Pros/Cons?
I got to thinking that they might make my arena fit a bit better in the space I have planned. Plus no missed corners when dragging. Is there a negative I’m not thinking of? Obviously a bit harder for whomever is fencing it, but…
I think unless you do dressage there is no reason to do square corners. The person who built my ring said the only thing (non-dressage) he has seen them used for is storing jumps.
The additional cost for doing a rounded corner will be well pd. for when you go to drag the arena. You’ll probably drag more often with rounded ends.
Even if you do plan to do dressage you can still make a rounded arena end square by putting a ground pole or 2 down at the ends to make square corners.
“Rounded corners” can mean from just angling one gate to making part of the fence for tens of feet part of a circle, maybe about 1/4 of one.
Our indoor has square corners on one end, angled gates on the other.
The outdoor has angled gates on all four corners.
Those gates are 14’ and 16’ gates, that also make getting machinery in there easier.
Since we handle cattle in there, not to have those square corners helps cattle move on, don’t get “balled up” in the corner, head low and nowhere to go, but flow right along the fence.
Think about how you will be riding in there and that will determine if to angle and how much would make sense for you.
It does make it easier to groom the ground if you don’t have a sharp corner there you have to rake out by hand, the arena grooming tool hard to get in there.
In Europe, many arenas were oval with differently sized corners and we could train in dressage fine.
We did train in more than those arenas, so we had plenty of other places we had square corners also and places where we trained without a fence, we made imaginary corners, like in open fields.
You could try riding in an open space, maybe where you want the arena, around some flags or cones and see if a square corner suits your riding best, or if rounded and how much?
[QUOTE=TheJenners;8751875]
Pros/Cons?
I got to thinking that they might make my arena fit a bit better in the space I have planned. Plus no missed corners when dragging. Is there a negative I’m not thinking of? Obviously a bit harder for whomever is fencing it, but…[/QUOTE]
Square.
Then buy four, short gates and set them outside the arena at each corner. Now the corners are square but can be made “round” by properly using the gates.
Or, mount them so that they make the corner “round” but can be moved, or swung, to make it square.
There are times in training when both are desirable.
G.
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Never miss out on the training opportunities of a good corner.
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I prefer square corners so I can make them “go deep” into the corners if that makes any sense. I’ve also ridden an idiot or two that I’ve had to use to corners to stop or to mount up- but as a rule I don’t ride that type anymore. Most of the time it really doesn’t matter. I can’t say I’ve been riding in either type and thought to myself “Boy, I sure wish this ring had different corners.”
I vote round the corner for sand for dragging. You can bring in whatever you want (poles, fence, gates) for making corners for riding purposes. YMMV.
[QUOTE=Guilherme;8751947]
Square.
Then buy four, short gates and set them outside the arena at each corner. Now the corners are square but can be made “round” by properly using the gates.
Or, mount them so that they make the corner “round” but can be moved, or swung, to make it square.
There are times in training when both are desirable.
G.[/QUOTE]
That is a good idea, hang two gates, one on each side, for a square corner and you can cross the gates on the diagonal and fasten them to each other to make a more rounded corner, if that is what you want at times.
I think it also depends upon the size of the arena. If it is big enough to put a dressage arena with square corners within, that would be the best! But if it is a smallish arena and you do dressage you may want those corners, pains though they are to maintain.
I don’t ride dressage, and the size will be about 80’ by hopefully 150’. I can go closer to or even beyond 150’ by a few feet by rounding the corners due to a driveway. Square and I’ll have to go a bit less than 150’. Trying to maximize space available. 
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I would go round, for the sake of getting everything dragged easily.
[QUOTE=TheJenners;8752177]
I don’t ride dressage, and the size will be about 80’ by hopefully 150’. I can go closer to or even beyond 150’ by a few feet by rounding the corners due to a driveway. Square and I’ll have to go a bit less than 150’. Trying to maximize space available. :)[/QUOTE]
You could make that end of the arena oval, the other square.
No one said they have to all corners be the same.
Ours is not, end by the roping chutes is rounded, bottom is squared, just the way it turned out for the covered arena and it rides just fine.
We do have to work at getting the cattle to turn in the corner to find the stripping chute entrance.
If that was a rounded corner like in the outside arena, they would flow right into it.
You could even try with just that one corner designated as round, the other three with the two gate option.
I have seen pictures of arenas that were square under a roof, but the arena itself extended partway outside and that opposite fence was a complete half circle.
Arenas come in all kinds of sizes and shapes and we can make any of them work.
Why not lay the arena out with surveyor flags or stakes or cones and see how it rides for your needs?
Correction, might be more than 80’ now that I double checked… a nice surprise.
Bluey I’ll be riding in it before it’s an arena, so by merely making a path in the grass (step in stakes and tape for fence) I bet it will naturally will have rounded corners. :yes:. Though you are right and one end can be square and the driveway side round. I’m just hung up on symmetry.
My arena is 80x165 and has square corners at one end, round corners at the other. We were building on a slope and by doing things this way, it allowed me to go to 165 long instead of 150 without having to bring in additional materials to build up the low side, and kept one part of the adjacent pasture fence intact rather than having to move it. Someone up above mentioned the “additional cost” of rounded corners, but I know in my case, it was less than if we’d gone square (as we’d have to move the fencing for the pasture on one corner, and bring in material to build up the other corner).
When the arena guy built, he made the rounded corners based on what would be a nice even curve for the drag we had. I’ve not regretted how we did the arena at all – if I need a corner to work in, I have two still.
If you can get more space with rounded corners (even just one or two of them), then go with rounded corners. I don’t think it will matter in the long run at all.
My arena has square corners. For whatever reason, the two corners at the far end have never been stepped on by a horse (except maybe when I turn someone loose in the ring - which is infrequent) and have grown a lovely cover of grass weeds. But I do seem to use the other two corners. My mounting block lives in one and the other seems to be the one I use if I need to “use” a corner (halting a naughty horse, for example).
Our arena is currently being built. Due to tree lines on 3 sides, it will have square corners at the far end and be ~90’ wide for the majority of it, and then the last 30’ of the 180’ total length will be wider (about 110’) due to the tree line ending on one side and will have rounded corners. Having ridden/worked in both square and rounded-cornered rings, the only difference is that rounded corners make dragging a LOT easier.
My experience is that if you have an oval shaped ring, you lose a little of the long side for setting up a line on the outside track. If you jump, i would go with a square corner.
I do jump but not often, not high, and am happy with diagonals, grids, bending lines. It IS something to consider tho, thank you!
