Thanks in advance for input. Sticky situation but the long and short is the arena at the small boarding facility I’m at was put in inappropriately. I don’t want to move because it is a rare find where I am at for the next few years to find proper turnout. Looking for suggestions on “fixing” the arena, ideally if anyone has any links or “literature” to give the barn owner, as he generally thinks I’m too young and female to be right. It is a small arena compacted graded base of gravel (I think) with 2 in of coarse sand (wish he would have stopped there) then in the realm of 4-6 Inches (!!!) of very fine silica sand blasting type sand on top of that! I did convince him after 6 months to get the footing compacted, which did help, but of course as soon as we use it it gets churned up and uneven. I’m not brave enough to do more than limited very light trot work in this thing. Aside from removing sand and recompacting it, would crusher fines/stone dust help stabilize the soft sand? Thanks!
https://www.usdf.org/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=UNDERFOOT
Yikes, that sounds like a soft tissue injury waiting to happen! Give him a copy of this book…is he open to fixing it though? Or is this going to be an ongoing battle? You may be better off looking for a place to move, even if you do have to sacrifice on turnout at least you’ll have a safe place to ride…
Yes I think I have that problem too but not to that extent. I will tell you it is HARD to get an arena just right. Do I take the tractor bucket and push the excess in the middle to a pile in the end or do I use a box blade??? I am not good with a tractor.
Be very careful about riding in it. I know someone whose two horses blew out their suspensories in one day riding in their arena that they had just redone and the sand was too deep. I think adding fiber may firm it up somewhat but I am not going to take that chance so I am figuring out how to get the excess out.
We just redid our sand, that was getting way too thin.
We added four truckloads, spread it with a blade with laser, still didn’t have enough and carefully added more until it was just right.
If the sand is the super fine, which is very good for horses, has good grip, but will let them move it away when they stop or turn, not get their feet stuck in heavy, coarser or too wet sand, you can be a little deeper and still be ok.
You can test it by wiggling your foot in there and pushing the sand around.
If it is deep and your foot has trouble, it is too deep and “sticky” for your horse.
You better scrape some off then, until it is less deep, more shallow.
That extra sand can be scooped out of there and stored for later nearby.
If your foot moves freely thru that sand, then it is ok, even if a bit deeper than ideal.
Over time you will lose some of that very light and drier sand more than you do in the heavier, coarser sand.
You don’t want to be too shallow, horses can slip and fall down easier.
You don’t want to be too deep, horse’s feet get stuck in there and have trouble moving on.
That can strain joints and supporting apparatus, tendons, ligaments and even pull chips off bones.
Here there are some real experts on footing that prepare the big centers for the top competitions, world championships, futurities and such.
Top competitors would not risk their horses showing them in less than perfect footing.
We found who was that expert in our area and he is who prepared our footing and many around here also.
Could you find one of those experts where you are and see if your BO would let him advise about that footing?
If not, it is his barn, you may have to move.
Footing is challenging to get “just right” and expensive to maintain. The footing you describe sounds way too deep, but compacting it won’t solve the situation, as you have discovered.
What needs to be done is the excess footing needs to be removed and piled up somewhere. Adding more material is not going to fix anything. It will only make things deeper.
It sounds like the BO may have spent a significant amount on the arena. A gravel compacted base and 6-8" of material on top is not a cheap improvement. The arena may have been done incorrectly for your discipline, but it is important to consider the BO’s vantage. Presumably someone suggested the current footing specifications. The BO installed the arena footing according to a standard he thought was reasonable, at a significant cost and now at least one boarder is unhappy. He had the arena compacted but that didn’t mollify the complaining boarder. He is now out the cost of compacting the arena.
You may believe the BO dismisses your input because you are “young and female” but if you suggested having the arena compacted and that didn’t solve the situation, you are giving him even fewer reasons to consider your advice.
Are other boarders finding the arena is too deep? If you are the only one who is complaining, you might be out of luck. If other boarders are complaining you might be able to affect some change.
Keep in mind that it is expensive to remove footing, pile it up and regrade what is left. One piece of heavy machinery can cost $600 to $800 per day to hire. Boarding operations generally operate on a shoe string. Your BO’s reluctance to make changes to the arena may not be about you being “young and female”, as much as it might be about hard dollars and cents and limited budgets.
Sand doesn’t compact, as you discovered after using it post ‘compaction’. The fines are too uniform in size.
Footing is easy to get closer right and usable from the start, if you start with the right amount of sand over the right base. 4"-6" sand is way too much. Fine silica sand has very little variation in particle size and has almost no fines, so that fine silica sand makes that 4"-6" of sand even worse. Really, the only option in your situation is to take sand out.
If you add crusher fines, it would help firm up the sand, but then you’d have 5"-7" or more of footing. Personally, I wouldn’t add more of anything without removing a bunch of sand first. If you did go the crusher fines route, keep in mind that the very bottom layer of sand that sits on top of the base will still be purse sand for awhile. The crusher fines will be in the upper layers until use and water take those fines all the way through the footing. If you added crusher fines on top of the current deep footing, you’d probably have some slipping problems. This is because that lower layer of sand is still the pure silica sand, and on top of that would be the tighter mix. Those two layers don’t react the same or mesh together. That lowest layer of pure silica will have more movement to it due to same particle size over the upper mixed layer.
Is the sand watered at all or thoroughly? Water can firm up want and make it stick together. But, it’s silica sand. Same particle size, so might just be mucky wet deep sand.
This really sounds like a BO and boarders nightmare. I feel for both you and the BO. The BO just spent all that time and money on the footing, and it’s still all wrong. You are paying $$$ for boarding and for your horse, so you expect usable and safe footing so you can ride the horse you are paying for. No matter how you try to fix it, it’s going to cost money and lots of labor. BO is stuck because either has to fix footing, or boarders will leave.
That finer sand, as above, if you water too much, will “pancake” on you and not be good at all, but become slick clumps.
Be very careful with watering, just enough to keep dust down is enough.
That is the best sand, but it has to be the only material there and watered very little and evenly.
The coarser sands will last longer, are more forgiving to manage as far as watering and dragging, but the horses will have to work harder with less cushion, more sticky and they will be pushing thru heavier going, especially if too deep.
That is why the finer sands are preferred for indoors, where you can control the environment, but are not for outdoors without mixing with other.
The arenas with the finer sand are called “faster”, horses can slide far, rope and rein and cowhorse and team pen and barrel race faster there, still keeping their feet under them, be to their most athletic and not be slowed down by having to work harder at just getting around.
Don’t know how that would work for English disciplines, but the lower jumping some AQHA classes demand seem to do just fine there.
My BO put way too much sand in the indoor last year. It was so bad my horse was staggering around and I was worried he would get hurt. No one said too much, but I’ve known her now for almost 20 years and flat out told her it was way too deep and she needed to take at least half of it out. She got the guy with the Bobcat back and it’s a lot better now, but there are still sections that are too deep.
Most sources say 2-4", with the lower end for dressage and the higher end for jumping. I also saw a hint that said to put a piece of tape on a screwdriver and use that to measure, because the blade will go down to the base.
What does “pancake” mean in terms of footing?
The OP has 6" - 8" of sand total. That is scary deep! The 2" of coarse sand, topped with 4"-6" fine silica. That’s a pulled suspensory situation waiting to happen.
Not sure that “very fine silica sand blasting type sand” that the OP states she has (what is the particle size?) could ever be “the best sand for horse arenas”, and especially not for english disciplines. Might be find for western, sliding stops, etc, because yes, the sand moves. Fine sand is 00.42mm down to super small, 00.074 particle size. True silica sand has rounded particles. Round particle sand for horses rolls, has no traction and is unstable. For dressage and jumping, that sort of footing can be a career killer for many horses. However, if you mix it with felt or fiber, it can make excellent footing, but never by itself.
Silica sand close up: 
Silica sand sizes: [IMG2=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“height”:“481”,“width”:“525”,“src”:"http://i00.i.aliimg.com/img/pb/169/879/616/616879169_078.jpg)
IDK about “finer sands are preferred for indoors”. Too many variables including, the arena base, what additives are mixed in, how it is watered and how often, type of arena groomer and how often arena is groomed. I have fine sand in my indoor arena. Outdoor has coarse sand. Both arenas have fibers and rubber. I rode on the plain sand of the indoor for awhile before adding anything to it, except water, of course. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. Ended up taking some sand out, adding some coarse sand. It was better. Added same additives to indoor and in the outdoor. The outdoor footing is outstanding. Wish I’d never started with fine sand to the indoor. My indoor sand was closer to the masonry sand below, and it was still too fine. The outdoor sand is closer to the concrete sand, but it’s got an assortment of larger particles on down to what’s show in the concrete photo below.
[IMG2=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“src”:"https://premierequestrian.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/footing-sand-types-ruler.jpg)
[IMG2=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“height”:“277”,“width”:“540”,“src”:"https://manoa.hawaii.edu/exploringourfluidearth/sites/default/files/M1U5-Fig5.25-SandGrainCard.png)
Premier Equestrian is very helpful whether you purchase from them, or not. There is “a man” there, who could help educate your BO. :uhoh:
https://premierequestrian.com/horse-arena-footing/all-about-sand/
Here the finer sand they use, compared with the coarser one, we are not talking specialty sand material, but plain types you can find in gravel pits, is also called triple washed and masonry sand.
I don’t know, the fellow that takes care of the footing is who ordered the proper sand.
I agree, that described is way too deep, no matter what kind of sand that is.
That happened to someone here a couple decades ago.
They built a really big, fancy arena for dressage and jumping and had to go in and take truckloads of sand out, it was too deep.
Not a very good start, they didn’t last long, this is not an area that would sustain, especially at that time, enough business for that and getting footing no one could safely ride in without ending up with lame horses didn’t help.
The OP may be looking at a similar situation, as horses will easily get injured in poor footing.
I know I am going to have to pay somebody with a bobcat to take some sand out. Adding the fiber will help some but my gut says I will still have footing that is too deep. Not listening to my gut has gotten me in trouble more than once.
