Another rot resistant type of wood is Larch or Tamarack. They are deciduous conifers.
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I’ve removed the weeds every year for the last couple. It’s been fine. Before that, I mowed it all, wondering if the growth would stabilize the boggy spots. It didn’t.
I DID talk to a professional about the boggy spots. About a year ago when he was here to bury a horse. His answer? Just put some stone dust on top.
I realize you think I’m just lying about all of this and a fucking moron (and probably the same of the excavator guy.) But you know what? You’ve provided absolutely zero useful input here, and only a shit ton of vitriol.
Amberley, my god, seriously, do you really think everyone just has 20-30k sitting around for crap like this? I am a casual rider. Doing this professionally is A LOT of money. Even though I know you don’t believe me, most of the arena WORKS FINE.
You’re welcome to put your OWN money up and do it YOUR WAY. Or if you have input on doing something for a grand or two, feel free to weight in. Otherwise, please god just go outside and take a deep breath and have a beer or whatever, because your ire about this is exhausting, and it’s not helping anyone.
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You are really being quite an asshole about this, especially since OP validated you at every turn but CAN NOT AFFORD TO DO IT.
“Try nothing and hire someone” isn’t an option for many people.
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Amberley, I’m willing to bet you mean well and are trying to help, but your delivery is combative and frankly, out of touch with Simkie’s situation. Everyone agrees that in a perfect world it’d be best to hire a contractor to pull it all out and replace it with an arena done properly. A friend just did a very basic 70x120 for $50k and that didn’t include removing fill / woodchips. Most people aren’t going to have that money lying around. If you’re in the position where this is a feasible solution for you, man, I’m happy for you - but it’s not the reality for most people. It’s a life skill to learn how to work outside the box when you have a problem with no perfect solution accessible to you.
Anyway, most people are not thinking of how to make something last longer than their lifetime, mostly because making things that last a long time takes an enormous amount of skill and labor, which costs money. It takes woodchips years to break down; buried woodchips like Simkie’s base would take decades. That’s long enough for one lifetime and Simkie can leave the excavating and ring installion to the next person that comes along. In this economy they’ll probably be loaded anyway and can fix it up how they like it.
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Good lord my 20-30k wild assed guess on getting a pro in is obviously waaaaaaaaaaay off.
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If you[g] have already cleared land and the heavy machinery it’d be significantly cheaper; I’ve looked into doing one myself (we have excavator and a large skidsteer). The material would run me about $6k. Even then that’s a big enough expense that I’ve balked at doing it for years. It would be nice to have $30k lying around, wouldn’t it?
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When I back of enveloped this, I figured 10 triaxles of stone dust at just over a grand a pop. Then decide if anything needs to go on top of that once it’s all settled and compacted, maybe another 3-4k there? Figure double $$ that for a pro. Maybe that’s still close ish in broad strokes?
But to your point, I know very few people who find a surprise and can just turn around and drop that kind of cash! We improve the property every year but this year’s projects are already planned, and omg srsly, I am not a serious enough rider where it makes sense to invest that much.
This arena has existed as it is for a decade or two and there’s a clear reason why the areas that have failed failed the way they did. It’s def not the way I’d put it in initially but … here we are. 
Even if we go crazy and add a load of screenings every year we sure get a lot of use before hitting the $$$ that redoing the whole damned thing now would cost!
Yeah, it sure would be nice to think nothing of dropping that sort of cash for surprise funsies 
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I had a friend who hired someone cheap to make her an arena. He ordered fill sand which was dredge off the bottom of a river, dumped it, spread it, and charged her 20k. It was unstable and full of giant rocks. He said it was the quarries fault and that they dumped it while he was gone and he just spread it, the quarry had receipts.
She ended up taking him to court and he lost but has never paid. She had to remove the entire thing and have it done over.
I think that Amberly in a very direct sort of way doesn’t want this kind of thing to happen. Someone trying to do a budget fix with bad advice can end up even further in the hole. I had my ring done a few times and I know enough to know who to pick, what the substrate looks like, and what parts of the process to skip because I don’t need an Olympic quality ring. We did try to level my ring ourselves but our equipment sucked so I paid someone to dump Aglime and level it, then I rode on that until it hardened, then I added sand. I can’t even wrap my head around Simkie’s ring. We don’t have footing like that here at all.
I can tell you that my original ring was just packed dirt with a layer of loose dirt/sand mix because the people were western. There was no actual base.
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Welp I finally got weather & my schedule to agree enough to work on this.
Awhile ago I packed about 6" of wood chips into the hole I dug out and drove back and forth over it until it was matted down. It went through a few big storms. I get why people like that as footing, at least initially. It was also very clear why there’s a bounce to the arena in general. Super springy layer.
Today the screenings came and that got added on top. Probably 3-4" of stone dust. Drove over that a gazillion times to pack it down.
Didn’t dig out the other much smaller spots. They’re all lower, anyway, so just put screenings on top & packed down.
Super wacky but the rest of it works, so hopefully this gets us back to par. The repaired spots feel about like the older areas–solid but with a bit of spring. Even the vet commented on the little bit of rebound. We’ll see how it goes.
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Fingers crossed!
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Thank you! Mine too
Especially since the price of screenings went up 30% 
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Are you aware/wanting the screenings to pack? When I first bought my farm we put screenings down in an older arena and I rode on that and dragged it but it does pack down like concrete unless pretty wet. Once it packed and didn’t drag anymore I added sand.
You need to drag it when the puddles are gone and drag daily otherwise it will get too hard to drag.
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Yes, it’ll pack, that’s the point. That’s what needs to happen so the chip layer and top layer stay separate. I can fluff up the very top with the drag, but it doesn’t ever get hard because of the layer of chips underneath.
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Hoping for a great outcome! It’s one thing when the difference between a class job and home job is a few hundred or even a few thousand where someone can reasonable save up. This was a whole other level of investment. I hope you update this thread over time because I don’t think this is a totally unique situation and there will be helpful lessons for others in a position of trying to make the best of an imperfect arena. I’m a big believer that a dedicated DIY is better than a low quality “pro” job. Like someone above I know somebody who got junk sand dumped by someone who then skipped town. It came literally from a river bank and she was sifting out glass, rock, metal cans, etc and had to close her lesson program because she didn’t have a safe place to teach and the guy took all the funds she had.
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Oh geez, your poor friend 
That’s just terrible.
I mean sure I’d love a fancy arena (who wouldn’t?!) but gawd I do not ride seriously enough (especially in the arena!) to spend that sort of cash on one! And while the WTAF element on how this one was put together is…large, haha…it actually works pretty well?? It doesn’t get hard, it’s usable directly after inches of rain, and it doesn’t seem to spawn rocks which is pretty amazing in this area (I think the chip layer must keep them down??)
But I’m really hopeful about the repairs today, too, thank you!
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I immediately thought Fibar too. I had a fibar jogging track many many years ago – very nice chips! Held up well for quite some time. So maybe?
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