I am building an approx 60’ x 60’ area to be used as both a sacrifice area and a small riding area. What type of drainage, footing, etc should I be putting in?
It’s rather location specific. What is the existing soil? What types of aggregate are readily available in your area? Is the area in a high spot or low spot? Where does the water flow?
While I would normally absolutely recommend 100 percent against combining turnout and riding areas (to the OP), I get there might be some financial constraints so to add to the other questions… What is the horse load and will you be mucking every day?? Reason being, that is very small for more than one horse for a sacrifice paddock for both sanitary reasons and your likelihood of injuries will go up, AND horses tend to pee in the same spot and it will cause footing issues in that spot, plus if you’re riding through it you’ll be breathing in powdered urine.
Also, 60x60 is the size of the average round pen, and I was stuck riding in one for a year while I waited to build an arena and it sucked.
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Unfortunately, space is limited and this 60x60 (might be able to make it a little bigger one direction) area is as much as we can eke out. So, we are trying to make the space as useful as possible! Fortunately, we also have trails and a flat, open field for good, dry weather in daylight, plus pastures for turn-out.
I am attaching a photo of the layout here in case anyone has suggestions.
With all the said, to answer the questions asked:
- The existing soil is largely clay.
- I’ve sourced screenings from a local quarry and know of sand and shale available locally.
- The area is relatively high and well-drained. We were told to grade to about 1% slope, so that is our plan currently.
- Right now, 2 horses. Anticipated max of 4.
- Yes, mucking every day.
Can I just put in my two cents? I’m interested in your question in general because I have a similar sized space and was thinking about doing something similar with it, so I was curious what other people would say.
But what I wanted to say is, that narrow long area where you put the hay feeder on one end is a really bad idea IMO. For two horses that get along, it could be OK. But any more than that, and I think you’re risking injury, as it’s possible for a horse to get trapped in an area this size and shape. If you’re going to be feeding hay there, it’s that much worse IMO. Or is the light blue run in area part of that? And it’s open on two sides? If so, maybe it’s not that bad. If not, then I’d make the run in bigger and get rid of a space like this that you expect horses to share.
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