Footing for round pen?

[Bonnie M]

What type of footing is the best to use in an area that you would be lungeing a horse in?

I only have sand/dirt right now and I think it is too hard on the horses, gets really deep. Plus it sends up dust clouds and you can barely breathe.

[Pinto Paso]

http://www.perma-flex1.com/permaturf/index.htm

This one mixes with sand 50/50
http://www.dressagearena.net/pages/footing_dress.html

Here is an excerpt from an arena and roundpen site I found (not sure which one now)

I use Arena Rx in my indoor arena, which is a chemical coating (non-toxic, natural ingredients) that reduces dust. It gives a similar effect as the stuff they use to coat dirt roads to keep dust down. It is like the sand is wet all the time. We live in a high altitude desert so watering is not really an option for us. My arena is 80' X 120' and the first treatment cost me about $1200 (including delivery and application) and about a year later I put another $600 on. That was two years ago; I may need one more coating. Each time you reapply, you use less. By the time you factor in the cost of a watering system, water and/or labor, this is a pretty good deal. We have long stretches of below zero temps in the winter and our footing stays very soft and "dry" not freezing up at all.
Keep in mind that as your footing deteriorates, it is ground finer and finer and produces much more dust. If the sand is already ground to a fine powder, even watering or coating with a dust-down product will not resolve the dust issue. Periodically, the footing should be removed and replaced with new, coarser sand. A dusty environment is a health issue for both horses and humans, so it is an investment worth making.

[CarolU]

I have roadbase under mine and washed sand on top. I always wet it in the summer (I have asthma) and that keeps the dust down AND the evaporation helps keep it cooler (wouldn't work where it is already humid). If your round pen is covered, the sand will not freeze in the winter and you can use it year-round.

Something you need to consider is what you want to do in your round pen. If you want to canter, do turns, rollbacks, etc, you want fairly deep sand (or other topping), 6-9" deep. But most horses have trouble gaiting in deep sand, so for gait work I like 1-2" deep.

[Candice Burger]

Agree with Carol. Think about what you want to do in that area first.

That said, the footing foundation should be firm footing with drainage capabilities. I used a common road base here in NW FL called "shell rock" which is nothing but some shell, rock and coarse limerock mixture. Depending on the characteristics of your road base material will depend on how deep you want it. You will need to compress the material about 2 inches. I started with 8 inches of material and compressed in down to 6 inches. I also experimented with 6 inches compressed to 4 inches but didn't like how hard it got and how it didn't drain as well.

What I did was look around and talk to road contractors about road base. I then got a large enough sample to see how it drained and how firm it got when I compressed it 2 inches. Then I bought the material that seemed to work best.

What you don't want to do is think that your top soil will handle the wear and tear of training horses regularly. For years I made do with what I could because I couldn't afford a good training area. Well, horses feet will tear up anything that has organic material, then it gets dusty from the decay and then you have hills/valleys, then it gets mucky and then it gets too deep...I'm sure most of us know what I'm talking about. So, road base is the key to preventing that and keeping your working surface in good shape.

Once you get the foundation in, there's a huge combo of footing material to try. I decided I liked the cleaned coarse sand for my footing. I thought about adding wood chips to give the footing more spring and be less concussive, but I can't really find what I want. Sawdust is too fine. I emphasize, clean coarse sand not river sand and you definitely want it cleaned to prevent dustiness. The angular sand will last longer and be less slippery. Anything organic added to the sand will eventually decay and become dusty. I planned on removing the footing when it got too dusty to work in. From what I read replacement depends on how much use and how much organic material is added. For me, I suspect it would be 5-7 years.

Unfortunately what I got instead of clean coase sand was some material called "top dirt". Well, it's sandy enough and it's dusty enough too. Too much clay material. I'm living with it because I can't afford not to use it, but when it's time to replace it, I'll go with my clean sand.

Right now I've got about 3 inches of dirt on top of the road base and am thinking of making it 4 inches. If I need more I'll add it later rather than have to haul some out because I put too much in. My working pen is not designed to do much fast work in it so I don't need it to be much deeper than that. They'll be moving around when at liberty but that's about it.

I looked into using shredded tires with the cleaned, coarse sand, but what I saw, I didn't like. There's some dressage folks with too much money spending it on training facilities around here. Most are using the cleaned sand and shredded tires for their top footing. There wasn't enough rubber for the "spring" and some of the steel belting was still there. Not allot but enough.

Once you get the roadbase in, you can use whatever you want really. It all depends how much muck and dust you want to put up with.

[Pinto Paso]

We have used the shredded rubber in 3 locations never found nor had trouble with steel belt bits - maybe you will have to investigate the mfg if you look into... trust me we dont have too much money and have been very happy with the footing it provided - in fact it was less $ after a few seasons of heavy use.
We have not used it in our current location as the training area is not complete - if I can find a good product I will probably use it again.

We have also used a combination of shavings/mulch type product with sand and did not like like the results where we used them. Again it could have been the wood type (softwoods in Canada) or the base we used it on.

Unless you are really working a horse in the round pen then the footing there is not nearly as important as an arena.
And if you are happy with everything except the dust look into the sprays listed.

[CarolU]

Speaking of drainage, you want to consider that when you locate it too. Place away from natural drainage or run on, and plan for run off from your base..or it will wash it all away for you.

I've never riden on the shredded rubber. I wouldn't mind trying it, it's supposed to be great for dust control.

[Pinto Paso]

Your alergies/asthma would thank you!!!

[Candice Burger]

If you can find it, Carol it is great stuff. Around here it's used for mulch and for walkways too. Problem though is our market was too weak and several tire shredding businesses closed shop. The "recycling" tire business went to Mexico where there's less environmental regulation.

I just figured it would cost me about $250 for 1/2 inch of rubber and then add the cost of the sand. The cost for about 3 inches of "top dirt" is about $270 for the same area. Maybe when I recover for the all the expenses and when it's time to replace the footing I can look at this again.
The mix they are recommending is 3 parts sand to 1 part rubber. What I saw was way more sand and way less rubber. That's about the blend I was thinking for wood chips, 3 parts sand to 1 part wood chips.

I thought about sprays but for my little area, I sat down and figured it was cheaper to wet and replace the footing every so many years than to use the spray treatment. If I had a larger area, was training full-time or commercial, I might change my mind, but for private use, I didn't think it was worth it.

[reuben T]

My situation is different, I start with hard clay, what's there after my dozer gets done pushing the hillside away to make a level spot. and when wet becomes sticky goo. I live near several limestone quarrys, so that was cheapest, and it seems to work fine, might want some sand with it to make it a bit softer eventually. I just put 2-3" of quarter inch sifted limestone over the hard clay. It got stiff after rain, (glued together lightly with the little dust that was left in it) but breaks up with some activity on it. After some organic matter got mixed with it, it stay's moist most of the time and dosn't get that bit of rigidity anymore. and because it was sifted it still maintains decent drainage. It took care of the sticky goo problem, but it's a little too shallow yet, loose surface but not deep enough to be very soft. so will add some more and a little sand when i get to it.

[Candice Burger]

Reuben, I think you'd be better off to take the limestone and create a very FIRM footing as the base first. The top soil we have is loamy sand, very good drainage, little or no clay, and stays dry...but it is also organic and it's the organic material that makes it mucky and dusty. The other downside is keeping it truly level and with even footing all the way around. Some places are softer and deeper, while others are firmer and too shallow.

The road base resolves those issue. It's role is to provide even, firm, well-drained base that stays put. It's too firm to use as the last few inches of the footing. That's where the rubber, sand, dirt, or whatever comes into play. This is the footing the horses' feet work in without hitting the road base or if it does, there's little contact. You want to compress the road base so that it doesn't break up at all and stays in place.

All we did was pull off the sod, level the area, added road base, and then added dirt on top. We had a couple of rains in February straight on the road base and it drained well with no ponding and stayed dry.

[CarolU]

I'm on lake bottom clay here and found I needed the packed road base so that the clay didn't turn to snot underneath when it got wet. I extended my round coral last year and we put the sand on top of the clay and now I have real problems on that side of the coral. I may have to move the sand over for now and put the base down and pack it and then put the sand back.

[Cindy]

Around here there is no need to base with anything other than the naturally occuring good ole Georgia red clay. Makes a great base.

[Pinto Paso]

Glad you said that Cindy... our good old TN red clay gets as hard as concrete here and I am prepping the new roundpen area.. I know that the clay turns to snot if the sand is put on when it is dry it seems to hold up very well without sinking or spreading - I didnt think I needed a different packed base but it's good to know others are doing it the same way... Now the clay out west is totally different.. it seems to absorb and draw moisture down and never firms up unless you have a road base packed down under the sand.

PS - we are also on a ridge so we have a pretty good base to start with.

[Cindy]

Just make sure your grade is good for drainage and you should be set.