Building a farm: Part 4
The ARena
Next up, the arena… My only true necessity for moving in.
First we needed to pick a site. The entire property is segmented into tiers, each layer graded flat and slightly lower than the last. The houses sit up high near the base of the mountains, and with each step down something different: the equipment sheds, pastures, the barn. About the fourth layer down from the mountain was a small, square arena about 100’ x 100’. No fencing, no real footing. Flat, but smaller than what we needed for jumping. Next to that was an old 40’ roundpen with tall wood paneling that the old owners used for breaking young horses. This roughly 100’ x 100’ area will be the future site of a grass arena that will lead into the main jumping arena. We envision it will mostly be for hacking, grazing and the occasional jump school in preparation for a show.
Beyond this was our future arena. Continuing east there was a line of trees and one tier down, a row of pastures. Old, dangerous metal fencing, roughly flat but slightly higher on the east side. We contracted a footing company, Attwood Equestrian Surfaces, to design the ring.
Existing 100’x100’ arena
Future jumping arena
We broke ground on the new arena on May 6th. The contractors were optimistic we could have the arena completed in a matter of weeks. As things go (and as I’m learning more about the games contractors tend to play), we missed this deadline by months. Sure, we’re in a bit of an unprecedented time after Covid with truckers and manufacturers setting prices and timelines with no cap on how wild it can be.
The first step was clearing the land and grading. We took out old steel fencing and cleared some pepper trees that obstructed the arena. They made sure to be mindful of the surrounding areas, not putting the arena in a position to flood. Drainage was the first priority, but they hit a major pipe early on in the process. Because we were not given any master plans of the waterlines, this was a common occurrence. The pipe was ultimately repaired and construction resumed on top of the pipe with the future plan of eventually diverting this pipe around the arena.
They then put in multiple layers of gravel and rock dust for the base. On top of this, they laid a permeable fabric, almost like felt, to separate the base from the footing while still allowing any water to flow straight through and drain out. On top of the fabric, they put 4” of Pinnacle footing which feels a lot like brown sugar. It’s a bit sticky and its hydrophobic so any rain flows right through to the base. Our biggest draw for this footing was that it was entirely waterless meaning we would never have to put gallons and gallons of water from a truck or sprinklers.
Read more about our footing here.
Between manufacturing and shipping delays, we weren’t able to receive the footing material until the end of August. Our maiden ride was on September 2nd after the complete install and we were stoked! The footing is incredible and our horses feel absolutely amazing on it. Worth the wait.
