Don’t judge. I’m a newbie. Have a great new installed sand arena that drains great and is wonderful to ride in… Except now that we have had freezing then rain then freezing all in the same day. Now it’s chunky ice balls of sand. Ew. I’ve heard of pp using salt. We have enough crappy salt everywhere here on the roads and plus wouldn’t it drain into the pasture and not be good for the horses? Or the grass? Any other options?
I don’t know about the salt, but on days before a big freeze, one of the workers at my barn will drag the arena. This seems to hep prevent clumping and the chunks of sand. The BO has an indoor that is a mix of sand and dirt, and when the weather thaws the melted snow seeps into the edges of the indoor. If the worker doesn’t drag the ring, the footing turns into rock-hard clumps and you can’t walk on it without begging for a stone bruise.
I’m not sure what you can do to prevent freezing, but dragging before a big freeze when it’s mild out seems to help the indoor here.
I tried to convince DH to help me hook up the arena rake the other day when it was warmer. Maybe I’ll show him your reply Beowulf and give him an “I told you so”. He thought it was worthless.
What climate are you in? If this is unusual, I would say just wait it out and then next time, try to get it dragged.
I do not treat my sand ring for a few reasons - I don’t want the run off into the surrounding hay fields and ground water and since it’s snowy more than just freezing, it would only give me a few days here and there of ridable surface - just not worth the expense.
But dragging it smooth does help before a freeze -if I drag my ring before it freezes, I can often get a few days of nice snowy footing before the next weather event changes it all, but starting with a flat frozen base is helpful.
I’m in the wild north east. This isn’t unusual. But last winter was… In that it was way more mild. And this is my first winter with the sand and only my second as an adult with my horses here. Last year the snow was wonderful footing for most of the winter. At least now I have some verification that dragging does help.
If you’re getting really cold temps (meaning days where it doesn’t get above freezing) dragging won’t do anything. I drag mine almost daily, as it makes a huge difference to have a dragged ring before it rains. But we had a week of frozen temps here a few weeks ago and I had a perfectly smooth, footprint-less and totally frozen arena for that time period. I suppose it’s better to ride in a smooth and frozen arena than chunked up and frozen one, but dragging it didn’t change how much it froze at all. Seems like Mag Chloride is what most people use to keep outdoors from freezing. If you do a search here you’ll find several threads on the topic.
For indoors our arena has Mag Chlor put down, and dragged in. It not only keeps it from freezing but also makes a dustless summer arena. Mag Chlor is considered fairly environmentally friendly. I know I use it around the house and see no problems come spring. The grass still grows where I don’t want it.
