Indoor Arena Questions

[2happyhaffies]

I am finally ready to build an indoor arena. I’m trying to pick a size, find a builder/company, and learn as much as I can ahead of time so I have some vague notion of what I’m doing before I take the plunge.

I am in Northern AZ. We get lots of snow in the winter, abundant (hot) sun in the spring, summer and fall, have monsoons in late summer, and WIND. My farm is at high elevation (8000’).

I expect to use the arena very regularly, and my main interests are USDF-level dressage, agility, VERY low level eventing, driving, and trail/obstacle. I don’t need an indoor big enough for driving

I am off grid, so lighting in the arena would be by hooking up a small generator (not a big deal), and heating would be very optional.

I’m leaning towards a steel building, and am just learning about what I’ll need to do for footing. I am looking to control costs, but want a good, serviceable arena with a long life expectancy and not too much maintenance.

All that being said, what size, type, footing do other folks have? Are you happy with what you’ve got? What would you do differently?

Thanks!

[merrygoround]

I would check around the area to see what works re:wood vs steel. As I understand it steel can get quite expensive, but if you have wood munchers in your neighborhood, steel it is.

The bigger it is the bigger the bill. I Would consider 70’ wide as a baseline, if you really want your 20m circles to be 20m. 135 feet long will give you a 40m arena, which is doable.

As for footing. Check with those in the area, and see what they have done, and what is available. Drainage is a consideration, you don’t need melting snow to create a skating rink, or paddle pool. So much depends on the consistency of the ground at your proposed site. I would not only talk to other arena owners, but those in the business of selling and moving dirt in your area. Talk to more than one.

USDF puts out a booklet on footing I believe it’s call “Underfoot”. Read it!

[cherham]

We are located north of Toronto. Lots of snow here (unfortunately). I also ride dressage and have some event boarders. We eventually decided on a 72 wide by 144 long to accommodate a full size 20 x 40 M dressage ring. Our outdoor sand ring is large enough for a full 20 x 60 M ring. The important part is the width as noted above. At 72 feet wide minus the kickboards we can ride a perfect 20 M circle. That is all we need for winter riding…

[snowrider]

Do you have an outdoor already or is this going to be your only arena? That would affect my choices a lot. At the barn I mostly ride at now they have a 20x40-50m effective indoor (depending on how it’s set up) and I would go mad if it was the only place I had to ride. It’s fine for the winter only but doesn’t get a lot of use in the summer as everyone is using the large outdoor.

You can school dressage pretty well in a small court although you don’t have much of a long side for lateral work and large young horses are interesting. The ability to ride more than a 20m circle is sorely missed on the bigger babies. It’s too small to do much jumping, you can set up a couple fences or a small gymnastic and that’s about it.

[Bluey]

We have a metal building, would not consider any other today, for resale value and for the least maintenance.
Unless you live where wood is extremely cheap.
I don’t think AZ is that.

Go check event centers in your area, ask who is building and maintaining their ground, which ones have a reputation for excellent footing and talk to whoever does that work about what you want.

That is what we did, we ended up with excellent footing.

As for size, could you put flags in the area where you are going to build and ride as if it was your arena, see what you can live with, for your purpose?

[fordtraktor]

Piggybacking on OP, what do people think is a minimal size for jumping a course? Indoor in the 5 year plan and I want to start figuring. Jumpers.

[2happyhaffies]

[QUOTE=snowrider;9001528]
Do you have an outdoor already or is this going to be your only arena? That would affect my choices a lot. At the barn I mostly ride at now they have a 20x40-50m effective indoor (depending on how it’s set up) and I would go mad if it was the only place I had to ride. It’s fine for the winter only but doesn’t get a lot of use in the summer as everyone is using the large outdoor.

You can school dressage pretty well in a small court although you don’t have much of a long side for lateral work and large young horses are interesting. The ability to ride more than a 20m circle is sorely missed on the bigger babies. It’s too small to do much jumping, you can set up a couple fences or a small gymnastic and that’s about it.[/QUOTE]

I do have a full-size outdoor arena, it’s currently buried in snow I think definitely want to be able to at least do 20m circles, and basic w-t-c work. I’m pretty good at getting creative with limitations. But as things are now, I really end up with several months when I can’t ride or even do a lot of groundwork. Frustrating!

Good food for thought, thank you all for the feedback!

[Bluey]

Could you go ride in local indoors in your area with fees per ride, then measure those you like best for what you want?

[SugarCubes]

Ford Would this be your only ring or do you also have a bigger outdoor? A local boarding barn has a 60x120 indoor as their ONLY arena. I hate riding in that small of a ring, but their boarders sure do know how to set come creative courses and keep their horses in work! If you would just be using it a couple months a year, you may be able to get by with something that small.

My personal ring is 87x125, I wanted it to be closer to 150’, but that wouldn’t work with our land. I do like the width, and I think that size would actually be pretty perfect for an indoor…not crazy big, but big enough to set some lines and some gymnastics!

[snowrider]

If you have an outdoor then I’d say 72’ width will work fine. There’s a cutoff on width that affects the pricing a lot and I think it’s somewhere around that. Then just go as long as you can afford. Less than 40m just isn’t worth it, imho and 60m or more makes a big difference in the usability for jumping. If it’s a stand alone building you’ll lose at least 10 ’ to storing jumps, mounting block, tie area etc

In answer to size for jumpers, there is a local barn with a tiny indoor, maybe 20m x 50m and they compete at pretty high levels. Their outdoor isn’t much bigger. I don’t know how they stand it but they are successful. I know they haul out to school a fair bit.

[OTTBs]

[QUOTE=fordtraktor;9001617]
Piggybacking on OP, what do people think is a minimal size for jumping a course? Indoor in the 5 year plan and I want to start figuring. Jumpers.[/QUOTE]
My indoor is 60x140. I set up what I thought was a 3 stride line on the long side, but horse thought it was a 4 stride line. That was the longest line I think I’d set up on the side. So take that and figure from there. Do you want to be able to set up a triple combination on the long side, plus another jump?

For jumpers, I believe the arenas are usually quite wide. Over 66’ wide costs quite a bit more but if you want to really train jumpers I’d think 80’ wide would probably be the minimum, 100’ would be better. I did think my turns in my arena were a bit tight, and I had 1 jump on each diagonal plus the line on the one long side.

[fordtraktor]

I have an outdoor but it is tiny. Like 60 by 100 so I am hoping to do something I can jump an actual course in, like more than 2 strides.

[StormyDay]

Most of the jumper rings at competitions start at 130x150, and they average around 150x300. obviously that would be way too big for an indoor. I used to set up challenging courses in a 80x150. I could usually set up between 8-10 jumps in that. The smallest indoor I would build would be 65x120, which we could set up two lines and one diagnol line in.

[IPEsq]

For where you are, I’d price out steel structures with builders who know how to deal with the snow and wind loads. Insulation will help with the temps, noise and condensation.

[mmeqcenter]

In Ohio, and for whatever reason (cost, I’m assuming), the typical indoor arena in my area was 60’x100’ or 60’x120’. If you can go bigger, you will definitely NOT regret it. Both get you up to 4, maybe 5 fences, which of course you can make a “course,” but there’s not room for a full 8-10 fence course. 80’x140’ is the smallest size I’d say you can get a rideable course in.
IF you’re okay with riding in the cold, and are just looking for precipitation protection, you could look at a covered arena instead of fully enclosed, small cost savings.
Footing will depend on what’s readily available in your area. But, I’m partial to a nice washed concrete sand myself (as the actual footing - the base and etc. you’ll need to discuss with your contractor, I have no idea what AZ would need), or masonry sand in second place. Both are quite economical.

[Guilherme]

In general the money in building an indoor is the width. It takes a lot of steel to safely support a 60-70’ (or more) clear span structure.

An indoor is going to need some sort of forced air ventilation system, particularly in hot weather. That means power for more than lights.

It would be a good idea to visit as many indoor arenas in your area as you can and discuss with owners/managers what they did right and what they did wrong. Learn from their experience. What works in CA or TN or NY or ONT might be a non-starter in AZ at 8000 feet. You should also consult your County Extension agent.

Would a covered arena work? These eliminate the problem of “air exchange.” You say you get some windy days. What if you were to add half-walls to break the wind on the side where you get the highest winds? If you had to deal with blown in rain or snow how many days a year would you lose? Could you deal with these losses? I’ve got a cover over 20m x 60m and it works very well in East TN. I lose a number of days every year to blown in rain but we also get 50+ inches of rain per year on average. A cover is not cheaper than in indoor due to construction requirements. It is an alternative that has very low maintenance and/or operational costs.

Do “shop around” and see what folks in your area do and how they do it.

G.

[snowrider]

I’ve never seen an indoor with a forced air ventilation system. I don’t think that’s necessary.

[cherham]

Actually I have. A property owned by a multi-millionaire built for his daughter. The arena has a completely separate ventilation system from the barn. Heated and cooled in the summer with an air exchange system installed as well. Talk about climate control for riding comfort Of course the fact that this young lady shows in Florida for 4 months totally negates the necessity for heating the arena space in the first place. Ahhhh…to be that wealthy.

[Guilherme]

[QUOTE=snowrider;9003698]
I’ve never seen an indoor with a forced air ventilation system. I don’t think that’s necessary.[/QUOTE]

I’ve seen a number, both with and without. My observation is that in any structure with significant use dust becomes a major issue. It’s also a major issue in places where it gets hot. If you can’t remove that hot air the place becomes like the The Cooler in “The Great Escape.” Not at all pleasant.

The ones that did best were oriented to take advantage of prevailing summer breezes, if any, and had a LOT of windows. Cross ventilation is a Good Thing but is expensive, because including windows is expensive. You can also increase the height of the building and have a good system of cupolas, turbo vents, or other un-powered ways to vent heat. But even with all this large vent fans were required at least part of the time.

You don’t need a full HVAC system. That’s great if your name is Kerry or Gates or the like but for most of us that’s a non-starter.

G.

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

Ford–Back when i jumped things, I rode in an 80’ x 175’ arena. There was no outdoor. It was about the smallest I would personally build to set up more than just a grid. People who jumped much higher fences than me seemed to survive clinics there just fine. Of course bigger would be great too.
A couple of my friends who ride dressage have 80x200 arenas (neither has an outdoor). I (personally) would sacrifice some of that to stay 80’ wide if that entered the decision and it were my main ring.