I need ideas on a home made dressage ring, preferably made out of wood (something my husband and I could build). It will be in a paddock with horses so it has to be able to with stand some abuse. I don’t have the 2 grand to chunk down for one of the fancy rings and I just don’t know if plastic chain will hold up with the horses, plus if it got caught around a leg that could be very disastrous! So please any ideas would be greatly appreciated 
I don’t have anything around my dressage ring. It’s in the big field with the horses. They like to roll, play, and sleep in the sand. I do have cones marking the letters (actually upside-down plastic flower pots) and I put out the letters when I have a lesson. Sometimes they play with the pots but I just put them back. Works great!
May not stand up to rigorous turnout abuse, but easy to assemble/take down:
PVC poles and plastic trash cans. Use 2"-3" diameter PVC pipe (often sold in 10’ lengths). Drill corresponding 2.5" or 3.5" holes in small plastic trashcans. Very safe, horses can’t get tangled up in it. It can get knocked around, and loose trash cans can blow away (and then get run over by the tractor). I don’t remember how much the PVC is, but the trash cans are a dollar or two (plan on about 30 of them). Use taller trash cans for letters. 
[QUOTE=deacon’s mom;3495983]
I don’t have anything around my dressage ring. It’s in the big field with the horses. They like to roll, play, and sleep in the sand. I do have cones marking the letters (actually upside-down plastic flower pots) and I put out the letters when I have a lesson. Sometimes they play with the pots but I just put them back. Works great![/QUOTE]
This is how I did it. I have nothing around mine; just sort of a berm so that water would go around the ring when it rained. I have cones (they are in the barn at the moment) with letters that I put out now and then. If you put something around the arena, sometimes, it will cause horses to just be pillpots!
How about railroad ties?
I was about to suggest this! Great idea!
Railroad ties = horsie chews. And they tend to splinter alot (my mom had railroad ties lining her gardens). I personally wouldn’t want my horse chewing on railroad ties.
How did you go about finding railroad ties, the ones at home depot/ Lowe’s are really expensive. I would love used ones.
a can of spray paint is pretty affordable
I took tomato stakes and hammered them 1/3 of the way into the ground every 10’ and then slipped PVC over them and put PVC “T” sleeves on them. Then take 10’ PVC poles and slip them into the PVC “T” sleeves. Instant ring. You can make this ring any height you want according to how tall the PVC is that you slip on the tomato stakes. This cost me about $200 including my letters and the flower pots to dress it up.
I’m thinking that this year I will throw some sand on it. I did a patch test with some coarse sand and it has held up very well.
I have discovered that I am a project person and once the jumps were built and the dressage ring done I am getting ansy to start another project. But there is little left.
[QUOTE=kaluha2;3497303]
I took tomato stakes and hammered them 1/3 of the way into the ground every 10’ and then slipped PVC over them and put PVC “T” sleeves on them. Then take 10’ PVC poles and slip them into the PVC “T” sleeves. Instant ring. You can make this ring any height you want according to how tall the PVC is that you slip on the tomato stakes. This cost me about $200 including my letters and the flower pots to dress it up.[/QUOTE]
I have been considering putting in an arena at some point (grass, so can’t just rely on where the sand ends). This is the first idea I’ve heard that sounds like it really might work. What diameter pipe did you use? Do the horses really leave it alone? Mine are not hard on anything that cannot be used as a scratching post, so it shouldn’t get too much abuse.
trees
My arena has trees around it…ones that fell down in my little forest and I delimbed and drug to their place. It’s great, it doesn’t matter if they get chewed because there’s no preservative on them. They last for years and years. They keep the footing in during winter/spring runoff. They were free.
Alternatively, if they are replacing electric poles near you, you can often (around here anyway) ask them to put them in your property. They need somewhere to put them and this saves them the disposal fee. But they have preservative on them.
Sandra
Thanks everyone for the ideas, I really like the tomato posts with pvc pipes on them. My don’t really mess with stuff either unless they are in need of a really good sratch. My husband and I have come up with a way to build a wooden ring but will definently see which is less to build the pvc or the wood one.
one caution against using PVC: if a horse steps on it or cracks it somehow, PVC will splinter sideways in such a way to really puncture a horse’s tendons and damage their feet. Not to mention if a rider falls/gets thrown onto it. very dangerous and bloody. I’ve seen it happen. it’s not pretty
Our outside dressage arena is just step-in letters with the corners and entry marked with weighted cones. You could also use buckets for cones and letters. You can add square poles lying on the ground here and there to provide more outline if needed.
I like this for a few reasons. For one, it allows you the option of using the whole larger ring and cross right through the court at times. Secondly, you can’t rely on the ‘wall’ to be straight so you need to be effective with the outside aids and ,thirdly, it’s much easier to set up and take down for dragging. I like to drag the whole ring which is about double the size of the court. it does a better job than trying to drag inside the court and I don’t want to set up and take down the more complicated arena type everytime I want to drag.
You might consider using white survey paint and a string with stakes to “paint” the outside of your ring. You will still need cones or other markers for the letters but it would help delineate your ring w/o having something permanent to mow around.
Well, haven’t had any horses or riders drip gallons of blood from PVC splinter. Actually haven’t had anything splinter except from a wooden pole on a jump which would have really caused bloodshed. LOL! Much rather land on a pvc pipe than a 6x6 landscape timber, or a concrete block or have a horse catch a hoof on that. But ya know, different strokes.
Anyway, I used the 1 1/2" pipe but a larger pipe could be used. The pipe slipped over the tomato stakes is 1 1/2’ high. No, I don’t have a horse mess with it. They go in and out of it to graze but otherwise they ignore it.
I also like this type of arena because it is portable. If I decide to sell the farm I can take this down very easily and move it to another. It is also very easy to measure out the arena using this too.
Mine is also a grass ring and the sand I threw done has stayed put for 2 years now.
