I’d like to install a relatively affordable track around the perimeter of the property, for hacking, some cantering,
probably no galloping. I live in e New England. What would people suggest the footing be? Some of the area will drain fantastically, others not so much. Will not be entirely flat, some natural slope. This will be a long term project I’d like to chisel away at as we have time (ha!) & finances. Some of the footing is nice loamy dirt, some is your typical crappy rocky Nee England (ma) soil. Thoughts?
Following because I want to do this too!
I had considered wood chips?
My goal too. How about like Vicki Wilson’s? We can dream! https://www.facebook.com/VickiWilsonNZ/videos/2366771853551376/
I want to fit all that is in Vicki Wilson’s setup into my four acres…
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Wow.
Around here, and in Maine the Rockefellers built carriage trails in what eventually was given over to State Parks. They have conservation offices at the park near me, I think they’d be happy to answer your question of what they use and how they maintain it. It’s surface is fine stone gravel (my words - I don’t know the correct term).
A long time ago in the Old Dressage and CT magazine there was an article about a woman who did not have an area for a full size dressage arena. Instead she built a trail around her property complete with 20 M and 10 M arcs in the corners, wide areas for LY and HP, and straight lines for rail work and other lateral work. I believe she even had a complete 10M circle in the path somewhere.
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The couple I’ve seen, at Windurra and True Prospect, are both sand.
It is not ideal for all places but one place I boarded at took shaving from stalls and separated them from manure. The shavings were spread on a 20’ wide property perimeter track. This broke down to soil and helped in the areas that were rocky but it made other areas that had a lot of loam too deep. They also had a road that was paved with road base. The road base (also called crushers dust here) made for a great surface that always drained in the winter but summer made it entirely too hard. Ideally, I think it would be nice if a track had the same sort of perpetration as an arena with topsoil removed, an appropriate crown to drain water from or slope, a base, and footing. Given how expensive that project would be, I might try adding used shavings in the rocky areas and amending the ground with some road base in the deep areas.
I have finally (after three years) completed a trail around my property. It includes winding paths through woods + grass tracks along fence lines + lengthy portions over boggy areas that were unusable before + an actual oval that looks like a mini racetrack about 15 ft wide – one turn was built into/over a swamp area that was also previously unusable ground. The rest of the track is grass that I mow.
I was lucky in that that previous owner was a game hunter and had already made jeep size paths through the woods all over the place. Unfortunately there were mazes of tree roots (ankle breakers) that covered portions of the paths + large rocks were exposed.
To remedy, I dug out the worst rocks then covered areas with stone dust – 6 inches of it and feathered it into the natural grade. Drove back there on my tractor with load after load. Very time consuming but I got it done. So… the paths are stone dust transitioning to natural dirt and back to stone dust etc.
The stone dust has never packed hard because I special ordered it – 1/4 inch – with minimal dust; just enough to keep it cohesive. Plus leaf fall stays on the paths and degrades into stone dust = nice surface that will in time (years I imagine) become natural forest floor again.
If I had had any sloped areas I would have mixed clean fill + clay or well composted manure into regular ‘dusty’ stone dust = IMO a less erosion prone mix that might stay put.
As for the swamp/boggy areas: I had my contractor remove the surface muck and grass hassocks etc. – then he put in a base of cheap, rocky fill for drainage – made it higher than the surface of the swamp – then geoteck fabric, then my special order stone dust. Basically he made a road over the swamp. We lined the edges (there is a drop off) with dead tree trunks to define the track. Very expensive endeavor! But totally worth it!
I do have slopes, but they are through meadows or more open woods, so I just mow the grass/weeds that naturally grow there; prevents erosion.
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Funny, I was just thinking about doing the same thing yesterday! I’m also in MA. My guess is that it would need to be constructed similarly to a ring with a good base and stone dust, maybe an inch of sand on top (maybe not needed?). I wish I had a tracter to do some of the work myself. But alas, with a child still in daycare, it will remain a dream of mine for at least a few years to come…!
I wouldn’t use wood chips. They are not great for traction. I had a bad wreck riding on woods chips for footing.
What a great thread! Danacat, other than your boggy areas are you saying you did not have to remove topsoil? Do you have pictures you can share?
Jaime Jackson Pasture Paradise book has good ideas… like not only having a track, but having that in lieu of a traditional square pasture.
I like the idea of a paddock paradise. My friend put a track on her 3 acres. You could ride the perimeter all the way around and add jumps. But i feel like that is too small of an area to real enjoy it.
I’ll take some pictures. Didn’t remove any topsoil except bog muck.
One thing I forgot to mention: A portion of my woods stays very wet when it rains; actual standing water. My contractor put in a few drainage pipes under some paths that diverted the water towards a natural drainage ditch. Really helped. Paths are high and dry even after numerous torrential rains.
Where my mini racetrack transitions from stonedust to grass, and vice versa, there is an obvious visual change in surface. My horses did look/snort at this – but got used to it after a couple of rides.
