I have a small backyard barn and we have an awesome stone dust sacrifice paddock. Drainage is amazing and I am quite happy with it from a horse keeping perspective. The way we are set up is that my sacrifice paddock doubles as my arena. We aren’t doing anything crazy in the arena as my horses are mostly retired and I am just keeping them in light work to keep them healthy. Obviously stone dust isn’t’ the ideal arena footing, so I’m curious what others have for footing in their sacrifice paddocks that double as arenas?
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Welcome to COTH!
In my area, sand/clay mix is commonly used for basic arenas that might double as a turn out.
Sand/clay might work if you can put down mats for them to eat on. Is your area more wet or dry?
We are in a naturally pretty wet area but have resolved the wetness with the stonedust and regrading everything. I love how their area is dry (even with all the rain we’ve had recently) with the stonedust so I don’t want to lose that.
I have thought about adding sand, but obviously am worried about them ingesting it. They live in this area 24/7 almost (get grass turnout for a few hours). I feed in hay nets in rubber tubs though so they don’t get much off the ground (just whatever falls out). Any thoughts on a sand/stonedust mix?
You could always put mats under your tubs too, that will help even more with keeping them from ingesting sand!
And another option…last winter, I used my ring as a dry lot since my ‘real’ dry lot wasn’t finished yet and I just used step in posts and electric rope to fence a small area from the arena gate where I could feed hay…so they walked out of the arena gate to a small paddock with their hay feeders. That way I didn’t have to worry about them eating sand, or about hay mixing in with my footing.
By stone dust do you mean bluestone/screenings? If so, that’s a very common footing for rings.
I wouldn’t change a thing
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I assume you will be fully picking daily? Otherwise the footing will be ruined.
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I believe they are the same thing (if not, very similar!). I’m thinking I may just need some more stonedust brought it as I think it may just be a bit thin in places. What depth is usually recommended?
Yes, I am a bit over the top with mucking and clean the sacrifice area at least 2 times a day (if not more). I also drag it as much as I can depending on weather.
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That’s usually what “stone dust” means, though the exact details may vary a bit - fine particles of literally stone dust, whether it’s actually bluestone or something else.
For riding, 3" give or take is usually what it takes for ridden work, to help protect the base.
You will have great footing then!
