How small is too small for an Arena? Should I extend?

[Billy_Jax]

Hi all,
I’ve recently moved to a property with a 50’ x 100’ arena. I’ve always thought it was a bit on the small size but still useable until my trainer commented last week that she thought it was too small. It is only used for flatwork mainly walk, trot and a little canter, but now I’m paranoid that riding in an arena this size is in someway damaging my horses! My main riding horses are 14.3hh and 15.1hh is that helps any

I have the option to extend the arena by maybe 15’ at most width wise but would it be really be worth the cost and effort for such a minor difference? Opinions greatly appreciated!

[Highflyer]

That’s pretty small-- shorter and narrower than a small dressage arena. It really depends how much you use it, but if you ride in it pretty regularly, make circles etc. than I would consider it.

[mmeqcenter]

You’re probably not harming your horses unless you’re doing countless circle after circle after circle, however it is ideal to at least be able to do a 20m circle. 20m = 65ft. Expanding it to 65’ width would be ideal and worth the cost. You will likely notice a huge dfference.

[pluvinel]

A lot of the old private indoor schools in Europe are very small.

If you look at videos of Nuno Oliveira in his school, I would say that the indoor was about 48-50 feet wide.

Look at the horse. Estimate about 6 feet for the length of the horse and mark off the width based on the number of lengths of a horse.

[TMares]

Mine is 66 x 125- it can feel reallllly tedious to ride in- the training is in the transitions and lordy there’s a lot of them in a space that small. Being aware that the horse may feel it’s pretty intense to work at that pace, and planning accordingly is smart.

[goodhors]

Bigger is always better so horse is not constantly turning. If you have the space to expand, go for it! I like bigger for having horse listen better, not using edges, fence to contain him. I can do work in the center, he is going where I direct him, listening to me, with no edge holding him in place. He is REALLY trained, not faking his responses as I see on other “wall-trained” horses. We gallop, he is able to reach out, then slow as asked, so no excitement when we need to go fast in lines, or circles, turns, it is normal work.

[Beck]

This is an outdoor, uncovered ring, right? Go bigger if you can. the expense should be minimal. (And you won’t get 65’ of riding space out of a 65’ width: your horse’s feet will not be going up against the fence. Add a minimum of 10’ to that.)

[pluvinel]

I was assuming this was a covered arena.

I will pipe in as an advocate for the “small school.” I want a horse that is in “self carriage” and listening to the weight aids. You can use the small school to train this because the horse has to follow your weight in the turns.

Here you can see Oliveira’s entire indoor so you can see length & width.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPCRltKnX1I

For “going large” I like LARGE…like a large hay field large where you can work without walls, gallop and ask the horse to be in self-carriage over uneven terrain. It is a great athletic exercise.

Here is the sort of collected work that can be trained in a small school.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfiTTyi2He8

[SnicklefritzG]

Bigger is better, because you can always use jump poles and standards to section off a portion of the arena.

[Janet]

How advanced are your horses?
What discipline are they working in?
Do you have a larger area outside the arena to ride?

[enjoytheride]

My indoor arena is 80×80. It was either that or not have one. I ride outside as often as possible

[findeight]

I dunno, can you go more then 15 feet? Cost verses benefit issue. If you have to spend thousands for things like moving a wall and adding pricey footing for 15’? Might not be worth it.

If it’s just moving a fence back 15’ and a load of sand? Sure, why not.

But you won’t ruin your horse simply because a ring is small and trainer can adapt her lesson plan for your ring. You can ruin a horse in any size ring if you aren’t smart and many who are smart have proven you can take a horse all the way to one top out of a small home ring. You can work around the size issue if it’s cheaper to haul out occasionally to use a larger ring then dump a chunk of money to expand yours by a scanty 15’. That’s one or two strides so his much per stride will it cost?

[Redlei44]

Unless you rarely use it, or never plan to do more than just a bit of work in it, 50’ wide will get really tedious ime. Go at least 65’ wise, then wider and longer as budget allows.

[Scribbler]

I would love a huge area with arena quality footing. Doesn’t need to be an arena.

As a teen, at a backyard barn with no arena, I found a place to school that I could hack to. It was a huge level area of sand, several acres, that had been infilled on the industrial waterfront but not built on yet. We did all kinds of schooling there, canter circles and flying changes and sliding stops. And just racing around.

Best place ever to school.

[findeight]

OP mentioned she can only expand about 15’ in width. that’s why not sure it would be worth to extend a 15’ strip 100 feet, especially if it’s an indoor where a wall would need to move back.

[MissCoco]

I will caveat this by saying I am pretty bad at estimating sizes, and it is not my arena, so I may be wrong about how big it is.
I ride in an arena that is more or less that size for much of the year, I think it is probably more than 50ft wide though, our 20m circles feel just a bit smaller than in a regular arena.

How the farm owner deals with some of the space issues is by keeping an equal length, but wider pasture next door to the arena nicely mowed, so if it’s not too wet or dry, that space is available. In the winter we often work in one of her pastures that is much bigger than a standard arena as well. The farm owner also does a lot of work on the dirt road she lives on, but obviously having that option is super dependent on where you live/the horse you are riding.

Her feeling is that it is less than perfect, but it was there when she moved in, and it is free to keep its current size.

I do some jumping in it (and sometimes out of it, the fence between the arena and the pasture next door has a couple permanent jumps in it), and don’t find that we have issues with running into things or that we are super limited as to what we can do. But it does get difficult to have more than about 3-4 jumps in the arena (one or two of the “jumps” can be small grids without any issues though).
In a smaller arena I always have to have a plan, which my trainer shouts I communicate to my horse before we are already where I meant to be turning. :lol: So in that way it is a good thing for me!

It does get a bit boring at times, but it also encourages me to be more thoughtful about planning my rides with a specific goal in mind, and my trainer has come up with some really creative ways to use the small space as well!

It is nice to occasionally have some more room to stretch out in though, either on or off property, but I would bet if you have some non-arena ridable space on your farm, or a nearby place you can get to semi-frequently you’ll probably get by just fine, unless you need a reason to expand the arena, and the money to do that, because larger arenas are pretty much always nicer than smaller if you have a choice!

[Billy_Jax]

Mmmm, lots to think about. The arena is outside and is now my only place to ride. I used to ride in the neighbours fields next door but now they are building a house there. Unfortunately I will only be able to extend about 15’-20’ because of surrounding trees that cannot be cut down - I would love more space though to really get the horses to stretch and lift there backs. Would 15’ - 20’ foot really make a noticeable difference? could I canter comfortably in an arena 70’ by 120’?

[SuzieQNutter]

It is the extended trot that you would like to get across the diagonal that will change the most.

I don’t know what your laws are but I would ask for permission to move the tree. We did that. You then have to ride on it for ages to harden the ground again, before you make the arena.

[CHT]

I would add the width. I think it will make a big difference for you and your horse. 50’ is pretty narrow.

[Beck]

For many, many years the standard size for an indoor here in the north was 60’ x 120’. We cantered and jumped with no problems.

Using a smaller space greatly improves your collection and balance. Not a total waste.