# Footing for a "Arena"



## Fowl Play (Sep 22, 2009)

The barn where we ride has an outdoor arena that is all dirt. They till it once a week and it is very soft. It's very level too, so the water doesn't pool up in any one spot. It does get dusty though, in the summer dry months.


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## MN Tigerstripes (Feb 20, 2009)

Cool, I was asking around, but no one could tell me if it would be better than the hard packed dirt currently there. Logically I was thinking "yeah" but I wanted more opinions before putting the work in.


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## Fowl Play (Sep 22, 2009)

When you think about gaming and rodeos, they plow the dirt in the arena after every few competitors. We watched a high school rodeo a few weeks ago and they plowed the barrel pattern between every 7 riders, and the entire arena between events.


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## MN Tigerstripes (Feb 20, 2009)

See most of the ones I've been at are sand or a sand/dirt mix, so I just wasn't quite sure. Now I just need to find a rototiller big enough!


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## Fowl Play (Sep 22, 2009)

At the barn we ride at they have a tiller on their tractor, but I've also seen people buy an implement for a quad or something and use that.


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

I've seen the tillers on the backs of tractors used to keep an arena fluffy. It also help to dry it out faster after a rain. Some friends of mine use dirt and dried horse manure. It makes a nice fluffy footing, but be careful, it can be slick when its wet.
I'm too cheap to buy a tiller and just use a drag harrow behind my 4 wheeler. It doesn't go deep but it does soften the footing. 
Drag harrow-


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

MN Tigerstripes said:


> See most of the ones I've been at are sand or a sand/dirt mix, so I just wasn't quite sure. *Now I just need to find a rototiller big enough*!


You might be better off asking a farmer to run a disc over it once or twice. I have a small disc I use but once in awhile I impose on a farmer for big stuff.


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## MN Tigerstripes (Feb 20, 2009)

That's my next step. 

I spoke with my farmer friend earlier and he might be able to find me some "free" sand to help lighten it up. He said that I definitely need something heavy duty to break it up this time due to the soil (really heavy black dirt), but that I should probably be able to maintain it with a harrow/rake or my garden rototiller for the rest of the year. But I didn't even think about asking him to disk it for me.  Thanks!

I know it's going to be slick when wet, but it's already really slick so honestly I don't think I can get any worse. When I was a kid we would use the paddock as a slip n slide after a rain because it was better than greased plastic, LOL! Basically when it's wet I ride on the road otherwise everything is like ice. The soil is great because it's so fertile, but once in awhile I really wish for some nice sandy stuff.


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## writer23 (Apr 6, 2010)

Depends where you are and your climate/rain fall. Here a dirt arena would be awful because we hardly get rain therefore it would be too hard-packed to ride in by May - tillered or not. Also is there a lot of rocks? 

Side note: Our arena is a sand mix, and to level it all we used is our ATV and drag a railroad tie weighed down with a tire behind. It works. It's not 'deep' but a decent leveller.


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## MN Tigerstripes (Feb 20, 2009)

No rocks. I'm in that area of MN with really awesome/fertile black dirt, relatively flat land, and very few rocks. Rain just depends on the year. Sometimes we'll be great other times not. July/August are usually the worst with lack of rain, otherwise we're pretty good.

Farmer friend said his disk is too big, so I'll have to look into other options. It would be really great if I could get the ok to find a little sand to mix in.


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

Look at rental places, they may have something that would be easier and less back breaking than a garden tiller. Then you can just maintain it with a harrow which can be anything really. I've seen them made out of old bed springs. I have a heavy wire cattle panel I cut in half that I drag the pasture with to break up horse manure. I just pull it with my 4 wheeler.


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## Fowl Play (Sep 22, 2009)

Vidaloco said:


> Look at rental places, they may have something that would be easier and less back breaking than a garden tiller. Then you can just maintain it with a harrow which can be anything really. I've seen them made out of old bed springs. I have a heavy wire cattle panel I cut in half that I drag the pasture with to break up horse manure. I just pull it with my 4 wheeler.


 I've seen sections of cyclone fencing used once it's plowed the first few times. I've also seen some heavy chain contraption that I'd never be able to explain, but it did a nice job!


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## MN Tigerstripes (Feb 20, 2009)

Once it's broken up for the first time I've got tons of options for maintaining. We have small tractor pulled rototillers (too small), drags, and rakes for the yard/pasture/dirtbike track. 

I will check the rental places. I'm excited though I might be able to get some free sand from a farmer friend's source! It'll help break it up a little anyways


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

Your lucky you have good base soil. We have clay which if you add sand you get bricks :lol:


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## MN Tigerstripes (Feb 20, 2009)

LOL, like riding on cement huh? I know how that is, right now ours is like asphalt when dry and greased asphalt when wet. 

We are lucky the soil is really nice here. It also is great in terms of soil fertility. My horses keep pretty well on pasture all summer with a relatively small property and really low maintence. It's due for some upgrades though so I'm taking control and fixing things up. Hopefully that will enable me to keep horses here for awhile until I can afford my own place.


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