Hey guys, I was just wanting some opinions to help me out. So I’m planning on putting in and arena and originally it was just going to be 20m x 40m, but because I’m a jumper I wanted a 20m x 60m but I don’t have the space to put that length in, what do you guys think about doing a 40m x 40m square arena, would it work or not, also should I have round edges or square?
Someone here has a 100’ x 100’ arena and had clinics and other in there.
It was workable in those dimensions, you will have more with 130’ x 130’.
Edges are your preference.
Many in Europe were ovals and we managed, in the East here, many had square corners and we used them to push the horse into them to bend around your leg.
Not sure that is really necessary, you can do the same most any other place.
What many arenas have is some have slanted sides and that I have seen cause accidents when a horse steps off too far, then the laws of physics take over and legs go out from under them and they crash into the wall.
I would never have other than straight walls because that is how I broke my leg when a colt with a few rides unbalanced in a turn, climbed the slanted wall a bit and fell into it, my leg caught in there.
Have seen it happen time and again over the years.
Then, it is a preference, some have slanted walls and never had any problem.
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40x40 would be fine. I’d rather have that then 20x60. It’s just too tight for jumping big stuff.
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Interesting about outward slanted walls. I always thought they were safer because you wouldn’t knock your knees. However a couple of times I have seen horses get loose in our indoor arena where no horses are supposed to ever be at liberty. And indeed, they tend to slip and fall when the bounce off the walls. They think there is more room to put their feet.
In our legitimate outdoor turnout arena, there are rail and panel fences, and the horses hooves can even go under the fence. Of course that means they could slide and get trapped, but in practise it means they can run up to the fence and not get tripped by the wall sticking out 6 inches more than they expected.
Square is just fine. I’d do rounded square corners - square enough to be able to use the corners, but round enough that dragging doesn’t push a bunch of footing up into the unusable part of the corner.
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This is important-- make sure your equipment can reach the full arena surface. I would also “cut the corners” . Just one 8ft fence section (whatever the typical post spacing is over there) on the angle is probably enough to let you work the surface right up to the fence line.
Nothing wrong with a square arena. No rule that you have to ride in the whole thing all the time.
Make it as big as you can afford that will fit in your space.
If you make those corners, think of some way to access behind some or all of them.
Maybe make those gates to put rakes, shovels, cones, cavalletti blocks, jumping poles, standards, barrels, whatever kinds of arena supplies you don’t want in the arena all the time.
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