasn’t been too bad, but we get stretches of temps in the 20’s, teens, and single digits. Of course, I’m asking this question as we go from a week of a lot of snow to a week of bitter cold to a week of a lot of rain and fluctuating temps…I guess I should really just sit down and put a ballpark number on how many days of the year I’m likely to lose to weather.
Winds mostly come from the west or SW. I figure worst case, I’ll build an outdoor adjacent to the west side of the barn and plant some evergreens on the southern side for a wind break
I’m operating right now under the assumption that roof or no roof is the order of magnitude decision, and once committed to that, I can do the walls any way I like. I do like the concept of partially open maybe with screens, it’s just not common here.
I will definitely be riding at night, and this is a concern about going outdoor-only, as there are neighbors I would prefer to not annoy. Not that I’d be riding at all hours of the night, and the neighbors’ houses won’t be right up against the arena either, but I’d try to plan the lighting courteously anyway.
IF you can afford the indoor I say go for it. I live in SE michigan, and I thought I would be brave and just do trail work with my 11 yr old OTTB, as we have 15 acres, acres, and a path all the way around. We are lucky to have a nice little bit ot roll to the property so lots of nice opportunities to get some goo trail work in.
Well fast forward to now and I am preparing to trailer out my horse to a local barn with an indoor since he is literally starting to lose his mind. Normally he self exercises in the big 4 acre field but its been too muddy or too icy to go do that.
So in the best interest to all involved he needs to go back to work ASAP! And the only safe way to do that is working him in an indoor.
We have a great outdoor arena, but we really need to look into trying to make it all weather, but I don’t know if that would even be possibly with the way the wind whips across the area, especially with a 50 plus acre field next door.
IF you can afford to go as big as you stated in your opening post, I would say go for it, it would be a great side, but I know lots of 60x120 arenas in the area. I’m guessing they are the cheapest. Though i was seriously eyeing the 40x64 Pole barn my BF built on the property, until he put in the cement floor…I was like " i could make this work! lol
Lastly if you do decide to just go with an outdoor, and decide to board during the winter, I would seriously start looking now. Its been my experience that it isn’t easy to find quality facilities that are willing to take a temp boarder. And if you’d do you will probably have to drive a significant distance. Ive found I’ve become very picky about my horses can after they have been with living at home, so its hard to trust them with someone else. Also with the unpredictability of the weather trailering in for a lesson, can get very dicey…
I also say “go for it1!” with regards to building an indoor. I’m in western NY where winters can be bad and working full time would mean no riding in the winter if my horses were at home. So I put the $ into a wooden indoor with asphalt shingles. As someone mentioned there is a big price increase if you go over 65’ in width so I stuck with that. I could only go a total of 148’ in length because of property line restrictions but it turns out that this is a great size in terms of relative angles when riding dressage tests. It’s a bit small to do upper level tests but you sure can practice the different movements. And for jumping it makes you focus on your riding and get much better at your turns. If you don’t spend as much on the width, you can afford to spend it on better footing. I have sand and a rubber mix and it’s been great. Just make sure the base is done right.
The one thing no one has mentioned as a reason to have an indoor is the ability to ride indoors in the summer when the deer flies and green heads, etc are out. I also have an outdoor but rarely ride there in the hot summer because the flies drive me and the horses crazy.
We are going to retire in the next year or so (and move) so I will no longer have my indoor. I know I will miss it dearly but it’ll be time to give the horses and myself the winter off - we’re all getting older!
When it comes to a concrete floor, you still can use that for an indoor.
A friend has an old 60’ x 120’ Quonset building with a concrete floor that was built in the 1950’s to hold grain.
He added plain angular sand to it with a little dirt in it, right from his creek bottom.
He starts colts in there all winter, has 60’ x 80’ where he rides, some panels to close one end and even has a flag in there along one long side (the walls are curved) to work his cutting horses on it.
He has used that for years now and never had a horse injured or slipping on it.
The rest he has two stalls on each side and storage for hay and other.
You can use a concrete floor, just add the right footing over it.
You can, when thru using it for an indoor, scrape it all out and you have your concrete floor barn back for other you may need it for.
