I've mentioned before that I'm going to be moving up to Maine in over a year, and I was wondering if any of you could give me some ideas about footing and indoor arena to use in that climate. Currently the ground up in Maine is frozen down about 3 feet, and this has been a mild winter.

I'm pretty sure I want a Cover-All arena, or something similar, but I'm not sure about the footing. I'd like the footing to be pretty low maintenace, minimal dust, not freeze, and provide adequate cushion for the frozen winter ground.

Indoor footing that is dust free and doesn't freeze - Salt and Mag Chloride in your sand. Unfortunately, you still have to water with that combination.

There are other products that also reduce the amount of watering and basically eliminate dust - "arena dust b gone" for one. But you still have to water and maintenance is sometimes very expensive depending on size of arena and shipping costs.

You could invest in this great sand that is baked and absolutely 100% dust free - you never have to water and it doesn't freeze - but that would be as much as the arena itself.

And there is the good old mineral oil treatment - but I'm not sure if that would stay thawed in your climate.

Hope this helped

For sure! Magnesium Chloride! I love this stuff, 3 of the indoors I ride in use this. It's GREAT stuff!

No watering, no freezing, no dust.

MAG site

I always thought indoor and dust were a combination that was unavoidable -- good to know that if I am someday in the $$ I can make one that isn't -- SWEET!

Is the Magnesium Chloride damaging to their hooves at all?

At this point, I'm thinking of making the arena 80' by 100' feet, which is a little bit smaller than the outdoor I ride in now.

Quote:

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Is the Magnesium Chloride damaging to their hooves at all?

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Not from any experience I've had. Two indoors are just regular people who give lessons and let other ride in their arenas. The third is an FEI rider/trainer and she has it in both of her indoors.

Some people think that it may dry out their hooves if you ride every day or very long extended times. They recommend that if you're riding that often or for that long of a duration that you should either rinse off the hooves after riding or periodically apply a moisturizer.

Hi,

I live in Maine and have an indoor. We used stone dust(fine) and I put a product called Mag down once a year for dust control no watering needed - as a matter of fact the company recommends that you do not water it as the MAG attracts moisture from the air and holds it- the stuff works GREAT. I swear by it.

It comes in pellets and flakes we use the flakes. I use 10/12 bags for a 72x120 over a two week period. First we drag it then spread 4 bags then let it set for a couple of days then use it a few times to stir it up a bit then apply more and repeat the process. I just did mine and there is hardly any dust. My previous arena was sand and I used the same product and had the same great results.You don't need to be concerned with freezing with an indoor around here even when it's sub zero degrees - but if you are concerned about it the MAG will take of both dust and freezing.We use a hand pushed lawn seed spreader to apply it.Took me about 20 minutes each time to apply.

We get ours at a local Agway Feed store.You can get it just about any where.Here's a link for it.

http://www.meltsnow.com/msds-mag-care-feeding-dust.htm

As far as footing goes - there are so many combinations - stone dust -sand and stone dust mix - sand rubber and so on. Originally we were going to go with sand again and add the Perma Flex or similar crumb rubber product but the stone dust we found was so awesome that we have just stayed with that.We compacted it really tight so it was pretty firm when we first put down - when we drag it- sometimes we go with tines down on the drag to soften it up a bit then if it gets to too soft we drag with the chain side and firms back up-pretty good stuff!If you go with stone dust make sure it clean sifted as there are a few varieties of it some are very stoney - same with sand- you want to go sand that has angular granules not round and make sure its sifted for stones/rocks...Good luck...You want but our place (LOL!)we're moving to Ocala in 2 1/2 years

There is picture of our barn/arena on my photobucket link

Hi Again,

I forgot to mention in my last post that we were going to go with a Cover-All arena but we priced out the barn/arena etc and were able to build a 40x72'insulated (pole) barn with a 12x24' heated/viewing tack room -ground level hay storage - 7 12x12' stalls and an attached 72x120' insulated indoor for less than it would have cost us just for the coverall arena.

We had to subcontract for site prep as you would for the Cover All but my husband and I used our own tractors/hand rakes and rented a commercial roller and did the footing inside ourselves.

I will say the Cover- Alls are really nice arenas -and the man that came out to our place was really great as well.

As nice as they are I prefer the wood-but if you don't care and can afford it - go for it...
My photobucket link didn't come up on my last post but it should come up in this one -the picture of our new barn/arena is in there before we moved so the fencing is still being done etc...

I don't know if this thread is still active but what the hay:-)

 HRSEPLA I saw your barn picture. A beautiful building just what I've always dreamed of!

 I'm curious about your Coverall experience. I've got a quote from Coverall for a 72'x120' building installed including kickboards, doors vents but not footing for $101000 Canadian (about$85000 US). So I'm wondering if your local Coverall rep was way out of line or you've got an amazingly reasonable pole barn builder down there.

Am I missing something? 

I hope you are enjoying your lovely facility!