# Cost of Building



## VelvetsAB (Aug 11, 2010)

_If you are willing to change the size of your arena, you might get lucky and find someone who has either a steel one for sale (how my riding school barn got theirs) or has a coverall for sale. It might not be as big as you want, but it might be cheaper. If you have seen the new barns that dairy farmers are using, they have the roll up windows in the sides and look nice as well, it just would have more rafters in the building instead of a large steel beam. Steel rafters and lighting would most likely be the big main expense in an arena...???_

_Tracks arent as expensive as you think. All it really costs is the stone dust (what Standardbreds use). You can make the track yourself...lots of people do...just make sure the corners are slightly banked. Stone dust can eat away at a horses hooves, so they are better off having all 4 hooves shod, just as an fyi. Most Standardbred tracks got rid of the inside hub as a safety issue because too many were getting hurt when the bikes would get caught on it, or a few other reasons. You would almost be better off with a fence of somesort instead of a guard rail like you are thinking as again it is steel and wont break if you or a horse lands on it. A track for TB's...I have no idea about though! If you were to go with turf, it would just be like riding in an outdoor grass ring, which you could for sure jump on. A mile long is pretty long though, and I would bet a lot of smaller training farms dont have anything that long. Our STBD track is maybe just over a 1/4 mile around...._


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## VelvetsAB (Aug 11, 2010)

_Ran out of time....I kept adding to it, then it wouldnt let me add anymore!_

_Steeplechase is done on a grass track _

_Honestly, growing up with STBDs, most(keyword most) were at the home farm for training or at a training center...not really the lone horse at a barn. I would think a grass track would be a bigger draw for eventers if you had jumps that you could change every so often right on the track, with enough open space for them to still be doing stuff on the flat. You could even make it wide enough to have 2 sets of jumps if you wanted...one set on each side, with different jump heights so that the rider could choose a level....lowest jumps to the inside, highest to the outside._


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