So I know there are a million arena threads but haven’t been able to find one that someone built on their own and didn’t hire out the job. The place where it will go is generally flat with a very slight slope width wise and a slightly bigger slope length wise. I’ve ridden in the area with just grass and the slopes aren’t that bad but there are so many holes from my horse running around in the mud its very uneven. How unrealistic is it to try this on my own? We have a Kubota BX25 and I was successfully able to level the area where I put the round pen. What implements do I need? I figure worst case scenario it doesn’t work and then I’ll hire someone to do it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
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I’m glad I’m not the only one crazy enough to try this myself!
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We built our own roping arena in the canyons with just a bulldozer to push the perfect sandy soil from the high to the low side.
Took long time, it was a little bulldozer, but it turned out excellent.
If you have to add haul-in materials, then all bets are off how much that is going to cost, depending that on materials and distance to where they come from.
If you contract someone with a big carry-all and blade, it won’t take them long and may be cheaper in the long run and, if they have a laser, will do a better job than eyeballing it all.
If you can wait for a construction company to be between big jobs, they may even give you a cheap bid just to keep their machines and men busy.
So here is how DH and I did our DIY outdoor arena. First we bought the USDF Underfoot book. Then we scrapped off the topsoil using our tractor and box blade. We then let it sit for a few months as no money for anything else.
We then added stone dust (screenings some call it) and again let it sit but also rode on it. At first, it feels/looks like sand. Eventually, it got very hard and I used a chainlink harrow to try and soften it up. I secretly thought we didn’t need anything else put on top at that time. We used the arena for probably a year, maybe more, just riding on it, harrowing it, etc.
Then I finally got sand, river sand I think, and wow did that make a great difference. We had it dumped and DH moved it around with the FL. So now, it’s been about 15 years that we’ve had the arena and it’s held up very well. No holes, not slippery when wet, etc.
However, if I could do it over again, I would try to figure out the level better, even using a laser, so it would have better run off as there are places where the rain pools. So to summarize, we used our tractor, box blade and FL, time and money. Good luck!
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I know someone who did this. He had a naturally high area and cut off the crown (so basically his arena is on top of a hill). He did it with a skid steer. He also happens to have mad skid steer skills. Conveniently it was clay, so he just had to bring in angular sand. I believe he mixed the lowest level of sand into the clay and then added some sand on top. I doubt you can ride during a downpour, but you probably can the next day.
I’m less than 10 miles away, but my arena won’t be quite that easy or cheap to build. For one thing, I have loam soil.
We have a Kubota tractor, FL, box blade, a heavy lawn rollers, and a yard rake. I bought a property with a slightly wider than full size dressage arena paddock that had geotextile fabric under soil. The slope is primarily toward the short side, but one long side is slightly lower, too. The previous owners had also driven a machine on the long side at one point, leaving huge tire ruts. I initially just worked the ruts a bit, then threw down some sand to see what happened, but not quite enough sand. Now I know the flow pattern, so I plan to actually add some clay to raise the area where the ruts were, using the box blade primarily, but I find I have to do some finishing work by hand with shovel and heavy pond rake. I then will use our heavy lawn roller to compact the clay, and then add some more sand. I have a 14’ dump trailer, but got my first layer of sand delivered because I can only get 6 yards of sand at a time in the dump trailer, and that would have been WAY too many trips. Anyway, with the Arctic blast and flooding rain - the key for me is using a lawn roller to level the sand BEFORE the big rains - the water just flows off the top then. I wish I could afford a “real” arena, but lessons learned on a budget - get your clay level with the box blade, watch the water flow a few times, figure out the low spots, build them up, then add sand and use a chain harrow as needed, but definitely “seal” the surface before big rains - allows you to bounce back MUCH faster. I use the yard rake occasionally to pull sand from the lower end of the slope as needed. The yard rake is the poor man’s T3 harrow!
Awesome thanks! Been going back and forth on whether to get a box blade or not. I plan on putting down stone dust but renting a machine to compact it as we’re also putting it in the sacrifice paddock as I’m tired of having a mud pit all winter. Then putting down concrete sand on top of the stone dust in the arena. Definitely looking into getting a laser level. Money isn’t an issue but I hate the thought of spending so much when I could do it well enough myself
I’m still in the honeymoon phase with the farm I bought last summer. Mostly dreaming at this point, but still interested in reading and leanring from others’ experiences. Right now I don’t even have a round pen. Very sad face emoji goes here.
I’ll just add that I’ve seen enough backyard arenas that totally wash out with a downpour or a few days of heavy rain that I would not invest much $$ in footing until you are sure about how the area handles heavy rain (if you get heavy rain).
OP, since you are on a slope, you want to grade the area above the ring so the water flowing down the slope goes around the ring instead of into it, which will help prevent runoff.
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You have two questions: what do you expect to be able to do in your outdoor arena in each season of the year? What do you need to do to you ground to achieve your goals?
Much of the second answer depends on the ground. Not just the slope but the soil. Are you in heavy loam or sandy loam? It makes a BIG difference. Is your soil rocky? Will site be subject to runoff from nearby heights? All of these, and more, are questions to be answered.
On the first question, do you want a truly all weather surface or one that will take a day to dry out after heavy rain? I looked at Millbrook, NY on the map and it doesn’t look like you’re in a heavy snow zone and are not too far from the coast. Does that mean your precip is more liquid than solid? How much do you get per year (of each kind)? Do you have regular freeze/thaw cycles or are you pretty much frozen through the winter months?*
Each of the above items will mean some differences in what you do to get what you want.
Start by going to your Extension office and find out what they have on outdoor arena design. You might also visit your Soil Conservation office and see what they have. Maybe Cornell or other schools with ag. engineering departments might have things you can use.
One last question: do you have the equipment to do the job? If not, can you rent it? If you can get the equipment are you competent to use it? Will you be so slow in using rented gear that it would be cheaper to hire somebody with bigger gear to do the job faster? Time is money, but where does the break even line fall?
Take some time to think and plan and it will save dollars later!!!
Good luck in your project.
G.
*I was stationed at NAS Quonset Point, RI for four years. Right on the coast we mostly got liquid precip but were occasionally in heavy snow. It usually didn’t last very long because the nearby water pulled us above freezing pretty quickly. Lots of “freeze/thaw” cycles that played havoc with roads, runways, etc. A few miles inland they got more ice that we did and beyond that more snow, sometimes a LOT more snow. But there were some mini-climates where they got less. Hence my question on how proximity to the coast might affect you.
I went 2 years before I had a round pen. The first year I didn’t there I didn’t even ride. Also my horse was a psycho 5 year old. But yea it takes time. And even more money. You’ll get there!
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We don’t really get extended periods of heavy rain. We do get heavy downpours but they don’t last more than half an hour usually. We gets days of rain but its usually pretty light. I think I’ll dig some small trenches along the sides of the arena so the water can easily flow around it
How many inches of river sand did you add? We need to add sand this year as we did the same thing-level it (with a slight slope), top it off with Class 1 and then we let it sit for a few months, then rode on it for a year and a half so it compacted. Now we want to add some sand to soften it up as it gets hard now that its packed down.
I need a 3 season arena. I let my horse take a break during January and February. Some winters we get lots of snow and cold like we did this year and some winters we get no snow and the ground stays quite dry just frozen. But the weather stays pretty decent all the way until mid to end of December and this year spring has come very early and its been gorgeous for the last two weeks.
I don’t mind if I have to wait a couple days for the ring to dry out. It will be south facing with full sun all day so it should dry out pretty quickly (which also means I’ll have to water it more but oh well). We have very rocky soil. No bedrock to have to blast through where the arena will be but small rocks that will actually make a pretty good sub base when compacted.
We have a compact tractor. I don’t mind buying implements for it as we can use them in the future. We’ve had it for 3 years and use it a lot so I feel pretty competent using it. We have a plow for the 3 point hitch I used to dig up the ground to level the area for the round pen so I think I’m going to start with that. Then use the ratchet rake on the FL to drag the soil from the high area to the low area and harrow to even it out. Then I’ll let it sit and see where rain pools before putting in the stone dust base. The only think we’ll have to rent is a roller machine to compact it. My husband can do that. Seems pretty easy just driving back and forth a bunch of time
Sounds like you might be able to do a DIY project. Before you start, however, I’d run the design past your local Extension agent. They will make a site visit if you ask them. Use their expertise to your benefit. You’ve already paid for it in your taxes!!!
After you get the design set get an estimate or two for a pro to do the job. You might get shocked but you also might get surprised. In either even you’ll be making the DIY decision from information not speculation.
You don’t note the size you’re thinking about doing. That can make a difference.
Water is your enemy. Trenching and graveling around the perimeter is a good idea but you can’t put an umbrella over the top so when heavy stuff falls from the sky you are stuck!!!*
Your soil does not sound too different than ours and right now we are ahead on rain and if it stopped tomorrow it would be 4-5 days before it became usable. And in this part of the world in all but late summer and early fall we get rain every 3-4 days (our annual is about 45-50"/year). A former tenant (who was here for almost six years) did the grading (professionally done) but never finished the project. Subsequent tenants were not interested in finishing it (in partnership with me) to it never got finished. To make this 150’x250’ (more or less) area an “all weather” area would be north of $20,000. A partial solution would be perimeter ditching on two sides (the other two side are slopes) and series of “French drain” cuts across the wettest areas. Still a substantial project when you consider the cost of rock. And it would still take at least a day to dry out to useful condition. I should note that it’s a grass surface. During the time when the grass is vigorously growing that does a LOT to absorb moisture and improve utility. But we don’t do any jumping or other activities that require a “sophisticated” surface. We live with what we have.
Talk to Extension or Soil Conservation and see what they say. Won’t cost you anything and has the potential to save you real money.
Good luck!!! 
G.
*Actually you CAN put an umbrella over the top but that’s another thread!!!
I think I started with 2-3 inches. I basically had some truckloads of sand out, DH leveled it and I rode on it to see how it felt. I was told to start low and add as taking away is harder. I got one more truckload and that was it. Several years ago, I thought I needed to add more sand as it was getting harder to make “fluffy” and soft. I was using the chain link harrow. I then bought a tine fork one and it can go down a couple of inches and that’s made the difference.
We used the box blade for a variety of things and eventually we actually bent the metal arm! Can’t remember what we were doing but it wasn’t very usable after that without fixing it. We sold it to our hay guy. The important thing is to get the base very compacted. Good luck!
We have done it. Our contractor did the major part of the earthwork with a 1950s tractor. It was about 10 hours of work, with him just driving backwards and working to take the slope down a little. From there, my husband took over with our 22 HP tractor. We added gravel to any low areas, slippery areas, and puddles. Then we brought in sand and husband leveled that with a back blade. We maintain the arena with a chain harrow pulled by our quad. Periodically we pull back the sand and patch a section of the base if needed and periodically we add sand to a low spot.
Over the 150’ of our arena, we drop at least 1.5’. We have never used a laser level (with the exception of going out at night and using our regular construction laser and seeing if there was a major high or low spot.
Do you notice the slope at all?
