I am building a sand outdoor arena, and have a good arena guy coming to give advice. But I like to be knowledgable!
It seems like the arenas I’ve been to that are crowned in the middle get deep around the sides and corners. True? Can’t I just have it slope a wee bit toward one long side?
My 3-year-old outdoor arena is crowned and the sides and corners are not deep at all. I believe the slope is 1% from centerline to sides. It’s not at all noticeable with the naked eye, so I wonder if the arenas you’ve seen that are noticeably crowned have a more severe grade and that’s why you’re seeing problems? Or they are not properly maintained/dragged.
My builder, who has put in many many arenas and is a horseman himself, prefers crowned because the water has less distance to travel so it drains easier and takes less footing with it. I have seen plenty of arenas sloped as you describe that work too though!
The angle should only be about 1% slope, which you really can’t see, and is definitely not going to cause footing to migrate. Almost all situations where sides and corners get deep is due to how things are dragged. Go too fast, use the wrong implement, and never pull footing off the sides is what gets things deep. The act of a tractor moving too fast as it comes around to a side will push footing outward, towards that side.
Can’t I just have it slope a wee bit toward one long side?
Definitely. The degree of slope would need to be more like 2% for that. Still barely perceptible.
Mine is crowned. Having it crowned doesn’t make the edges deep. Riding on the rail is what makes the edges deep. Our groomer (tr4) has an attachment that helps keep the edges level. Building a good arena is the first step, but maintenance is imperative.
^^ This. Water runs downhill, and think about the strongest heaviest rainfall you get in your area and where the water goes - down the hill. The further down, the faster and stronger, and more power to wash out areas in the ring. Most rings need regular maintenance, meaning harrowing after a strong rain to redistribute any footing that moved around during the deluge, and also fixing the “track” near the rail which gets the most traffic.
“I believe the slope is 1% from centerline to sides”
I’ve read this in a number of different articles, comments on area/rings articles. Would like to know where this “rule” came from. I assume it taken from “plumbing” for drains. 1% slope is pretty much “code”.
But drain pipes are smooth, no restrictions. The same can not be said of an arena/ring. Regardless of the footing used. For water to properly “drain” away from a house/lawn 4-8% slope seems to be generally recommend.
It also depends on the width from center. IMO any contractors who says it is crowned with a 1 degree slope is a miracle worker.
How well an area drains comes down to how much effort, materials, money and engineering is spent on the building up the base and grading away from the edges. You don’t want water to just drain off to the sides but also sink in, peculate in also. The better it “perks” the fast it will dry out. But this kind of “engineering” is EXPENSIVE for the average person. The grade around the ring has to be slopped away pretty good. Which also can add considerable expense.
A ring doesn’t have to be perfect for it to be safe and useful. This is blown way out of proportion. Our has been around for years and years, 100X200. It slopes from one end, high to low by and large. It has an excellent base but does not “perk” like when new. After years and years of use, horse and dragging it has compacted. Pretty hard to get around that. Just like a leech field, it has “life span”.
When we get heavy duty rain the footing (sand) will “gully” in places. But it never effects the base. It just takes some time to work it back to consistency. The footing that gets “washed” to the low end has to be moved back in place from time to time. All footing, being inexpensive sand or very expensive synthetic has a certain level of maintenance. Be it in outdoor or indoor arena/ring.
Depending on the type of footing but regardless of type at some time, point the edges are going to get deeper. Pretty much impossible to avoid. Regardless of the ring construction by and large. Some is cause by countless horses using the ring, some by dragging and the type of drag used, some by the tractor etc. Even with certain types of equipment a certain amount, a lot of manual labor will be needed at some point. A stone rake to pull it off the edges and disperse it around. Than drag. Personally I would rather the footing gather around the edges instead of washing away to the outside grass, etc. Which after time will require buying more.
There is not a horse or farm that is not labor intensive at times.
Make sure you use the correct number when using either % or *.
A 2% slope is correct. That is the same as roughly a 1* slope.
I do see 1% up there as a “I think”, and that’s too little. 1* is pretty much 2% though, which is what you want.
Fair enough but I’m not being paid to write this. You miss my point and are mincing words. Pretty sure most know what we are talking about. Rather have an idea of what we are talking about. No snark intended.
Question for you, have you built an area, have you worked with, on grading equipment, in short what is your direct experience? What is your construction experience?
I have quite a bit of experience and I found what I read about the process, what is “needed” is not always how it works or what is needed in the “real world” for those of us who actually do it.
“2% though, which is what you want”
Maybe but my point is/was it is not an absolute. As I said above and will point out again, it all depends on how much money one has to throw at the project. Most people don’t have Fort Knox to work with. They don’t need to stress over it not coming out “text book” perfect. Maybe 1 in a 1000 people would be able to judge if a ring has a `2% slope or a 5% slope. The horse certainly doesn’t care.
I was merely pointing out that some people are probably not understanding that % and * are different.
I have had a ring built, yes. I worked with a guy who (had) his own road grading equipment, as that’s what he does (did) as his main living, grading roads, but he also built/graded riding rings on the side. I have a roughly 2% (1*) slope from one long side to my other long side. I knew the arenas he built, and fixed, in my immediate area, and knew they were wonderful to ride on and were in great shape years later.
No, it’s not textbook perfect. There’s a spot along one short side that has a minor (depth) but largish (width) depression forming, so apparently something went awry with packing either the sub-base or the base. But this didn’t appear for several years, so I’m ok with that. I avoid that small area when it’s wet.
I can see my slope if I squat down and look from a short side, and that’s only 2%. Not that 5% is bad, other than contributing to more footing movement during hard rains, but it would definitely be noticeable. The more varied the slope a horse works on, the better.
A 2% slope is 2’ for every 100’ of length, and that’s what I commonly see as the ideal. That’s what mine is. Maybe it’s 1.9%, maybe it’s 2.1%, I don’t know and it doesn’t matter. You CAN go 1% if you’re crowning in the middle since there’s less water to get off the ring in a given direction. 2% would get it off faster. You don’t really need much more than that to do the job, especially since the greater it is. the more footing can be carried downhill. You can get away with less, if you’re ok with water taking longer to get off surface.
You do need that top footing to perk, as you said. That gets it down to the base which should be hard as concrete but still permeable (in the ideal world of course). Water will run across, and through, that base, to the sub-base, which really should be all but impermeable, so the water moves totally out of the ring, not sitting there waiting to have depressions form over time from above. Also, ideally.
Depending on your native soil, you may get away with less than that and have a perfectly draining arena that doesn’t have the base/sub-base (which may be the same thing) sucking the footing into it over time. Do that with clay though, and your expensive footing will be eaten in pretty short order. The point is - if you’re adding footing material on top of the native ground, you’re going to pay up front for better work, or pay later to fix and replace footing.
I envy people who can kill the top soil, drag for a week, and have a wonderfully draining sand arena that never gets too deep and drains well.
None of that is meant to be challenging. I’m just adding detail to the conversation to help others see where I was coming from in making my comments above.
Gumtree just google it instead of challenging everyone’s credentials.
http://safesportsfields.cals.cornell.edu/drainage
“The raised portion of a sports field that provides a slope to promote runoff of surface water is called the field “crown”. Crowns are the most effective way to remove surface water because they move water the shortest distance possible.
Football fields should have at least a 1-2% slope. The highest point is usually about 10-18” above the lowest point on the field. Soccer fields made of native soil typically are built with a minimum of 1½ % slope and should never be flat. If the fields have underground drainage the slope should be at least 1%."
http://www.chronofhorse.com/article/farm-design-part-three-building-riding-ring-more-footing-ground
"Most builders highly encourage crowning an arena at a 1½ percent grade. This crown will help aid drainage of water toward the long sides and keep your arena dry. "
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