Is it possible to extend and add on to an arena? Has anyone ever done that before? We had our arena done last summer, but it rides kind of tight and it’s hard to really do a lot of course work comfortably. We can’t go any wider unfortunately, but we can go at least 30 ft longer. It’s an outdoor arena, so I’m just wondering how possible it is to seamlessly extend and match to our existing base and footing.
I extended my 20x40 meter dressage arena with sand footing to 20x60 completely by myself using a subcompact tractor, front end loader, box blade, and a laser level. A bigger tractor would have been nice.
For the surface layer, I graded off about two inches of the old arena sand, mixed it with the new sand, spread the mix on top of both old and new parts, and the 20x60 surface is uniform in color and thickness.
2 Likes
Thanks for the reply! Did you also have an existing base that you had to match?
I did! I made mine wider and longer. I did have professional help. My ‘dozer guy had a laser on his ‘dozer to level and compact the screenings. It is very nice.
Yes I had to add base gravel, Luckily dump trucks could back right up to the site to unload. I also had to cut down an oak tree and a dogwood and a pine, and dig out their stumps. Blowing out a hydraulic hose on the little subcompact tractor doing stump work caused a bit of a delay.
The original arena was done with much heavier equipment - bulldozer, laser grading skid steer and power roller- and a professional arena builder. He had so many big business jobs lined up that he couldn’t be bothered with my addition, though he kept me hanging for over a year saying he would try to work me in. I finally decided FU, I’ll do it myself.
I’ve also done this. Our farm was built for dressage, and we do jumpers, so expanding the outdoor was a top priority when we bought it last year. We hired a professional arena company for this one. Plenty of things I will DIY, but I didn’t want to take a chance on footing. We added about 40’ in width to make it 100x200.
The whole project also involved moving and replanting hedges that bordered the ring, moving an existing driveway, and redoing some fence lines of paddocks that were in the way of the new ring. We also redid the footing, since it had been mixed with some kind of rubber additive, and I didn’t want that in our mix.
The company matched the base, regraded and compacted the base, added additional drainage, and extended the irrigation system. The whole process took about a month, and there were various points in time where it looked hideous, like a giant muddy pit in the ground. But it was well worth the effort in the end.
1 Like
Thanks for the replies! I really think the additional 30 ft will be perfect and really help to make jumping more comfortable. I’m just a little worried because I don’t want to compromise what we already have. Our base and footing are great and I’m just hoping this project can be done without disturbing or compromising what we already have. I think for them to work on the one end of the arena that we want to extend they have drive and gain access through driving through the entire arena from the opposite end. I don’t think that’ll cause any disturbance or issues, but that’s really my only concern.
You will have to blend the new base with the old to eliminate the inevitable ruts along the rail nw being across the center but if you have competent help from somebody who knows what they are doing and has the equipment, it should not be any problem.
One barn I was in that enlarged a ring had to relocate some drainage components and re survey as it was bordering on designated wetlands so do take care with proper prep work. Other then that there were no issues at that barn and another that enlarged an existing ring with no special needs. Biggest pita was the fence and that was minor and mostly cosmetic.
I’m not sure you can extend the ring without causing some disturbance. You’re going to want to make sure the bases are consistent and the drainage is functional. Most outdoors are crowned or graded to allow for runoff. If you don’t touch the existing part, you’re going to have two different crowns or grades that could lead to water pooling where you don’t want it to. So just be aware that you’ll be doing some work to the existing part as well.
