I used to teach at a barn where the indoor was roughly 20m x 40m. Yes, we jumped. You have to be very organized, but it’s definitely doable. Huge tip–make skinnier jumps! 8’ is plenty wide enough. I could actually squeeze 6 or 7 jumps in that small of a space and still have room to flat. We mostly saved real course work for lessons in the bigger outdoor arena, but you could canter a course in the indoor with some planning.
I hear you on the sticker shock. I needed a lot of site work, too, so budget dictated my arena was squeezed down. I did a lot of riding in various local small private arenas to see what felt best. I learned width is important. I wound up with an arena that’s 90 by 160. It’s a very decent home arena that works well for flat schooling and can hold an 8 fence course.
I have often thought that I’d had to go even smaller, I’d have put in a 100x100 square.
Don’t forget to calculate the cost of the entire pad. My fenced area is 90x160 but the pad itself is 94x164.
[QUOTE=billiebob;8193046]
Huge tip–make skinnier jumps! 8’ is plenty wide enough. I could actually squeeze 6 or 7 jumps in that small of a space and still have room to flat. [/QUOTE]
Yes, that is important info. My jump rails are 8 feet. My “course” is 7 low jumps, but I usually have 3 and a gymnastic line set up. With that you can still leave room for a 20m circle at one or both ends and not be moving things around every day.
We decided on 90’ X 180’ - it is absolutely adequate. We have 7 jumps up now, and there is a lot you can do with them.
My husband and I ride together often without any problems. As someone else said, the more jumps you have, the more stuff to haul around when you want to drag. We can get a 5 or 6 stride down the long side. We also have a jump on the short side. We do have a large field to ride in too, but still, our arena is quite large enough. I’m very happy that we went with 90’ on the short side instead of making the long side longer.
One suggestion is that you look into having an oval instead of a rectangle because there is some wasted space in the corners and it is hard to groom. We do store poles and jumps there, but if we had it to do over I would go with an oval.
For us there was a limit to the budget and we just had to draw the line somewhere. Beyond the arena expense, you have to factor in the cost of footing, a drag, fencing and even jumps.
something else to talk to your contractor about would be a 100x150, if you have to sacrifice size, IME its better to sacrifice the length vs. the width.
I did two corners rounded, and two straight…it made more sense for what we were doing.
Equipment wise…you might not save that much by going smaller since he’s hauling it in and that’s probably the biggest portion of your cost (unless you have substantial earth moving to make it flatter). You “could” get your ideal area smoothed out, then haul the dirt in for your size “for now” but that way the earth moving is done.
[QUOTE=netg;8192691]
I think this is an excellent idea.
I agree that you want to go as large as possible, and I’d look at the base/footing before worrying about fencing, personally. That’s assuming you have somewhere else for the horses to go out.
We made our arena as large as possible withing the property features (basically 180’ x 200’, but a corner cut off due to the driveway) and it’s only fenced on two sides right now. Sometime I will get it fenced all the way around, but for now having the arena is more important to me.[/QUOTE]
That’s what we did as well. Although I will say during my 6 am rides with only 2 sides of the ring and a mare having a ‘sensitive TB mare day’ I would eye those open sizes and wonder where she would go “if” she showed me the footing REALLY closely.
We waited to finish the other two sides so that it was easier for the dump trucks to get in.
[QUOTE=baysandgrays;8192947]
I’m looking at 18k for the grading and dirt fill alone. Granted, that’s just one quote, but I don’t have many options as few people are willing to come this far for work.[/QUOTE] I don’t think that is a high price.
Mark off an area (or find an arena) the size that you are considering and use it to ride. I’ve had everything from 90’ x 120’ (SOOOOO SMALL if you are jumping or riding with another person) to 150’ x 300’ and I will echo what others have said about width - don’t skimp there. Get multiple quotes from many different excavators and make sure you have someone good who has built an arena before. Our latest arena was on a huge slope and the excavators pulled from a hill and built up one end using what was available on site. I had many conversations with them about the best place to put the arena and they were instrumental in making final decisions.
As much money as an arena costs - horse ownership is outrageously expensive and if you want to use your horses skimping on where you ride them is not as cost effective as you might think. If you are going to pay to feed, care for and house these animals for potentially 30 years then the cost of a good place to ride them is really just a drop in the bucket. I’m not minimizing your budgetary concerns as they are valid, but why not have an area where you can enjoy your expensive hobby?
[QUOTE=baysandgrays;8192947]
Thanks for the replies. Let me give a bit more info. I can’t skip fencing because it is going to reside inside our pasture. I have one horse who doesn’t respect anything but solid fences, so I will have to fence in some way to keep them out.
We live out in the middle of nowhere, and the cost of trucking in the machinery and materials is crazy high. I’m looking at 18k for the grading and dirt fill alone. Granted, that’s just one quote, but I don’t have many options as few people are willing to come this far for work.
We can expand over time, but I’m wondering just how feasible it is at the end of the day, especially given how much work it will require. I was thinking I’d ask the contractor to give me an estimate at 80x150. I don’t know how much it will save, but it might give us fencing. Yes, it’s smaller than I want, but right now I have nothing but pasture and yard, and nowhere even moderately flat to do any decent flat work. Jumping is secondary to the flat work, and I don’t need to set up anything more than a few schooling jumps.[/QUOTE]
In this case, I would suggest you to mark out your “ideal” size and just do the stage 1 I posted. You might be pleasantly surprised how serviceable your native soil might be. As to fence, have the double wide gates, I am thinking 20’ long. Talk to trucking company and see what kind of opening they need to turn around for semi trucks.
As to saving money, unfortunately unless substantial grading is involved, going smaller will not save you much money, because they already have the equipment there. It is sunk cost for them. If you can use existing “high” spots to fill in the low spot, you will save tons of money. I have said many times in the past, but so many seem to find it ludicrous, about how expensive it is to keep horses at home, but I digress…
At my old place my arena was dug into the side of a hill so I had to make do with what space I had - there was no room for expansion! I think it was about 80 x 130. I always rode alone and had room to do a small course in there (I was limited by the number of jumps I had). When you have a smaller arena, you have to get creative, and you can make your horse really handy! (Think wheel of death or pinwheel cavaletti or small jumping exercises.) I rode in that arena for 10 years, preparing for shows, and it was fine. Would I have liked more room? Sure. But I certainly had plenty to work with, and was able to keep multiple horses schooled and in work. The neighbor behind me was a horse trainer and had an even smaller arena and she’d give lessons with multiple students and full jumping courses, so it certainly can be done.
Now I have a full-sized dressage court at home - and you know, I keep using the same length of space that I had in my last place! :lol: Guess I just got used to it! I wish my arena were wider but oh well. No money in the budget to make changes any time soon and I do have trails on my property I can ride on and set jumps on if I want (nice groomed trails with good footing).
I’d love to have a 100x200 or bigger. I do have irrigated pastures I could ride in, I suppose…
I rode in a 80x150 for years. I could jump a 4 foot course of jumps and I didn’t feel cramped. I actually prefer to ride in that size to do gymnastics and such, since you don’t have to ride for forever to reach the other side of the arena.
We just now put in a 60 foot x 120 foot arena.
It is the smallest you can go but high and dry ground dictated size.
After all winter riding in a round pen, it feels huge.
Our arena is 120 by 200 but it is under water much of the year.
I would definitely try hard to get at least one more quote. However, I would also assure myself that the quote is just not coming from one man with a bulldozer. I remember giving an name to someone as reasonable and reliable to do extensive work. She choose a neighbor who assured her that he would do it for less.
Long story short, they ended calling the first name to repair the disaster.
And yes, bigger is better.
I ended up with an oddly sized arena, it’s about 43x45m (141x150). I just told them to give me the biggest arena they could in the space we had, without shape restriction. When you look at square footage, 100x200 is 20,000 and my arena is 21,150. It is hard to set hunter style courses but good for shorter lines and you can set a longer one on the diagonal. The problem with my arena is the slope. It is at about 8 degrees when it should be 2. I would trade for a smaller arena that is flatter.
Winter, my old ring was 130 wide at one end, then the other had a huge hill of blue stone (with trees growing in it because it was OLD) making it a 90’ wide, that then went to about 120 after the hill. it was 235 long. The lop sidedness made riding interesting sometimes lol!
Shot of ring…hill is in left corner just out of sight. Ignore odd picture…babies first ride LOL! Best pic to show the hill
I also had a significant slope to the ring in one corner, which made coming home on the diagonal with a downhill horse (and a rider that likes to get forward) INTERESTING sometimes…
Umm, Jumper_girl, I have to ask, what is going on in that first photo???
[QUOTE=StormyDay;8194265]
Umm, Jumper_girl, I have to ask, what is going on in that first photo???[/QUOTE]
evacuation drill for the zombi apocalypse!
[QUOTE=StormyDay;8194265]
Umm, Jumper_girl, I have to ask, what is going on in that first photo???[/QUOTE]
Babies first ride lmao! Easy evac if it all goes south (it didnt). Gets them used to weight and it’s REALLY easy to bail if needed.
Ride number 5 was Saturday and we gasp trotted on the line and walked off line. Much to my test dummy…I mean friends excitement, we have moved past the leaning stage lol.
Honestly the friend that’s been helping me the last few times that’s an older rerider (I’d rather be on the ground so I can address misbehavior quickly ) has been raving a out how easy she’s been so far…and she’s a QH person!
Mine is 80x100 and I would have loved just 20 more feet. I think 80x150 will be very useable. The first year I had mine, I put up electric tape around it with step in posts. I don’t think I charged it, as my horses did respect it well enough (and it is in my pasture too) but you could put a solar charger on it. That helped a lot, not only because of cost but because we could just start using it without waiting. 
Here’s a picture of mine at my old house
http://i1310.photobucket.com/albums/s654/PrincessFishCheeks/DSC_0001_zpsszujqoqt.jpg
Here’s at my new house
http://i1310.photobucket.com/albums/s654/PrincessFishCheeks/New%20House/IMG_0668_zps3d7c9125.jpg
Some day I need to fence it and get something on the footing whereby I don’t have to water, but I have so many other things to do that those are far down the priority list.
