I wrote a couple weeks ago that
Santa brought our farm new footing, and that it had primarily been used in the small upper arena, with a couple piles dropped off in the larger lower arena. We were a little concerned that the larger arena wouldn't have enough, but it ended up being WAY to deep up top so some was transferred down.
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| gettin the old sand out |
So mgmt pulled a WHOLE bunch of sand out of the lower arena (and put it in the round pen, just barely visible on the right side of the above pic), and got to work spreading about the new footing.
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| bobcat hard at work |
This stuff is seriously cushy and pleasant, but definitely gets deep really easily, apparently. So it'll probably need a good bit of grooming to fully level out. But so far I'm pretty excited about it! I'm also hopeful that all this attention to the arena means that the soft deep spots that showed up last winter are filled in now.
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| mixing it in |
Plus it seems to be holding up to the weather pretty well so far. They did end up mixing some existing sand in with the nice new footing... which seems unfortunate... So in the couple below-freezing nights we've had, it's gotten a little clumpy and crunchy. But nothing like the rock-solid concrete that the sand would turn into all on it's own.
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| ta da!! |
It hasn't been slippery at all tho and doesn't seem as changeable depending on weather conditions as the sand did. We'll see tho. True winter is still ahead of us. And anyway, the steep hill down to the arena is likely to get a little treacherous anyway so it's hard to say how much use this arena will get in the next couple months.
Still tho, I'm pretty pumped about the prospect of this footing holding up better and for longer through the season!!
Such excitement!!!!
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed for you guys that (a) it holds & (b) the hill there and back remains accessible/use able.
i really hope so too! today will actually be a big test for the footing, since it's been pretty wet lately and then temperatures dropped significantly. we'll see what it's like when i get out there !
DeleteWow, that's awesome! I've got pics of xc fence progress: http://whichchick.tumblr.com/post/136971610447/ive-been-working-on-my-xc-fences-there-has-been
ReplyDeleteNext up is more chainsawing, actual earth-moving, and setting some posts. Good times await. :)
that looks awesome!!!! i love the (spooky) culverts and hanging logs too
DeleteSuch a gorgeous outdoor! I'm jealous. We have an indoor, which definitely has its advantages, but no outdoor :(
ReplyDeletethe outdoor is pretty incredible about 9 months out of the year ... but man do we wish we had an indoor in the winter or in rain storms...
DeleteWoohoo. New footing can take a while to get level and lots of grooming but how exciting!
ReplyDeletethat's good to know - hopefully mgmt stays on top of maintaining it !
DeleteThat is so awesome! Fingers crossed that the footing wins over the winter cold.
ReplyDeletemine are crossed too! it's looking like winter is finally starting to make an appearance here so we will see what happens!
DeleteYay new footing! I imagine it will eventually be fairly thoroughly mixed with the old sand -- it's pretty hard to avoid when you're grooming it. Perhaps imperfect, but it sounds like maybe with a more homogeneous mixture of new footing and sand will be an overall improvement! Also, incredibly jealous!
ReplyDeletei hope the mixture works out well too. the two materials are definitely very VERY different tho, and we're seeing that after a rain they separate out from each other, so lots of grooming and maintaining is needed to keep it all together and happy
Delete*drools* Enjoy! :)
ReplyDeletei'm pretty excited!
DeleteYour outdoor arena looks enormous! And I love the natural looking bleachers! I hope the new footing is as great as it sounds!!
ReplyDeletethe bleachers are actually a recent addition, donated by boy scouts who came to install it during the middle of a busy lesson day. chainsaws and everything, and zero consideration of how spooky it could be for the horses. oops! still tho, they're pretty cool. and the arena is actually only 100x200' - definitely not the largest outdoor around. tho it's jusssst big enough to squeeze in a full stadium course so we're not complaining
DeleteThat is such a nice arena. I'm sure the new footing is going to make it amazing!
ReplyDeleteso far so good!! the arena really is beautiful, but it sadly has some serious construction flaws that have made it difficult to use year round. we'll see how this helps!
Deleteomg I love those benches on the hill! New footing looks fantastic
ReplyDeletei think so too! the benches are awesome too - definitely a big improvement for folks who want to watch, since setting up chairs on a hill that steep never really worked out
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