Hi, so how should be in your opinion a perfect indoor arena, size, ground etc tia
Depends on your use, training or competition?
Ours we put regular topsoil layers, watered and compacted, then 3" river sand, leveled all with a grader with leveling gear.
Have trained many horses over years and no injuries, but also you have to know how to ride according to your horse’s training and fitness, for reining also shoes it is wearing.
Ours is a training 120’ x 250’ x 18’ at the eaves, best for roping.
Built for general roping, working horse and reining arena, with some barrel racing and pole bending 4H use, etc.
For cutting you need deeper ground and smaller arena.
Depending on how you drag and water, drier and shallower dragging it can be made faster, for more experienced horses, or more water and a bit deeper dragging, slower, better for general training and younger or very old horses, but not that fast.
Rides fine either way, just be aware how is prepared when you ride, so you can ride/train for the footing there.
We use a TR rake with levelers to work it.
The footing is pure river sand and when watered and then dragged, if the water is just right for all purpose, as you drag it makes little golf ball sized soft lumps, that as you ride fall apart, but from far away look like rocks.
We had to go with solid walls on one long and one short side and corner.
For working cow horse running a cow down the fence you need a solid wall, also better for light cutting training:
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A friend who reins told us that an ideal reining arena is twice as long as wide so you can best learn to ride the figure 8s. I don’t know how true that is.
I would try to have footing similar to what the competition arenas in your area have. There is a local reining barn that put gravel down for their footing as the horses can really slide on it, but I think it makes it discouraging for their horses at shows when they don’t get the same give to the footing.
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there are several trainers in north Texas that have built reproduction arenas of the ones that hold the finials for their chosen sport
We worked on one that was built to the measurements of the Will Rogers Coliseum
Perfect for me is 150x300. Mainly the length being double the width.
With that said, I exclusively ride and train in a 72x150 and make it work.
The best ground is a very solid and dry base with 2-3” of loose material on top. It should hold a hoof print when a horse walks on it.
Our outdoor arena is that size.
We like the indoor dimensions better for training reining, it takes a fitter horse to ride in the outside one, except for roping, where it gives new horses more time to sort themselves out before being on top of the steer.
For calf roping, we make an about 50’ wide lane from the roping box out in either arena with portable panels so they learn to run straight.
I think dimensions depend on what you want to do and what horse you are riding and horses also learn from working in different places.
At the moment i am boarding at a place but the footing is new and really deep, AT least 5 inches or more above thé base so impossible to stop etc. They actually have to fix it next month, i do not know which kind of work i Can do on this kind of footing but not much cause i m worried about possible injuries. Maybe not ride until it is fixed?
This past summer I was on the wait list for a stall at my trainer’s place, so I boarded at a nearby ranch. Their arena was like you describe. Plenty big and the soil was okay but geez, it was too deep. They insisted on tractoring it like they were preparing to plant corn. My mare is older, really broke and very fit, but still I was very careful riding there. If I wanted to practice any kind of spins, rollbacks or stops, I either rode over to my trainer’s place or hauled to a clinic. It was a hassle, but better to be inconvenienced than deal with a tendon or joint injury.
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Your arena is lovely!
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Yes this is what i am doing but even loping on this kind of footing concernes me. Thé problem is that there is only this arena AT the moment where i can ride. You were not worried riding in that kind of footing about soft tissues injuries ?
For me, I was okay just doing a lot of walking big loopy circles and suppling exercises, with brief periods of jogging (no extended trot). Eventually I could lope a little ways but no galloping or lead changes. There were a couple of other boarders there who thought nothing was wrong with the footing and rode with wild abandon. After a few days they’d worn a flattened track along the rail, so I made use of that… until the owner’s husband would come out on the tractor again. 
I would just be super cautious and keep your fingers crossed that the better footing and arena work happens sooner rather than later.
