The DW’s horses throw sand up against the plywood kickwall in the arena. Has anyone come up with a great way to pull the mound of sand back into the arena other than back dragging with the loader bucket?
Nope. I’ve seen people do it by hand with a shovel before harrowing.
What kind of arena drag do you have? Our Red Harrow is designed to ride right up on the kickwall and pull the sand back down and level it…
Doing it by hand is often reserved as a punishment chore for the kids.
Kids have grown and moved away. It doesn’t bother the DW and she knows that it bugs the $#!+ out of me to the point that I take care of it… and I DON’T RIDE!
I use an 8’ wide chain harrow on a 3pt hitch, so I can get it right up to the arena wall, but it doesn’t have a blade to pull the material back to the center.
I would think someone would make a blade device with a wheel that would ride on the kickwall that would pull the sand back away from the wall.
I looked up Red Harrow online and didn’t see anything that would prevent an poor operator like myself from tearing up the kickwall.
Bluey, the angled blade is great. I do snow on my driveway that way. (Smacks head is palm) I have a Carolina drag and fly that I use in my sand/DOT indoor arena mix. OP, it has a flap that folds down to solve this problem. I like my drag just fine and thought I’d try the gadget to pull the sand away. I’m not sure how, but I made it way worse. I didn’t tear up the kick board though. I don’t know how it compares to the other drag mentioned. Hope this helps somehow.
I usually just do a bit by hand every time I ride. I just spend a couple minutes as the horses are cooling out, it doesn’t take long if you stay on top of it.
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We don’t have to pull from the edges but rarely.
Since it is not a frequent task, we go very slow while up to the wall, looking back all the time, to be sure we don’t hit the wall.
If we get too close or hit, going so slow, you can stop before it does any damage.
Once first pass is over, then you don’t have to worry, other passes are not that close to the wall any more, you can grade faster then.
I’m with Bluey. I just drive really, really slowly and if I get too close I stop and readjust so I don’t hit the wall. I also use our smallest tractor and blade so that I can see better (because I’m closer to the side of the blade). Even going really slowly it’s still faster than doing it by hand.
Drag n’ Fly arena groomers have an add on edge scraper
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I have a blade like Bluey, but about 1 foot from the kickwall is packed so hard that the tractor and blade are at an angle. So the inner edge of the blade could be scraping the base. I wish I could find a half-blade or something that would clamp onto the blade to only break up that 1-2 feet on the rail. Any ideas?
Thank you! The edge scraper is along the line of what I’m looking for. I hadn’t though of using a heavy rubber material. Now I need to make one that I can mount to my box blade - I think that will be the ticket!
You may be able to make a suitable scraper from some piece of torn truck tire you may find on the highway.
We have used those bolted on something for bumpers, would also work as scrapers.
Your local tire shop may be able to put some up for you from tires they repair, or the local highway maintenance crew can help with that.
