Building the Arena

September 24 , 2008 - Packing the second layer of 'fill' and putting the end wall on:

"Most importantly, it has been proven that a successful arena surface is no better than the underlying foundation of base and subbase it rests upon. A good indoor or outdoor arena surface is just the top layer of a multilayer composite. The base material is hard-packed material similar in construction to the base supporting a road surface." (http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/freepubs/pdfs/ub038.pdf)

September 27, 2008 - Final sand delivered:

"The primary principle of selecting footing materials is to obtain materials that maintain their loose nature without compaction while providing stability for riding or driving activity. Aggregate particle shape is the second key component in footing material selection. An arena surface that is composed of subangular particles will be relatively stable because the wide range of particles can nest together without rolling (round particles will roll), but will not compact because the rounded edges have voids between them that provide cushion. The subangular particle shapes are typical of naturally occurring, mined materials. Naturally occurring sands have had the sharpest corners of their originally sharply angular particles broken off. These mined materials are more durable and provide better traction and stability due to their shape and are less prone to becoming dusty than manufactured materials. Sand is the common ingredient in many arena surfaces and ranges from fine sand at 0.05 mm diameter to coarse sand at 2.00 mm diameter. Certain specifications of sand are required for good footing material. Riding arena surfaces should contain cleaned and screened, medium to coarse, hard, sharp sand.(http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/freepubs/pdfs/ub038.pdf)

***Below is a link to our 'arena building bible' from Penn State - A Great Resource!!! Their Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering does a lot of research into horse riding arena construction.