Feature: Arena Surfaces

FEATURE

Setting up for fantastic footwork

A beautiful and functional arena to ride and train in doesn’t have to be a fantasy. CHRISTINE ARMISHAW investigates what’s involved in creating the arena of your dreams.

Your arena should sit on a level, free-draining base prepared with longevity in mind (Image courtesy Equestrian Services). There’s not much better than a fabulously appointed arena with a surface that encourages your horse to spring sweetly forward. And it’s that all-important surface that needs serious thought if you want to avoid your vision of arena perfection turning into a rocky mess or perhaps worse, a soggy soup.

But first things first, before you get carried away with potential surfaces, your base needs to be on-point. No matter what your choice of surface, if you pile it on an inadequately prepared base, grief will ensue.

The base must be level, free-draining and properly prepared with longevity in mind. Considerations include the land you are transforming, climatic conditions – how dry or wet it is in your area – and whether the arena is to be indoors or outdoors. Having professionals help you to prepare the foundation and select the ideal drainage solution for your specific needs is well worth it in the long run. Tim Hessel, of Equestrian Services Australia, highlights the importance of adequate drainage. “With outdoor arenas, ensuring the arena is not just able to drain, but drain quickly is a high priority,” says Tim.

The perfect base can be constructed by digging the arena down into the ground, creating banks that act as buffers along some or all of the sides. Or you may instead wish to build from the ground up and install panels and edging to keep that precious surface material

With outdoor arenas, ensuring the arena is not just able to drain, but drain quickly is a high priority.

contained. Whichever option is right for you, it’s important to dedicate effort into keeping as much of the materials in the arena as possible. Wind and weather will endlessly erode whatever is not safely kept in place.

Once the base has been properly taken care of, you can start researching surfaces to top it with. There are options aplenty: sands, textiles and synthetics can be distributed at various ratios, depending on the area you live in and the constraints you have to work with. Let’s delve deeper.

Let’s talk about sand, baby

Get your microscope out, or just squint and look very closely and you will notice sand can be angular or rounded. In an arena, the former provides better stability for your horse than rounded sand particles, which behave similarly underfoot to millions of ball bearings. Silica sand is commonly used for horse arenas due to the hardness of the particles. The workhorse of sands, its rigidity enables it to resist weather and breakdown, so it tends to last well in an arena. Plus, the shape of silica sand particles lessens compaction and provides traction under hoof.

But get this, sand used on its own is not considered a suitable riding surface. It really has no cushioning or elasticity. Think of it like walking on the beach. Most people walk where the ocean meets the sand, where it’s firm and comfortable to move across, rather than near the sand dunes where it’s too dry, soft and ‘sinky’, much like dry sand in a horse arena.

Capricorn Australia’s Kim Verwey paints a vivid picture as to why sand isn’t so great all on its lonesome. “Imagine a tray of marbles all similar in size. These are your sand particles. In between those marbles is space, or air pockets and that’s where the shifting comes from,” she explains. The solution is to add a product to fill the void between the sand granules. Dampening it down can help with stabilisation, but water on its own is not the magic cure. Pre-build, consider the lay of the land, climate, and whether your arena will be indoors or outdoors (Image courtesy Capricorn Australia Pty Ltd).

Adding more to make it better

Capricorn Australia’s SOILTEX, a felt and fibre additive that’s mixed into the

sand, is designed to improve your arena surface. It gives the sand a different structure and provides more stability underfoot. “What we find with sand

alone is that it’s quite uniform and,

Sona Hessel (Director, Equestrian Services) riding her dressage horse on a Wax-Trax surface.

especially when it’s dry, it starts to shift. By adding a fibre product, like SOILTEX, you’re effectively changing the structure of the surface and creating almost a root system in the sand profile, which gives you stability in the surface,” Kim says. “SOILTEX is made of felt and fibres. The felt pieces stay closer to the surface to provide cushioning, while the fibres make their way in between the sand particles for that stability in the surface.”

Kim suggests the ideal arena recipe is 75-80mm of sand, with SOILTEX blended into the top 50mm. “It doesn’t need to be blended through the entire sand profile, because the sand near the base doesn’t need the fibres, you effectively want it where you’re riding, where you’re going to use it. It gives you a lovely soft surface, but not something that’s too deep, where you’ll sink through. You’ll ride on the surface, more than in it,” says Kim.

SOILTEX can be watered and used

successfully with Ebb & Flow arena drainage systems, also available from Capricorn Australia.

And when water is scarce?

When it comes to world-class surfaces that work wonders without water, look no further than Equestrian Services. Their Flexi Fibre sand additives, which have been specifically formulated for Australian conditions, provide a root structure similar to grass, which improves surface stability and also works well with their fast Ebb & Flow system.

Equestrian Services’ co-directors Tim and Sona Hessel are well qualified to advise on building arenas and installing surfaces. With Tim’s background in civil engineering, competitive eventing and dressage riding throughout Europe, and Sona’s experience as a German-qualified coach and dressage competitor, they know what makes a good arena surface.

And it’s their Wax-Trax surface that’s a game changer for clients who don’t have the abundance of water required for standard sand or sand and fibre surfaces. “Wax-Trax is a mixture of fine silica sand carefully weighed and blended together with Flexi Fibre, with the addition of a high temperature wax coating,” explains Tim. “The resulting mixture is guaranteed to give a consistent, safe surface for both horse and rider. It also has the advantage of being irrigation free, as the wax component replaces the moisture requirement. Another advantage of this surface is the cost savings. No watering system needs to be installed and maintained.” And there’s more! This unique surface requires reduced grooming as the surface has minimal tracking and movement: read ‘more time to ride’!

Arena cautions

Rubber crumbs used to be a go-to for creating a springy cushion underfoot. However, in recent studies it has come to light that rubber has a dark side. Crumb rubber contains benzothiazole, which researchers have warned ‘exerts acute toxicity and is a respiratory irritant and

a dermal sensitizer’, and carbon black, which makes up 20-40% of crumb rubber and has been identified as a carcinogen by California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.

Another concern is possible allergic reactions to the latex in crumb rubber. A 2019 report states that latex in horse arenas and on racetracks has been identified as a trigger for asthma. While latex has been a known cause of respiratory issues in people for years, it’s only more recently that it’s been recognised as a health risk for horses.

There is also mention of it acting as an irritant to horses’ eyes. So if you are considering using rubber as an additive in your arena, be sure to investigate what type it is, as not all rubbers are created equal.

The nitty gritty

The general consensus on what constitutes a good surface is that once you’ve selected your ideal sand, adding that little something extra is necessary for stability and support. It’s well worth talking to an expert and considering factors such as how much watering you will or won’t need to do, based on your location and climate; wait times for surface materials and when you’ll need them; and whether you’re planning to improve an existing arena, or filling in a brand-new arena from scratch.

Remember, the performance of any arena surface is subject to the suitability of the base and the drainage system it’s laid on. So do your homework, ask the experts, and have a very clear idea of what you want to achieve with your arena before you even start.

TOP: A Wax-Trax surface groomed to perfection (Image courtesy Equestrian Services).

RIGHT: Competing on a SOILTEX surface in the AELEC arena, Tamworth (Image by Oz Shots Photography). The resulting mixture is guaranteed to give a consistent, safe surface for both horse and rider. It also has the advantage of being irrigation free, as the wax component replaces the moisture requirement.