Interested in any thoughts on construction of a small outdoor riding arena to keep me and the horse in relative shape when not at the trainer’s. Minimum size (I ride English but don’t jump), base, footing, excavation considerations (property in Pa. is hilly)? I have always gone the boarding barn route but wondering about the practicality of my own small arena understanding that weather will also be a big issue. I do have 2 retired horses at home and have barn, fencing, pasture … just nowhere to ride.
This totally depends on the soil and terrain and weather you are dealing with.
Here in middle GA I have a sandy clay with very little topsoil. The grading contractor found a spot with a natural crown, we cleared the trees ($$$) scraped it off, got it mostly level, and spread a bunch of M10 (decomposed granite) on it. It’s totally fine for an arena at home. And if I ever wanted to do a “real” arena with a compacted base and proper footing, this is exactly how it would start – we’d just add more M10 and compact it, so I’ve lost nothing.
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Thank you. What is the size?
I wanted to be able to set up a full size dressage arena so I made them find 200’ in length. It’s meant to be 100’ wide but it’s not a perfect rectangle and one end is narrower due to a slope that would have cost a lot to fill in. Nothing is flat here…
A large dressage ring is 180x60 feet. I find this is big enough for most riding without jumps.
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Thanks - nothing is flat here either (western Pa.). I would need to find out about the soil.
A large dressage ring is 20m x 60m, which converts to 66’ x 197’
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A small dressage ring is typically enough for most flatwork, 20m x 40m = 66’ x 132’. In Ohio, indoor arenas were typically 60’ x 120’ and worked well enough, we jumped in them too.
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I think if you’re willing to make it work, a small dressage arena is fine for most flatwork (and jumping)
If you have the budget for it, bigger is almost always better, but I rode for years in a ring that was smaller than a small dressage ring. I was always great at my centerlines at dressage shows because I had so much extra room to make the turns 
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Just as a general observation, building a riding arena is never as simple as one might first think and building on the cheap can be more expensive in the longer term. Perhaps ask other local riders for their experience, ideas and suggestions and approach professionals for construction quotes. On size: as large as you can afford but even really small will still be useful.
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Thanks for the thoughts - I agree it’s not simple, which is why I still don’t have one after living here for 15 years and have been boarding the riding horses 
I spoke in a general way with an excellent contractor but wanted to get a feel for size, footing and other potential variables before asking for a quote. He had mentioned an all-weather footing that sounded interesting. Keep the comments coming! I appreciate them all!!
If you are going to drag with a tractor, making it larger than dressage court sized and preferably more square will help a lot with being able to change up your drag patterns without a lot of tight turns, which can help you avoid having to get it leveled as often, scrape down the sides, etc. Even 100’ wide can feel a bit small IMO. Now I’ve certainly ridden in small arenas and boarded where there are some small arenas, but doing that and also doing the work to MAINTAIN the arena when I leased a place was more eye opening. And that’s not even getting into the jumps part and what you can set and still have room to drag around, since you said you don’t jump.
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PA has some of the most difficult and unforgiving soil (clay 
) conditions and there are water tables everywhere. The most important thing is establish good drainage and proper grading with the proper equipment - meaning you’ll want the based rolled with a compaction roller, not just a drum roller (it makes a HUGE difference) You’ll absolutely want to put a protective layer between the sub-base and base.
Another thing I’d like to add, make sure to talk to you contractor about placement and be sure to be honest with them and give them as much feedback as possible on how your land responds to different weather conditions.
ETA: Less is more when it comes to footing. You can always add more, pulling it back is a PITA.
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My arena is 20m x 33ishm (used to b3 40m…then dad decided the end was a great spot to plonk a shipping container!). It’s doable for flatwork and you could definitely do some degree of jumping.
Mine is grass, luckily it drains super well and is rarely unusable for more than a day or two after lots of rain. Two horses ridden only a few times a week does wear a little bit of a track here and there but it’s manageable. I do wish it were sand…the 5yo occasionally decides a mid ride snack would be good and is also not coordinated enough to do that at a trot
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I’ve become a huge fan of Horse Barns: Plans, Designs & Ideas group on Facebook. I also just recently had a ring done for my own use- but ended up (fortunately) finding an excavator to do it.
Dressage schooling here, and I did an 80x160- after riding in a fenced area that size for a few years (without footing or drainage). I didn’t want to go any smaller- would’ve done a full 200’ long, or even 10-20’ wider, if it didn’t require extensive excavation work & drainage issues to combat. I’ve ridden in a LOT of indoors and a few outdoors they were 60x120 or 60x130 though, and they work fine.
I’m on clay and rock in southern New England. The part of my town where I live, was historically called Rock Village. It’s almost comical how awful the ground is. The area was graded down about 5 years ago after clearing trees & stumping. Coming out of this winter (the area was unusable Jan-April), it had finally gotten to the point where it was either water-logged, slick, soul-sucking mud, or exposed rock. My excavator dismissed the idea of geofabric, and having ridden on a couple rings he’d done & knowing of many others- including another one in my neighborhood, I trusted his take. After the fill for the ring subbase, came the gravel (1” minus, or dense grade), then ~5” of stonedust. 1”-1.5” of angular sand with a little clay topped it off.
My ring was cut into the grade about 2’ on two sides, and banked on the opposite two sides because it was about 3’ about the natural grade on the “low” side. I will be doing retaining edging with on the sides of the ring that cuts into the yard, and overseeing the bank on the opposite sides to prevent erosion (though it is banked with a very gradual pitch so not anticipating issues.)
With and between each layer of fill, gravel and stonedust, a vibrating compactor and laser level were used.
It was complex construction for a backyard ring, but because I’m on very small acreage, have poorly percing & extremely rocky ground, and the natural grade goes towards a neighbors property (which I did not want to have any issues with) I think this was a really good way to build a useable ring for my area.
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I personally find 20m wide (66’) tp be too narrow, especially for young green horses. 30m is much better so if I were limited on size I would go more of a square. But I think that 30m x 60m (100x200ft) is kind of an ideal size.
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