Indoor arena footing is too soft/deep

I have a small 60x80 indoor arena that has sand footing which is too soft/deep. I have pulled out some of the footing and regularly water, roll with lawn roller and then drag. It is still much too deep and I am not sure what to do about it. Someone suggested I try Mag pellets, any opinions on this? Any advice would be great.

I don’t see how Mag pellets would make any difference on it being too deep. You just need to take more out.

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You can take more out. I’ve read that additives such as Tru Tex footing can firm up too deep footing but honestly it’s probably cheap to free to just pull some out a door. I had to do that to my arena. We didn’t even push it out, we pushed it all the way into the corners where you can’t ride a horse anyway.

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Mag pellets in quantity will make it more slippery, a little will help with dust but too much is not good.

better to remove more sand. And sometimes ‘old’ sand gets ‘worn’ and you need to get new sand that will be more firm. Where I used to board they replaced some of the sand in the outdoor and it was much improved

It is easier to take more out, even if you take too much.

Then you can add back if you find you need more after all.

Agree with the above. And if you don’t want to take more out, you can just stack it in a corner. Pull down and re-spread when you feel its needed.

Just take more out and store it somewhere.

I was in a too deep sand arena where they added felt - guessing something like Tru Tex footing, and it seemed to help a bit, but they did not add enough or maintain it well. I also find that sand requires proper moisture management. It does get deeper and more dust the dryer it gets, so you have to stay on top of it. For whatever reason, most sand arenas I’ve been in have always been too deep. I don’t know if that’s improper management, base, or just over estimation on material that’s actually needed.

The older I get the slower I ride so my horses no longer need protection from concussion, so I scraped most of the footing out of my indoor. The firmer footing has made it much easier to maintain because less sand means less dust, so I no longer need to water it as often, or for as long.

I piled some of the coarser sand in the corners so I have it available for when the pens and walkways get icy.

I added TruTex to my footing that was slightly too deep and it firmed it up. The more fiber you put in the firmer it became. I am very happy with mine. Also needs less water to keep dust down in the summer.

I’m happy to have found this thread. I recently moved to a farm with a similar size indoor. The sand is also too deep and soft. I’ve been watering and dragging to see if it helps, in addition to running a compactor over it a few times. I’m thinking of pulling sand out but have no idea if there’s a base or if it was just built on top of existing soil (very sandy soil). When I’ve dug down all I get is sand. At the old place my outdoor was a clay base with several inches of very angular sand compacted and wood chips mixed in. It was super footing. Same dirt work guy thinks just adding wood chips to the indoor will firm the footing. I’m thinking it needs a couple inches of stone dust and a little sand on top. But maybe it’s worth trying the wood chip option and if it’s a bust go a more expensive and laborious route…

What we did was push some of the sand into the corners of the arena using a box grater where you can’t get a horse, drag, ride, evaluate.