How small of an arena can you still jump in (new ? would you sacrifice size for location, post 22)

[TheJenners]

Not long, complicated lines, maybe get creative with bending lines instead. But enough to do some exercises, not just pop over once fence on each “long side”?

My property has a nice flat area directly where my house is going…or all the way at the bottom, which may or may not get wet, I don’t think it will, but it will be at the opposite end from the barn.

Since it’s for me and I’m setting it up for myself, horses, and what I want to do with horses, I had a thought yesterday: why not put it in the back yard? If my house is ~100-150’ off the road, I do technically have room width-wise for a decent-to-small size arena. Length is where I run into a small issue because the drive way comes in directly in the middle of the property, which is about 400’ wide. So… even if I do run it across the whole length, I’m still going to come in just shy of 200’. Probably closer to 160’ to account for some trees and the driveway itself. I currently ride in a 70x200ish. I’m not jumping big and probably never will go over 3’, even if I do, not at home at any rate :eek:. And the 70’ width is ample and could be squished too IMO.

Thoughts? Moving the driveway is not an option.

[inca]

My arena is about 75x160ish. I can fit a 4 stride line on my long side but you better be ready to turn when you come off that line. What I dislike the most for jumping is the 75 foot width (and it is probably closer to 70 now for various reasons.)

And I often see really cool exercises that I’d like to try and generally they are set up for a bigger space.

Luckily, I have other options so end up just putting a couple singles in my arena if I want to jump at home.

[TheJenners]

Thanks!!

[ParadoxFarm]

My arena is 150 x 100. It may even be closer to 140 long. Length causes me to be creative, but you can certainly do a course in it. Just not long lines. I’ll post a short video, (not for critique!) just for a sample of what we work on in lessons. Excuse the less-then-perfect camera skills. I’m still working with the Soloshot. https://www.dropbox.com/s/f5alzky879r1y44/2016-03-29%20Lesson.mp4?dl=0

[541hunter]

Our indoor is 70x200. I don’t think we could go any narrower, but shorter wouldn’t be too much of an issue. Honestly the narrowness helps for the winter indoor shows – being handy and taking the inside turn seems a LOT easier in a 100x250 arena after you’ve been riding in our arena! We do have to spend some time working on getting used to a real show ring gallop come summer though. Outdoor is 100x180ish and we spend a lot of time getting a real 12’ stride out there come nice weather.

[Calvincrowe]

My SIL has a 80x150 outdoor and it’s fine for jumping up thru 3’6" if you get creative and don’t expect long, flowy hunter courses. I’ve ridden and jumped in a 60x150…and that gets tight, but doable. Can seem a bit like a ball in a pinball game around the corners!:eek:

[RAyers]

A long time ago, I actually schooled my AO/GP jumper in a 60x100 ring. We would do 5’ two strides. That was about it.

A full size dressage ring is roughly 200x66. That is what I currently use to school stadium.

[PNWjumper]

My arena is 100 x 180 and I routinely jump big courses in it (up to 1.60m). Would love to have about 40 more feet of length for when the fences really get up there, but realistically we do just fine.

Several indoors nearby are 80 x 160 and while you’re limited to a 3 down the rail and a 4 on the diagonals (maybe 4 and 5 if you gave up the corners a bit), it works just fine for most jumping work.

I think your space is just fine for what you’re wanting to do.

[horsepoor]

My arena at home is 80x160 and I’ve boarded where the rings were 75x150 and managed to do courses just fine – you just don’t get to do long gallops and the turns come up quick. Four strides across the diagonal would be the longest lines. When we built our ring, I really wanted bigger, but then the reality of cost and fitting it in (some major slope and water issues) forced us to go smaller. Which in the end is fine as I can always haul over to lesson somewhere with a bigger ring once in awhile. One thing I appreciate now with having gone smaller on the arena is that it takes less time/water to water when needed (even in the PNW, we do have those dry months) and now that I need to add some footing, it will be less product and less $.

[TheJenners]

Cost is also a factor, which is why I’m reeeeaaaaaally leaning toward that spot. It’s super flat! :lol:

Though I suspect it will be a dirt arena for a while… I have a lot of fencing to finance, so sand may wait. Which means probably just flat work for now. By by “for now,” I mean this fall. Maybe. Or winter. This county is insane with permitting delays.

Question, those who built their own, and this sounds silly, but… putting in fencing ahead of footing, a bad idea?

[PNWjumper]

[QUOTE=TheJenners;8698958]
Question, those who built their own, and this sounds silly, but… putting in fencing ahead of footing, a bad idea?[/QUOTE]

Yes, bad idea. If you’re going to do a real arena at any point your best bet is to do the arena first and then fencing after so you can fence right up to the edge of the base/footing. If you fence first then you’re going to have a heck of a time getting everything done right up to the edge of the fence (which would be okay, I guess, if you wanted a smaller arena than your fencing dictates).

If you’re thinking that you’re only going to dump sand on top of the dirt (tough thing to maintain in this climate), then I suppose it wouldn’t matter as much.

But if you’re thinking that you want to ride on the dirt area in the meantime, you could always use step in posts and tape so that you have a visual border without a full blown fence?

[TheJenners]

Yep, that’s probably a better idea… Not that they are any better at keeping a horse in, but it’ll help give me the visual of an arena :lol:. I’m too much of a ninny to ride in open spaces!

Thanks all. I know there are other threads but damned if I could find them using the search function.

[Mukluk]

Well if i’m just jumping up and down I would say a 2’ by 2’ arena would work just fine.

[TheJenners]

Nyuk nyuk :lol:

[RockstarPony]

Ditto what everyone else said! Out here in CA a lot of the covereds/indoors are pretty small, around dressage court sized, and we do all of our jumping in there for at least two or three months during the summer.

It does sometimes take a little creativity to build novel exercises in a smaller space, is the only thing I would say. We do a lot of weird hooligan eventer type stuff during the winter, like building bending lines out of a few skinnies, or dragging in a scary log from the field. I honestly think it helps, though, when you go to a show and there’s a bunch of wide open space and all the jumps are very normal looking!

[fordtraktor]

My outdoor ring is about 60 by 100 and it is way too small, but doable. I can do two strides in there easily and three strides on the diagonal and bending lines. I can even make a four stride bending line work if it is super bendy both ways. Even my super green horses are used to coming out of the corner and jumping right away. Of course I have a harder time cantering down the long approach to lone singles other places now because I just don’t do that any more at home but…the size you describe sounds pretty much like heaven to me. Make it as big as you can, and it will be fine.

[TheJenners]

Thanks! You have all been amazing.

[keatssu]

Our arena is 90 x 180 and we have 10 jumps set up right now. We can get a single on the short sides, and a comfortable 5 stride on the long sides - leaving ample room for a lead change. One jump is a 6’ skinny, one is 8’ and the rest of the jumps are 10’ wide. I think you’ll be fine.

[gumtree]

Mine is right around 100 X 200. Which sounds bigger than it is until you put a couple horses in it. I never have more than 2 or 3 at a time so it works just fine.

IMO this size allows room to set up a “proper” schooling course and leaves enough room to do flat work around the outside and do figure 8’s without having to move jumps around.

IMO it would be better to go a bit shorter in length then in width if possible.

I would not put in fencing until it is finished. The equipment needed to bring in sand and move it around, level will go a lot faster if it is not constrained by a fence anywhere. Time is money anybody who is going to do this will bid based on the ease/workability of the site. Plus no worries about some “cowboy” equipment operator hitting your nice new fence.

I only ran a fence line close to one side of the ring. I have a grass “buffer” of around 20+ feet on either end and 30+ feet on one side. I work with a lot of green horses and this allows for “mistakes” a bit of run-out room without running into the fence. The long wide side allows me to set up a straight line jump grid, bounce line when the grass footing is good.

[GrayMare]

It really depends on what you want to do. Don’t fence off the “arena” area yet, but measure and put some cones up and then ride in the area so you can see what the size you are thinking of really feels like. Personally, I think 70’ x 160’ is pretty small for jumping. But, OTOH, jumping in a small arena can force you and your horse to be more organized and collected which can pay off when you get to shows. Also, if you are creative with your space and what exercises you set, you should be able to school the heck out of that arena.

Another (minor) downside of a small arena is that it becomes difficult to groom the footing around the jumps–it ends up being necessary to move/remove jumps to groom.

If there is more than one option for where you might put the arena, I would recommend getting your contractor out on the early side to help you evaluate your options. I had a couple of sites in mind before we built ours, and the site I thought was the flattest actually was not. How much grading needs to be done definitely affects cost.