hello! I’ve got a client that recently bought a farm and is going to be building a covered riding arena. i am helping with everything, and wanted to see what everyone’s thoughts, ideas, and opinions. If you have a covered, are there things you would do differently? Or things your super happy about doing? Things to consider- we ride dressage & are in south Florida year round. The size will definitely be bigger then a standard dressage arena- however we have not worked out all the details yet on exact size, roof height, ect. so if anyone has any thoughts or ideas or experience, please throw anything & everything out there!! This is a huge investment for her & I want to help her build the best ring she can with the budget she has! Thank you!!! 
Mostly dressage, but you may jump a little, or want to have that option for resale value later?
If so, while 14’ at the eaves is good enough to ride in there, try for 16’.
Ours is 18’ because it is a roping arena and, even if being framed as clear span, not trusses, recommended that, and makes it higher open in the middle, 18’ is minimum for roping arena, as 16’ is for jumping.
Consider if some of your rain and wind is mostly from one direction, to make that a solid wall, the other three can be open, or partially open.
Also if you have sun beating down on the barn, to close the West side is a good idea, with an overhead door for when you want more air in there, but it will keep the sun from beating in there in the long summer afternoons, if that could be a problem where you are.
The size of arenas is limited by how much clear span you can create with your particular building modality. However if you can afford it I would say go as big as is physically possible. A dressage court us not that big and it’s nice to have more room to school and also to accomodate multiple riders. I agree make it functional to jump in as far as roof height and size.
I would go tour high end local barns and see what people are using. My coach has a smaller older indoor arena attached to the barn and a fabric “coverall” covered arena that is open in each end and in summer catches a nice breeze while the indoor bakes. I’m guessing Florida covered arenas are going to be more “coverall” and less the fully enclosed structures we see in cold places.
we have a friend in Norman, OK area whose coverall was destroyed in a storm … they believed they had insurance on it but it was not covered under their farm policy since it was declared temporary
So, read your coverage and make sure the agent has specifically included the structure.
I advised them to seek an error and admission claim against their agent who had walked the property, they declined as agent was personal friend
In case OP doesn’t know, Clear Span is a brand of fabric covered buildings.
That name is confusing because clear span framing is also a building technique, as is building with trusses, that is engineered beams.
Either way of building, clear span with big beams or with trusses is fine if the engineering is correct.
For arenas, clear span framing has become the norm in many places, as you can lift the put together beams and bolt or weld them on pylons and have a clear span much larger underneath than with standard trusses.
Trusses are cheaper because they are made in the shop, hauled to the site and just put on pylons with a crane, generally and building goes faster and requires less labor.
Just so you know those differences when you talk to builders, so you can check your bids comparing apples to apples.
Many of those covered arenas in East TX, they are common there, have wind screens to keep much of the rain from blowing in there.
My only suggestion is to either do exactly dressage court regulation width or go way, way wider so you can put up a dressage court in it. If you do say, 75 feet, practicing for the tests in the 66ft regulation arena will be hard. I personally don’t do much dressage, but a woman I know built her arena to be 72ft wide and hated it because when she went to shows the distances seemed all off.
Hello Everyone!!
Thank you so much for all of the suggestions so far!! atthe moment, a 220 x 90 is on the table. With 16 of 19high. She would also like to do a kick wall for the young horses to feel enclosed and also so when they do in hand work ect…in that case I’m thinking higher would be better to get a bit more air flow!!! Also she’s considering doing the ebb n flow under ground irrigation… also trying to figure out a good way to do the arena mirrors that they are far enough away so the horses don’t kick them…- a barn I was at every season had to replace 1 or 2 Mirrors 😬 thank you all!!
[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“data-attachmentid”:10664361}[/ATTACH] May be hard to see in the photos I posted but we mounted our mirrors on a concrete block wall that we built outside the main arena area. We have a fence around the arena (not a kick wall) with space between the fence and the wall. We’ve been in operation for 2+ years and so far so good. (Note – added a better photo of mirror wall)
Didn’t see anyone talk about fans. If you enclose it, fans are something I would have installed for airflow. One of the worst things in the indoor I used to ride in here in VA was that it could get stifling hot in the humid weather, even with the doors open and the half doors open in the other end. I would have some ventilation style fans that would pull air through on days it was really hot out.
Hi everyone! Thank you for all of the replies! And photos! We will be having it ‘open’ - roof, hopefully a kick walk, and then open in 3 sides- 1 short side will be reserved for Mirrors. Some day would love to put fans in- but for now will have to do without!!!
If the orientation of the covered arena makes it so that the mirrors are on the western side, that will cut down on the heat in the afternoon. If not, consider using shade cloth on the sides that will get the morning and afternoon sun. It will allow the some of the breeze to come through but will cut down on the solar gain. The shade cloth can also help cut down on the driving rain that is wind driven.
yes I’d really pay attention to prevailing breezes when placing the mirrors… in SFla it’s mostly from the east…
Thank you guys! I was thinking about the mirror situation- both for the breeze & sun block… unfort the east side of property there is a huge fence line of very old, tall trees. They are on neighbors side. So I won’t be getting much breeze from there as it’s a relatively thick tree area. So the mirrors will have to go on the east side😬 I considered west side quiet a bit- but my husband said- and then we will look at the ugly block of mirrors out the house window!! That will look ridiculous!! And unfortunately with the way the property is laid out with the Pre existing house and barn- I cant come up with a better way to avoid that! But I LOVE your point- and appreciate the ‘things to think about’!!! Keep them coming!!!
Also great idea for the shade cloth!! We used to have that at an old barn & they do help quite a bit!
thank you!!!
I considered west side quiet a bit- but my husband said- and then we will look at the ugly block of mirrors out the house window!! That will look ridiculous!!
if you have the overhead clearance a solid wall can be vertically lifted. When I had my overhead door company we specialized in “disappearing walls” …as long as we knew the weight of the “wall” we could spring our lift assemblies to counter the weight to effortlessly have a wall, in your case a wall of mirrors, disappear into the ceiling … just a press of the button wall goes up put out the way or down to see pretty horse do its moves
Was not a big deal and nothing complicated to engineer as all the material is off the shelf
I considered west side quiet a bit- but my husband said- and then we will look at the ugly block of mirrors out the house window!! That will look ridiculous!!
if you have the overhead clearance a solid wall can be vertically lifted. When I had my overhead door company we specialized in “disappearing walls” …as long as we knew the weight of the “wall” we could spring our lift assemblies to counter the weight to effortlessly have a wall, in your case a wall of mirrors, disappear into the ceiling … just a press of the button wall goes up put of the way or down to see pretty horse do its moves
Was not a big deal and nothing complicated to engineer as all the material is off the shelf
Our mirrors are on the north side of the arena. Design it so the mirrors are under the arena roof. Our arena stays pretty well shaded all day – there is a strip of sun along the east side in the morning but there is also a covered patio along that side. The West side has some nice old oak trees along it – and we don’t ride in the afternoons much in the summer anyway. The only real issue with have with the mirrors is that they fog up on chilly winter mornings. We usually have some kind of breeze, for us they generally blow West to East or vice versa. And of course we also sometimes have birds that are convinced they have to fight with their reflection.
