Putting in a school & surfaces?!?

Tor&Warrior

Tor&Warrior

& Flyte & Vin!
Jun 26, 2003
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Gloucester, UK
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Were going to put a school in at home. Would be grateful if anybody has any websites of companies that do surfaces so I can start looking at prices. Also any oppinions/recommedations on what surfaces are best. We don't want anything so cheap it'll need replacing after 5 minutes but as Flyte will be the only horse that uses it we don't want anything to expensive either as it just wont be worth it. Were going to do everything ourselves, digging out, lining, drainage etc because our very nice next door neighbour is a farmer with everything we'd need, he built our stables, and we'll fence it our self so all we need is the surface.

Thanks

Torx
 
Cushion Track Premier Surface supplied by Equestrian Surfaces is the nicest surface I have ever seen but it is probably expensive. Rubber mixed with sand is nice to ride on imo. Sorry I am not much help. Have you tried searching google for some companies?
 
have you thought about bog standard sand straight from a quarry???? If i was having a school built and I was lucky enough for it to be at home.this is what I'd use as I know I'd look after it well so wouldnt have loads of stones in it etc!!
 
Our indoor school surface is a really fine sand, and unless it is watered regularly, and by that i mean every few days, it becomes really really dusty! So if it was an outdoor school I could imagine it all blowing away lol!
 
the yard where i keep monty has a fibre sand surface - special sand with hairy bits in, lol. at the livery yard where i work we had a really big school which was filled with sand from their quarry. it was terrible, when it rained it was like a bog for a week till it dried out abit, (but tbh it didnt really have a very good drainage system) but even then the horses legs would be all orange from the sand.
we've just installed a new arena - with cushionride (i think thats what its called), its wood chip (not bark) and its fantastic stuff. they got a company in to do the drainage, but we layed the membrane ourselves, and then my boss's huband (a farmer) layed the wood chip in the school himself. its been down for about 3 weeks now, and althuogh it did need alot of rolling at first to compress it underneath (the horses kept sinking abit!) along with all the rain we've had recently its now working fine.

i think whichever surface you decide to go for, the most important thing is to make sure you have a decent drainage system done by proffesionals. the rest is pretty simple to do yourselves.
 
Our outdoor surface was silica sand and plastic chippings mix from Manchester Plastics (West Midlands based) which was not expensive and ias lasting well. Our indoor was Passada which was expensive and has not worn that well but we just have to top it up with sand to improve it
 
We have an outdoor sand school which drains very well, but isn't ridden on much - we had it mainly for winter turnout as we had restricted grazing. We didn't use plastic granulesa s the top layer as they might be eaten.

The sand has a tendency to grow weeds in it - it hasn't blown around very much and we never water it. But I could see how that might happen.
 
I have used 2 different types of surfaces in my outdoor school. The first one was bark - not the wood chip, but actual bark. Put down over the drainage and stone about 8 inches thick and it was really good. I taught alot of lessons in it over 8 years before it became quite boggy.
Then used sand. Looked great, was more expensive and needed to be watered when it became very warm, and also required to be weeded. Lasted 5 years before it needed a top up.
At the end of the day it is personal choice and how much you want to spend.
All the best
from Tracy
 
Thanks for all the suggestions! Now I really can't decide. :D
Origanally we had thought sand & rubber mix but I'm quite interested in the bark as have found a few companies and it seems very reasonably price! And the sand and plastic chippings is a very good price and my instructor has it on hers and it rides really nice.

We already have enquired about planning and know we'll get it, were surrounded by people with their own schools and that we wouldn't pay rates on it because we don't have livery and we only have 2 stables (would with 4 or more)

Thanks again

Torx
 
We did our own arena last year and its worked out perfect. We got the stufff from www.equestriandirectltd.co.uk

It was the most reasonable we found, a 20m x 40m ended costing about £8500 including all materials (stone, membrane, equicushion surface, fencing, JCB hire, the sit on roller machine - which is an absolute necessary it gets it nice and compact but you have to rake it by hand to get a nice flat finish the JCB just couldn't get it right)

Its lovely and just enough spring under foot, even with all this rain its never had even a small puddle in it, but we really made sure the foundations were perfect, it doesn't kick up when you ride, doesn't get stuck in hooves and weeds do't grow in it.

The foundations were pretty easy too, we just scrapped off the grass and put down a couple of inches of stone, levelled it so that it slightly ran downhill to a land drain, then you lay the membrane down, which has drains in it, they run towards the land drain too and then the about a foot of surface goes on top of that.

We had ours done in a week and that was mostly done in the evening after work.

If you want any photos of the finished arena, pm me with your e-mail address and i'll send some over for you.

The only downfall was that the company was really busy and didn't explain that they deliver over 3 days, i took it that it was all delivered on 1 day and had machines and people booked for that day and then they rang me to say that the order was going to be a day late! other than that it worked out well.

We did have quotes of other companies for sand and rubber mix and we were quoted between £15,000 and £22,000!!!!:eek:
 
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