New Riding Arena - DIY

[scrbear11]

I know there are tons of topics, but none pop up within the last four pages of threads.

Husband thinks he and a friend can level my riding area, which is currently grass, less than a 1 foot grade, so we can then put in footing so I have a better place to ride during our wet Virginia winters.

Leveling the area - he should keep a slight grade for drainage, correct?

Base - Once level, the base will just be dirt. We have fairly soft, sandy soil for being in Virginia. No red clay on our farm. Is the soil compacted enough to create a draining base? Should some sort of stone be added on top of the soil before adding the footing?

Footing - At my previous, leased farm, we had blue stone dust. Even though economical, I HATED IT. It compacted and the footing was too hard. I would go with a sand type footing. How many inches of footing should I plan to initially put over the base?

Thanks!

[tulachard]

I’ve got a stone dust ring on top of a dirt base that was packed down with a tractor. I really like it but maybe it’s the type of stone dust I’m able to source? I also drag it on a regular basis to keep the top fluffy. I especially love that I can ride on it right after it rains. I think I put down about 5 inches of stone dust initially so I would have a base and a bit loose on top.

Maybe think about putting stone dust down and live with it for a bit and then put your sand down? If you put sand on top of the dirt, you may lose it to the dirt. I’ve got sandy loam soil as well with some clay mixed in. I tried putting a load of sand down as a test without the stone dust and the sand was gone in no time.

[Scarlet_Gilia]

The USDF publication “Underfoot” contains a lot of good info.

https://store.usdf.org/products/underfoot

[LilyandBaron]

I’m in Ohio and couldn’t justify cost of “real” arena. Grading down past topsoil and adding just sand has worked great for me! It all drains down to one short side, so I have railroad ties at that end and use a yard rake maybe twice a year to pull sand up from the low end. I use a harrow drag with my little lawn tractor maybe once a week? I started with a small amount of sand to see how it worked, and I will add another 6 yards this spring, but now that amount is correct, I should be okay for a year or two, and then periodically add $200 worth of sand. Compared to the “real” arenas around, I get as much, if not more, good days because of the drainage. So I suggest putting in some sand and seeing what happens, if you can’t afford more. Or ask on a local FB group if anyone has DIY arenas around you.

[mlb722]

Typically dirt or sandy soil doesn’t make a great base (will not compact well and may shift around. If at all possible, I’d remove the dirt then add compacted stone dust, then sand would likely be a better option. I added 2” sand and it is plenty deep. The base is more important than the footing, imo.

[wsmoak]

I’m guessing ‘blue stone dust’ is what we call decomposed granite further south. It’s a byproduct of quarrying, so much cheaper than a specialty product.

My advice, if you are not going to compact the base, would be to let them level it, then bring in that blue stone dust and spread it. Ride on that for a year and see how level they managed to get, and how the drainage works. Because if you find out that you do need to fix it, that same material is what you’ll end up using, and you don’t want to lose your expensive sand in the process.

That’s what I’m doing:
171229_4331 by Wendy, on Flickr

It was already a sandy clay with very little topsoil, and there was a natural crown. My amazing grading contractor did that by sight, making the best use of what I had to keep the costs down. Next time maybe we will build up the lower left corner of the picture, and it has a couple of low spots but nothing major. We weren’t going for a competition dressage arena, just “mostly flat spot with no trees”.

Good luck!

[TheHorseMutterer]

Today is the day for my DIY arena! The M10 (stone dust) is currently being delivered and spread. We graded to clay (thanks, GA) with the drainage to be across the whole short side (its cut into a hill) and out the back of the property on the long side.

I am doing a track of 1 strip AgTec 2" ground grid along the rail where I will expect to ride most and then covering with 5-6" of M10 throughout the whole arena. It’s a small space - 60x120 - but that’s all I ave room for. Pictures to come and I’ll let y’all know how the groundgrid affects the stability, washout, etc!