How much is it to create a menage?

[annieapple7]

Hi TackRoom chums
We have a small paddock we use for the laminitic pony. We have someone who can supply us free with tonnes to wood chippings. I am wondering how we could make a menage - anyone done it?

The field we are at now had a wood chipping manege when we first came here, obviously it wasn't as good as a proper sand or rubber one but it wasn't bad at all. It stayed dry in winter and had some give in it in the summer. The farmer's brother is a tree surgeon and every now and again he would come along with a trailer-load of bark and top it up, it smelt lovely if it was pine. Eventually it got ruined by an idiot who kept driving his horsebox through it but I'm working on the farmer to replace it for us (though he'll have to do some levelling out first as it was completely wrecked and now slopes). My latest tactic is to 'mention' the soon-to-be new school when he introduces potential new customers he is showing round.[cgrin]

We are on chalk though so the ground drains well, might be different if you are on clay or something like that?

You need to put a membrane in and have around 6-8" depth of chippings (there is a minimum depth I think). You also need to put boards round it to stop it going everywhere. We have a woodchip school and woodchip round pen. It is good but in this sort of weather (very, very dry) the surface tends to get a bit loose. You also need to be able to grade it regularly.

Where I ride has a wood chipping menage. They dug out channels with a mini digger, laid drainage pipes, then hard core, then the wood chip. Works pretty well, and the kids love moutaineering on any new piles

Ah, well you see ours wasn't nearly so fancy because it's a devil getting planning permission for anything here so the bark was just chucked down. It was still better than what we've got now. [chmm]

We are on clay though - so it was a total bog in that area before. In fact it gets boggy everywhere - apart from now when we are desperatly awaiting rain

If you put woodchip, or any other surface like sand, rubber, etc. even hardcore straight onto the soil, it will simply disappear within a few months/a year depending on rain fall.

If you want an arena you need to do a proper job which includes:

• getting PP
• removing the top soil, leveling with a fall of 2% in the direction of natural drainage
• dig out drainage channels, add pipes to take water away, add a garden type membrane (100grams will do) fill in with clean, 40mm hardcore (for a 20x40 arena you will need about 280 tonnes)
• make sure this is level, run the roller over it, then cover with high quality, non-woven geo-textile membrane (the heavier the better, 500grams would do a super job). Heat seal all seams, and place the edges under retaining boards.
• add your post and rail if you want it
• put on a surface of your choice (woodchips will biodegrade within 1 to 4 years creating an unsuitable, very slippery mess which will have to be removed and replaced). If you use sand you need angular, small size grain sand (e.g. 0.25) to a depth of 15cm.

Factors which will affect the cost of your arena are: your choice of surface, access to the site (if you have access for artic lorries you will save a lot of money) and distance from local quarry.

Good luck!