My friend wants to build a little riding area to school in. She currently schools on grass. The problem is that grass can’t be ridden on when wet it it gets torn up, too dry and its too hard, gets icy in the winter. So her training time is limited by the weather. She can’t put up an indoor but is thinking about making a basic outdoor. In our county about 6" down everywhere is bedrock. Is that a problem? She was hoping to scrape 6" deep, do a layer of stone/gravel and then sand on the top. The area doesn’t really flood so drainage shouldn’t be too bad…I think 
Any ideas on making an inexpensive outdoor? Her husband has all the equipment so she just needs the materials. What would you do in this situation? Ring will be used 3-4 times a week by 2 horses in all 4 seasons so snow is around a few months. Thanks for any advice!
I would be leary of putting footing pretty much directly on top of bedrock, unless you mean she is going to scrape down the 6" to the bedrock, put 6" of stone/gravel back in that place, then sand on top. I would think replacing the 6" of dirt with 6" of stone would then give you enough cushion.
I would be sure to pack the stone and use some kind of landscape fabric on top of that before she puts the sand. Especially if her husband has the equipment and can do the labor which will really keep it less expensive, the landscape fabric wouldn’t add too much to the total cost, and would probably save them money in the long run in replacement costs of footing.
One of the best rings I ever rode in, was a “homemade” ring. They scraped off the top soil, and just kept adding stone dust each year for the first few years. Then they topped off the stone dust and added a thin layer of sand (maybe an inch?). The ring was about 5 years old when I rode in it, and the footing was awesome. Drained immediately after a rain, but had a really nice cushion to it. It would have needed more sand if we were jumping huge jumps, but for what we did, it was perfect.
Sheila
I am bumping this old thread to try to see if anyone has any experience or additional information.
I am looking to build an outdoor in an area that has shallow bedrock (primarily dolomite limestone). I live in a hilly area and there is a natural plateau in the spot I’m interested in, with good drainage away (has been used as a grass ring), but an excavator told me that to widen the flat space for a 100’ wide arena we need to blast bedrock!! Blasting would be quite expensive!! The plateau is part of a hill slope, so it’s the uphill side of it that would need to be blasted. The fill from blasting could be used to expand the flat portion on the downhill side. It’s not possible to place the arena on the very top of the hill as that is where the house is.
I definitely plan to do a compacted road base or stonedust base and then put footing over that. The upside to my situation is that I have quarries nearby! Just looking for experience with building an arena on shallow bedrock or if anyone has had to do blasting for site prep for their arena. I am also getting other quotes/opinions!
