I’d still be inclined to put up a solid privacy fence along with the dust fabric. Are you attaching the dust fabric to your arena fence or is there another fence to attach it to?
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So would I.
He sounds to me like a cranky old retired guy who’s got a bee in his bonnet about the dust - as might any elderly person who’s home a lot. That’s how the whole thing was described in the first post anyway - nothing about stalking or pedophilia. That stuff was introduced over the long course of the thread, based on absolutely nothing but speculation and the love of drama.
We don’t even know the guy is “watching lessons.” He might very well be sitting in her line of sight simply to remind her that he exists, and that he’s monitoring the dust. He might even imagine that the OP will eventually be shamed into watering her arena if he sits there long enough. Who knows?
Not me, not you, and not the OP, who’s apparently refusing to control the dust on purpose, and encouraging these crazy suppositions just because she’s planning to add lights, which are clearly as annoying as dust, and because she doesn’t like this old guy complaining about things she feels she has the “right” to do - even if they do encroach on his comfort.
Does that really strike you as fair?
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The OP has taken advice here and is going for a fast privacy screen as well as gettu g the property line surveyed.
It’s often a judgement call whether an acquaintance or even a family member is going downhill. It has a lot to do with manner and emotion and change over time. Any given thing they do might not be unusual but taken together with a change in emotiin they are.
Folks often fool themselves about family members. It’s not unusual for a boy his age to stay alone in his room. To have a knife and gun collection. To spend a lot of time online. To be angry at everyone. It’s just a phase. Etc. Until it isn’t.
I trust that the OP is getting wierd vibes in this situation.
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Yes, it does. Because she’s within all of her legal boundaries about what she’s allowed to do on her property. There’s no law that says you have to make your neighbor happy, or there are in HOAs but she doesn’t live in an HOA now does she? There are actually specific laws that protect rural use that protect her. Just for cases like this.
It already sounds like she’s being neighborly by building a fence. And you’re just assuming that it’s a virtual daily dust tornado on her property. There could be little to no dust on most days yet he’s out there “filming the dust.”
Yet it strikes you as fair that she goes into debt to buy watering equipment, and limits her riding by not adding lights, just to make one neighbor happy even though there’s no laws about pleasing your neighbors.
What if he says he doesn’t like her riding between the hours of noon and 5 because he’s trying to take a nap? If he doesn’t like that her barn is red and wants her to paint it blue? At what point does pleasing your neighbor stop? Why does his comfort about what she does on her own private property matter more than her comfort on her own property? You’re more concerned about this neighbor’s comfort, to the point of preventing the OP from doing what she has the legal right to do on property she bought for that purpose.
A friend of mine built a barn on private property SHE BOUGHT that was zoned and permitted for that purpose. A neighbor made her life a living hell because when they bought the property my friend’s was vacant. Neighbor didn’t like the barn blocking HER VIEW. Yet when the land was for sale she didn’t buy it to keep it empty. She just assumed that her comfort and view mattered more than what someone wanted on the land they bought. Who’s at fault? Should my friend have not built a barn because it displeased her neighbor and their comfort mattered more? The neighbor also didn’t like the design of the house, should my friend have built a house to please the comfort of her neighbor?
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It’s her property, why would his comfort matter? She’s not doing anything wrong and is trying to mitigate the situation best she can. With neighbors like this, often nothing is good enough and it’s a waste of time and resources playing into that.
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Just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s the decent, fair-minded thing to do.
This guy apparently never complained about anything for years before the arena was built, so yeah - I’m going to assume the dust is a real issue, and that the OP should treat it with more respect.
Of course it’s “fair.” She runs a commercial enterprise, and this is one of the costs of doing business.
I understand that this kind of self-centeredness is the norm in today’s America, but nothing is ever going to make me think it’s acceptable. And to smear anybody who complains about bad behavior with a charge as heinous as pedophilia?
Just no.
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I think it’s more self centered that the neighbor’s needs and desires matter more than what someone else can do on their own property. You’ve mentioned his comfort, and his needs, but don’t seem to care about hers one bit. To the extreme that you don’t want her to purchase lights and do want her to purchase expensive arena watering equipment. And then what happens when that doesn’t make him happy? He wants her to paint her house blue because he doesn’t like it being white? By god, she’d better do it or people on a bulletin board will judge her for making the old man upset and for being self centered and not being decent and fair minded.
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I have zero sympathy for OP’s neighbor. If someone told me to “watch my dust” and then threatened a lawsuit and then tried to intimidate me by parking next to the arena, I’m not working with you. I’d tell him to f*ck off, and then I’d invite all the lesson kids and their friends to come over and hand them goggles and N95s and tell them to have a giant sand box party in the arena and create as much dust as possible. Then I’d buy some industrial fans and aim the dust right at house.
If OP’s neighbor wanted to, he easily could’ve been an adult about it and nicely talked to OP and I get the feeling that she would’ve worked with him. He obviously just wants to be a bully so OP shouldn’t let him bully her.
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Owner is the one breathing sand dust all day. Taking care of the dust problem at the start would have protected her pulmonary health, her animals, and the kids. And just maybe the geezer next door would have not been set off by his pride and joy car getting dirty, and this not have escalated to throwing around child perversion accusations.
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Sure.
She could also have located this arena somewhere - anywhere - other than the absolute outermost edge of her property where it abuts the old man’s land, exactly where dust and lights are guaranteed to be maximally intrusive and irritating.
She’s obviously made lousy decisions all down the line, but I guess we’re supposed to see her as the victim anyway - and many apparently do.
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When we put in an arena I got out the guys to level the land against a fence on our property away from the neighbors.
Nope.
Because of the lay of the land the arena is closer to our neighbors and facing the opposite way. It was a better place and better for drainage.
We have some paddock and our driveway between us and their house. They have a horse paddock and their driveway between our driveway and their house.
Luckily they have never mentioned dust to us.
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She uses the arena for 2 hours a day and plans on using the lights for 30 minutes a day 3 days a week. That’s it.
Have you been to her property? Surveyed the lay of her land and the best spot to put in an arena? Spoken to the construction crew? Do you know how many acres she has, where her driveway is? How much dirt removal costs? You’re making a ton of assumptions on this thread just to attack her. You can’t just slap an arena down anywhere.
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She put her arena 15’ (FIFTEEN FEET) from her neighbor’s house, on land that’s actually contested:
In all seriousness: imagine how you’d feel if somebody did this to you. Imagine what it would do to your property value, never mind your comfort.
Do you really think this woman is in the right?
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Yes she is in her rights, her land, for her to manage, laws and regulations determining how much and it seems she has been following those.
We don’t know why that arena was placed there, but maybe consider that was best place for it?
Then found out neighbor didn’t like it, so is trying to address that, why this post and is already using that advice to help fix that problem, the dust.
You can only do so much to please others.
I think she is being within her rights, not complaining about the neighbor, just how to help with the dust complaint.
Just because someone doesn’t see the whole picture, we of course can’t, just have one side and piecemeal information to go by, doesn’t mean we can now say, as implied above, “she is in the wrong!”. 
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Would you, @Bluey, put an arena 15 feet from an elderly person’s house without discussing it with them first?
What does where I would put an arena has to do here?
Any sensible person would, as I think the OP did, put the arena in the best place for their needs and goals, which would include many concerns, but not necessarily what that neighbor may prefer.
That is not really the question here, but that the arena, rarely, produces dust and how to help that dust not to bother the neighbor, which is being now addressed shortly with a dust screen.
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Wow.
I’ll tell you frankly, @Bluey, I’m appalled by this thread, even in the supremely selfish, aggressively “individualistic”, supposedly “Libertarian” US of A, so I think I’ll go do something else now.
But hey! Maybe Mr Cranky will decide to build a nice little gazebo 15 feet from the OP’s arena, and invite hjs grandson’s death metal band to rehearse there after school. Wouldn’t that be great?
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Did you also read where he removed and got rid of the permanent property marker? Which is illegal. And that he’s been caught lying about where the property lines were, and has been in a dispute with the previous owner of the property over the property lines where he was in the wrong.
The arena is 15 feet off the property line, not 15 feet from the house.
Why do I have to call my neighbor and ask them for permission for what to do on my own property? I still don’t understand why you think it’s ok for my neighbors to dictate what I do on my own property if I’m following all the laws and regulations.
My neighbor’s held a “range day” right when I was planning on riding. Was I annoyed? Yes. But it’s their property and they are in their legal rights so I rode around it.
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First, my understanding is that the arena is 15 feet from the fence marking the property line - not 15 feet from the neighbor’s house.
At any rate, the arena is in now and the neighbor is unhappy. I do wonder about the neighbor’s health. After my dad’s first stroke, he developed frontal lobe dementia. Part of that was lacking a social filter and being paranoid and argumentative. He had been a great “people person” but became suspicious and angry. Fortunately, his anger was not directed at a neighbor, but I could see him in this scenario. Is there someone to reach out to his family to check on him?
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@Red_Barn, perhaps you should go do something else for a while. You seem awfully angry about this whole topic, and determined to make the OP out to be in the wrong. Also, I don’t know what the neighbor’s age has to do with how the owner uses her own property. I have elderly neighbors too. Hell, some of my neighbors may even consider me to be THEIR elderly neighbor. That has no bearing on this subject.
I am a good neighbor, and I have good relationships with my neighbors. I see nothing wrong with what the OP has done and is continuing to do regarding using her own property. In fact, she was concerned enough to post here for help in figuring out the right course to take.
Also, it is creepy and weird that the adversarial and cranky neighbor is closely watching lessons. I suspect it is mainly to intimidate, but who knows what his reasons are. If one of my neighbors parked next to my property and watched me for long periods of time that would certainly concern me. If he were watching my grandkids in that way it would concern me even more. Either way, I would be looking to make that stop.
Your reaction seems weirdly over the top. Clearly this topic is pushing your buttons for some reason, so backing off a bit may be warranted.
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