Horse arena slope

Thank for the input.

TJ

Make sure that you crown the length. If your arena is North/South and is 300 x 100, make your water drain East/West. This way, you shed water quickly and again, you have a smaller drop. 100 ft/2 = 50 ft. So your center to the outside edge should drop approx. 6 inches (50/8ft = 6 1/4).

If you were to crown the width, your talking 18 inches of drop!

Hope this helps.

Mike

Thanks for that information, that is just what I'm looking for. One other question, what kind of accuracy can I expect from a guy on a grader doing the leveling and crowning??? I can shoot the grade myself with a dumpy level to determine grade, but not sure what a reasonable tolerance would be.

I placed stakes down the center and 1/2 way between center and the outside edge. I spaced the stakes about 20 feet apart down the center and towards the outside.

I did it in a backwards way--I set the outside at the current level as the starting point and then I made the center increase the 1/8th needed. The point between the center and outside was 1/2 the height.

I put the top of each stake as the high point for the base. This way, the grader knew how much base he needed at each stake. When the belly dump came through and dumped material, he also could see where we were high and low.

During this time, I was on a compactor compacting the base. It was really important (time and $$) to be compacting the base and getting as much of the base settled while the grader was there.

One thing I did learn was to take marking paint and mark the marker places outside the outside marker. Between the belly dump, grader, and me on the compactor, we lost a few markers. Also, paint a line on the ground connecting all markers across the arena. This gives you a point of reference from the ground as well as for the grader.

The laser was $50/day and I used it the day before to set up and during the grading. This way, I could make sure we were leveling correctly.

Let me know if I can help further.

Mike

Thanks for a GREAT response. Very, very helpful. But as always, brings to mind a few more questions.

You indicated that your sub-base (graded soil) is effectively level. That correct?

Then your outer edges of the base would be about at what depth? The centerline of the base at about what depth?

We had our sub-base (or 'pad') cut out of a slope a few months ago. I haven't checked the level yet, but appears to have some slope.

It is summer here in Australia and waiting for more rain and time to settle the pad before having the base applied.

Mind if I ask what you used for a footing?

Thanks again for a great reply.

TJ

The D-6 bulldozer was $115/hr so I just wanted him to cut out the hill and push the dirt somewhat level. I went in with a blade and leveled it more before the winter and just wanted it to settle. Well, we have about 2 feet of topsoil and then a gravel pit! Between the rocks the size of a basketball and the gravel, the base was really level still by spring. We left the sub-base alone.

I added 4" of base material to the outside. This compacted to about 2-3" of depth. Our arena is 198 feet x 66 feet. My wife rides English Dressage and this is the standard measurements. The center of the arena was 8" and compacted to about 6-7". The half line (half way between the center and the outside) was at 6". This way, the water at the center only had to travel 33 feet and dropped 4 inches in that time. We have had really good success with this drop.

You could shoot the sub-base to the 1/8 slope and then you would only need to add the same amount of base all over the arena. With the rocks in the sub-base and a good solid foundation, we decided to add more base. The negative side is it took me over 500 tons of base material to get the slope, but we don't have rocks coming up (not much).

I use concrete sand as the riding surface material. It is small, easy to move, and gives to the horse when riding on it. It also holds moisture really well when we do water it to keep down the dust. It doesn't blow away in our 40-50 mph wind, either.

The big thing for us was that we have 2 gravel pits within a mile and another in about 5 miles. This way, we didn't have to have some trucking company truck it in for us and I could do as my schedule allowed. I would carry 8-9 tons a load and could put it where I wanted instead of having some big belly dump come in and dump in a line.

We also use concrete sand in our indoor arena for the same reasons. The indoor and outdoor are set at about 2-3" deep. It varies with the amount and type of riding that is done. I will drag a harrow thru it one day and the next I will level it with a level I built from 3" railroad spikes and two I-beams. We lined the outdoor with railroad ties to keep the material in. It works great. They came from a bridge in Michigan and are REALLY heavy (full 8x10" and 10 feet long). I bought a landscape rake and go around every 4-5 weeks and pull the sand off from the railroad ties.

If you want, I can send pictures of our arena. Let me know. Glad I could help.

Mike