Just out of curiosity; when we put in our outdoor arena, one of the contractors I got a bid from said to not ride if there is still standing water trying to drain, if it can be helped. Otherwise you’re risking damage to your base. I’ve followed that rule unless we’re two days out from a show and kind of have to get in there 
Under what types of circumstances will your BM/BO close the outdoor arena?
What type of footing?
It is correct advice. An arena with a base is a huge initial investment by the BO in the first place. A horse weighing upwards of 1000lbs ridden on a soaking wet ring, can easily gouge the base, cause ruts, and the arena will grow rocks. Repairing a ruined base is $$$$$… JMO
ETA: I’m assuming sand on top of a base…regarding other footing materials…that I know nothing about.
It has to be a lake…we have a slight slope to our outdoor sand ring and a very very good base with excellent drainage, it takes a lot (think the floods we got in Alberta last year for the amount of rain) to stop us riding in our arena! We do have one corner that gets some water buildup but not enough that we can’t actually ride through it. The base stays nice and firm and because of this, non of our horses are actually afraid to go through large puddles 
which makes it much easier at shows!
We have really good draining so we can generally ride in it the day after a hard rain, but if you have an indoor, just stay off it until it drains.
I have my own farm with an outdoor that drains very well…if given a chance to drain.
I don’t mind standing water (there’s two spots that collect water and sometimes take a day or so to drain) but if there’s been SO much rain (like this morning) that the footing itself is sloppy mush, then I ask riders either skip, or only ride w/t. We have a small 100 x 80 in the back that they can ride in (its a bit deeper and doesn’t have the gravel base), and that’s where all lunging is required to happen.
Cantering and jumping when its super super sloppy just gouges up the rock at the bottom and tears up the footing, then the hoof prints hold water and make the ring take longer to dry out.
I do try to grade it before any heavy long rain periods to help speed it along.
Overall though, I’ve only had to say “no riding” once, and that was after we got close to 9" of snow (rare for this area, notice the flower boxes are completely covered!) that as it drained held that water in the ring and mixed it into slush that kept freezing. I was actually able to ride the day after Hurricane Irene actually! This was after 4 straight days of rain here…local farm ended up hauling in!
The footing is never unsafe, it just damages the base too much, particularly with lots of cantering and jumping. This is the first winter I’ve ever had the issues…I think its a combo of snow/rain mix, and just so much rain period.
ETA: I should also add that I"m at a bit of an advantage in that my husband manages a sand pit company and mixes this sand up himself so I get it at cost…having the footing itself damaged isn’t as big of a deal, as long as the base itself is good, so I don’t have to be “as” careful as others. Its an awesome crushed shell (consistency of blue stone) that’s cut with regular sand to give it “fluff”. I.e. it doesn’t really get super soupy or grossly dusty. You can sorta see the mix here.
I can’t remember ours ever being closed, it has great footing and can be ridden in even after a huge downpour. It might be messy but its not unsafe and it drains quickly except for one corner of the ring. But since there is an indoor as well its not really an issue.
Our arena is unrideable when there is standing water, so I guess it isn’t an issue for us. If the arena is sealed before a rain, we can usually get back in a few days later. If it isn’t sealed, it can take up to two weeks to be dry enough. We do get in as it dries, avoiding the spots with standing water. Makes for some interesting shapes when riding, but it’s better than riding in the indoor.
As others have pointed out, there are two reasons to close an outdoor during/after heavy rainfall. First of all, once the arena has been “sealed” or smoothed out, the rainwater will drain MUCH faster and provide a much quicker return to good footing. If this flat surface is disturbed during/immediately after rainfall, then the overall drainage of the arena is slowed greatly. This is a good reason to keep horses off of the arena until adequate drainage has occurred.
The second reason is that when there is standing water or very wet conditions, the compacted gravel that makes up the arena base is softened and can be damaged, especially by cantering/jumping. Soft, sloppy footing provides less protection to the base as well, making it even easier for the base to be damaged. Base repairs are very expensive because when done correctly they involve not only the addition of crushed rock but also the grading and compacting of that rock. So, obviously there is a lot at stake for the property owner. I close the arena for brief periods of time after heavy rainfall, but I do my best seal ahead of time and to limit those closures.
The place where I’m at, the owners do not let anyone ride in the outdoor for 2 days after a heavy rain… unless you are the owner.
Interesting, I’ve had shows and lessons at a local barn in the pouring rain or a flooded arena. It drains fast and the footing is fine for jumping and the barn owner spent a great deal of money making sure it was that way. If the jumps sare set in standing water a day after a hard rain or after several days rain she doesn’t move them. We just deal with it.
Sealing off the arena for a rain is something I have only ever heard from people who live in California.
Ring is sealed before a rain, meaning it’s flattened and somewhat compressed do the water runs off. Then it depends on how much rain we get (though, in my experience, once you get over 3/4 of an inch it doesn’t matter how much more you get as you’ll be out of the ring the same amount of time for 3" as 1". Unless the footing washes away. Or it rains so hard it packs the footing down. If a person sinks in when they walk on it and/or leave puddles where they walked it stays closed.
This is California in areas where the native soil is adobe that doesn’t percolate well. In areas with a sandy base it won’t take as long.
YMMV
I’ve never been at a place that closed the outdoor arena officially. What usually happened is that they wouldn’t rake it (with good reason) and therefore people would choose not to ride.
Raking the arena when it’s very wet can ruin the footing, so the situation kind of took care of itself.
We put in French drains as well as a mild slope and our ring drains immediately. The footing is fantastic even after a heavy rain. We also paid $$$ to put it in and the money was well spent.
We try to seal ours before a hard rain, however there are times it is to wet to ride on. Customers often do complain if they have to ride indoors, however they do not understand how much it cost to fix!
We have a gate and a sign. When the gate is closed and the CLOSED sign is up, you can’t ride in the ring. People generally understand that it is for their own good because it keeps the nice footing nice.
Ours is usually never more than a day or so away from being rideable, but we put quite a slope onto it (original arena usually took at least 2 weeks to drain, and that was with using a sump pump to help it along. Ugh. Never again.) We installed our new one ourselves, but it was still crazy expensive, and having first-hand experience with how much work and $ (x$$$$) it takes to get it right, I will gladly baby ours and let it drain as long as necessary. Not worth it.
Ours is sand over road-mix base. It’s been raining here for nearly 2 weeks straight now, the worst this arena has seen, but it seems to be keeping up. Phew.
What are the opportunity lost costs of sealing an arena and keeping it closed for a day or two after the rain?
It really matters how the ring is constructed, what kind of drainage there is, how much water is expected, and how many horses there are that are going to use it.
It also depends on the labor available to drag the arena.
Well engineered surfaces are rideable in and through the rain, especially lightly. Well engineered surfaces are also extremely expensive. In places like southern California, rings tend not to be heavily engineered because most of the time you can get away with just grading and compacting and throwing some sand over it. In addition, these rings may be in places that get very heavy traffic, not just one or two horses a day.
I have ridden in rings in California that were never closed for rain and also ones that were closed constantly.
If a heavy rain is expected, it’s nice to ‘seal’ the ring by leveling the footing perfectly to encourage even penetration and runoff. The challenge is, maybe your people work until 5 and you don’t know when the rain will start. So you seal the ring at 4 even though it may not rain until the next morning. And then you lock the gate to keep horses out.
Whatever is happening, it’s not worth trashing the footing in the ring if conditions are muddy. It can be a good day to go out on the trail when that’s an option, or just take meandering walks around the barn roads.
No one really cares to go out there when it is that wet, so I don’t think we’ve run into an issue. Especially since we have a nice indoor and some trails that aren’t too bad.
I like to ride in it when it is a little bit wet, as do others since it keeps the dust factor down (sand), but there is no standing water. There is one corner that doesn’t drain so well, but we just avoid it. The same goes for bot outdoor arenas. They’re a bit older now, so maybe the barn owners aren’t so protective, or like I said, it just hasn’t been an issue.
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