# Building a riding ring



## Horseychick87 (Feb 5, 2014)

A good basic size is 65 by 131 feet. This is the size of a small dressage ring.

The fence sounds fine so long as the pickets aren't sharp. If you don't want to do that you can put up regular fence posts and add two boards to that or use no-climb mesh fencing.

You'll need to dig out and level the base of the arena and possibly add stone dust and compact it then add sand over the top of that. It depends on what your soil is like. You may also need gravel under the stone dust to help drainage.
3 to 4 inches of sand is recommended. Anything less is too shallow, anything more is too deep. 

Make sure the ring is crowned in the center and slopes downward on the sides so that it drains well.

Some people lay down a geotextile, but these can work to the surface after a while and then need to be pulled up and possibly replaced.


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## disastercupcake (Nov 24, 2012)

Not trying to take over the thread but, I have an arena question!

I'm wondering about building a riding arena myself. I do not want to tear up the current soil because I'd like it to just be a grass arena. The space I want has about a 5-10% slope- its approximately 80ft long with maybe a 5ft drop from one end to the other. It might be a little less than that I don't know =/ 

So- should I level it out (expensive!) or is a ~5% slope okay for general dressage/english purpose riding? I realize it's not IDEAL. But is there any detrimental effect it would have on working horses on it?


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## greentree (Feb 27, 2013)

I don't have a fence....I prefer to train the horses without. My horses do not line themselves up on the fence, so I get better dressage scores!

Nancy


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## disastercupcake (Nov 24, 2012)

I don't have a fence either 

But what about the footinng being level or not? Shouldn't matter too much?
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Horseychick87 (Feb 5, 2014)

disastercupcake said:


> Not trying to take over the thread but, I have an arena question!
> 
> I'm wondering about building a riding arena myself. I do not want to tear up the current soil because I'd like it to just be a grass arena. The space I want has about a 5-10% slope- its approximately 80ft long with maybe a 5ft drop from one end to the other. It might be a little less than that I don't know =/
> 
> So- should I level it out (expensive!) or is a ~5% slope okay for general dressage/english purpose riding? I realize it's not IDEAL. But is there any detrimental effect it would have on working horses on it?


 
It shouldn't matter too much, and it could work to your benefit for building muscle, even a slight slope can help with that. I'd make sure it drains well and that your horse can handle the small amount of slope, but otherwise you should be fine.


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