 Good afternoon. Thank you guys so much for joining us. This is our fourth and final NDSU extension horse management webinar series We're so glad you guys joined us for all four of them. Of course, you're getting the email and they're all on the playlist of On YouTube and so you can watch them at any time the previous ones we've done and this one will be emailed out as well So today we're going to be talking about arena and facility footing and again my co-hosts Get to be our presenters today. And so my name is Mary Keena I'm the livestock environmental management specialist with NDSU extension and my co-host and presenters today are Rachel Wald from a Kennery County and Page Brumman from Ward County So they are the egg and natural resource extension agents in those counties and they're also my horse team So with that we're going to start with Rachel today and then we'll move on to page and we'll have some questions at the end Hi everyone Like Mary said, my name is Rachel Wald. I am with NDSU extension in McHenry County And I just wanted to bring up. So this is the kind of the first page. What I'm going to talk about which is basically Outside of the arena or outside of the barn and the stable, you know, what we need to plan for for managing Everyone sees mud every year, especially this year where like Mary's talked about before where that manure needs to go How to manage snow as well Talking about rain and and where all that goes talking about a drainage system And then also about erosion because that's going to be a huge deal when it comes to those high traffic areas that we're going to talk about Where your horses go where your tractors go where you're feeding all of that So some benefits of managing some of these high traffic areas Definitely include the health of a horse You're going to be making sure that that their foot health is is optimal You don't want those those areas really wet so that foot Can really wick up a lot of those things you want to make sure that their feet and legs are doing well And that's going to go into the health of the horse and then also talking about different things including their respiratory system and Horses mental health as well We're gonna stop some of that breeding ground or talk about you know reducing some of the breeding ground for insects In some of these areas. We definitely want to reduce injuries because anywhere there's water Sometimes you can get into some some injuries with thrush or disease But also water turns to ice in the wintertime and that could mean injuries for that horse on accident as well A lot of the times if your horse is standing in water or in heavy areas with snow, they get chilled pretty easily In those moist conditions, we want to make sure that that we're creating a spot for them to keep them warm and healthy With this it's going to increase some of those farm efficiencies to make sure you can get that tractor in and out to make sure you can do your chores on time and then also When you bring that horse in to take care of it is going to take a lot less time Managing runoff. It's something that Mary's talked talked on or touched on a lot Especially when it comes to manure management and it this this plays into it as well We want to manage that runoff and then we want to ensure water quality and water quality means that Any of that runoff or any of that nutrients isn't going into an open stream or or surface water that may end up going downstream causing issues Or even a pond on your facility Making sure that that runoff does not does not cause any issues with water quality in that pond Because blue-green algae can become an issue as well, which is toxic to To all plants or sorry to all animal life. So we want to make sure that that is something that we address as well Some preventative measures if you guys are lucky enough to start out With a fresh slate that facility layout is going to be key You want to make sure that all of your key places your arena your barn any loafing spaces where you feed Where there's water needs to be elevated or or on a hill or high up So that that the chances of any runoff or any puddling or any erosion May not take place So we're going to talk about some of the preventative measures that we can do To to minimize the possibility of those things, but other areas we want to watch out for I Know right outside that barn when you when you take a step outside that door a lot of the times you end up in a puddle So those are one is one of the places right outside an indoor arena Around those bale feeders like I talked about gates or another big one waters Though so those loafing areas that might be in dry lots or where they hang out the most The other place that I want to mention is tie areas areas that you might tie So if you're like me of a young horse She likes to dig holes and sometimes we need to watch those tie out areas to make sure that that Is also maintained and then your trailer parking because nobody wants to go through a whole bunch of water to get to their trailer So some of the reasons that we have these issues Especially with tractors when we're moving in and out at that gate There's a high level of compaction that may cause in inability for that water to infiltrate into the ground so those poor spaces Soil or a ground are supposed to act kind of like a sponge and they're supposed to have a little bit of space in it So that so that water can infiltrate through and that's how How are plants pick up the water as they go down to the system so that Compaction that might happen at the gate or you know, just outside your barn or just outside your Reno or around where you bail feed or around that Water compaction becomes an issue So those are some things that we want to watch for In what years if you have high water tables this goes back to another thing that Mary mentioned, you know watch what your what your pastures are doing Where where your water is going when it rains or what kind of some issue areas and that talks about draining so draining into those key areas as well knowing what what areas you're going to have issues with The other issue might be, you know, if you haven't cleaned out in a while, a lot of organic matter that can really hold a lot of water. So some of the manure, some of the old bales if you put out Wood chips or straw. Those can also hold a lot of moisture as well. So cleaning those areas out making sure that you put it into your compost pile or or your refuse pile. And then where should or could this water go. We need to think about making a plan on our operations as to where we can if we if we can get a drainage system where should or could this water go to make sure that the water doesn't go down to the system. Make sure that we're not getting any runoff. That's going to cause any issues, any water concerns or health concerns for your animals or your neighbors. You don't want to, you know, be draining it into wherever your neighbors are either So we can start kind of talking about how we can mitigate some of the issues that we might have with moisture And downspouts over arena walk doors over your barn door or over a loafing shed can definitely divert some of that excess rain away so that it helps with with the amount of moisture that maybe is in that area. It's one of those kind of cheap easy things that we can add to an existing structure and hopefully diverted away to a vegetative area. So what we're looking for is is a good area that maybe the horses don't go that you can water that lawn just a little bit more. So another option is you can set up a high, high use pad with drainage. So that's, that's another option if you've ever heard of a French drain or a dry well drain. That might be something that's underneath a high use pad that can move that water out of the way, keeping that high use area high and dry. The other option is changing footing in that high traffic area. We want to be careful with this because sometimes just adding footing just like adding gravel isn't going to going to cover what we need. So adding gravel might might work for a little bit of time and it might make it look nice for a short period of time, but you're likely going to have to add more later. So we want to make sure if you don't want to continue to do that to do it correctly the first time. And we're going to kind of mention some options for that here in just a minute. The other thing is cleaning those areas often. We want to have a compost pile away from that area, but we also want it close enough that we don't really have to track. We don't want to make it a chore for you, right? We want to be able to make it something that you can easily do every day or every other day to make sure that those areas are cleaned up and good to go. So when we talk about dry lots or sacrifice areas or even exercise products, the goal with these areas is to kind of have a small part of your grazing system where any of your horses can go so that they can have access to a dry ground. Also they're going to have feed, a safe area to hang out, water availability. And this land resource is to ensure the majority of your land has a rest that it needs to stay healthy and productive. So we definitely want to keep those pastures in good condition. And this is whether it's drought or rainy season to keep them in that good healthy productive stage. So some reasons to manage that sacrifice lot. Good pasture management keeps the pasture healthy and thriving. By not overgrazing, we just want to kind of mow down and control those weeds. We also want to keep horses off that with wet pasture because hooves will damage the pasture. If you've ever heard of plugging, it's actually a technical term where the horse's foot creates kind of that round shape. And it's, it's divided all over the place. So we don't want those pasture paddocks plugged by your horses. Drought is another aspect to manage. We just went through North Dakota just went through kind of a drought cycle, 17 and 21. So we have seen a couple of those instances where we wanted to manage our pastures to ensure that we would be able to see them in the coming seasons. And that means keeping your horses off of them. Those dry lots are sacrifice lots. That's what we use them for is to maintain those good pastures, keep them off wet and droughty ground. Making sure that maintenance or removal of manure waste kind of like I mentioned before is always important. It'll decrease the amount of insects that are around. It'll make it nice and then it'll help with disease issues of the foot. So we definitely want to keep that in a good orderly manner. So some tips for those high traffic areas, kind of like I mentioned before, the alternative ground, it's better to get something in there for that alternative ground. Ideally, we would like to see it maybe excavated down. So the alternate footing is the better, but the best would be those high traffic pads. And when we do those high traffic pads, we excavate down, put in a drain, make sure there's a nice level so that it's able to drain away from the area. And then you're going to put rock over top compacted down with new footing. That new footing then we recommend putting a base around so that it's a lot harder for it to road away and easier for it to just drain down into that drain and head out the other options. When we're talking drains, we want to make sure that those drains are heading into a vegetative buffer. Those vegetative buffers help to filtrate all that dirty water that's coming out of your paddock. So some of the options that we can do, we could do plant trees or water loving shrubs that might enjoy getting a little extra rain and filtering out those manure particles for us or even water loving grass or all three. So those are some great options. And it's going to take a little bit unless you've been there for ages and you know exactly where your water is going to go. You need to kind of monitor and see how it goes so that you can build these nice sites in. You also want to make sure these vegetative buffers are fenced off from your horses to make sure that none of the nutrients that maybe are being filtered through there are going to become an issue for you if they're standing water. And then you want to make sure that you choose plants or trees and shrubs that aren't toxic to horses. So if something happens and they get in there, you want to make sure that it's safe for them to. So here's a couple of resources that I found Penn State, University of Kentucky and University of Minnesota had some great stuff on high traffic areas. I do want to talk to you guys about if you are looking at a high traffic pad, you may need to look into any of the areas around you that might need a little extra. Okay, before you do that, because you're moving maybe moving a lot of water. So look into your your regular to regulations in your area. But the next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to pass it along to page. And so as that's being passed over, like Rachel said, so a good place to start in North Dakota would be the Department of Environmental Quality. And they might send you then to the water commission, depending on how much water you're going to be around. And so that is a good place if you're in another state, whatever your regulatory department is would be able to pass you on then to whoever you would need to talk to about water. Okay, so I'm going to start talking about horse arena footing specifically. So what we're going to cover is what is considered good footing primarily in North Dakota, what would be considered poor footing or less desirable for our arenas. And then I want you to know that there is some research out there that exists on this. A lot of the research is based on racetrack footing or types of footing that maybe aren't as common in North Dakota, but it's certainly applicable and certainly could be applied. But primarily today we're going to talk about the common options that the majority of people in North Dakota have access to and are utilizing. So the first thing I want to point out is before we get into the footing discussion, we do have to talk about location because the best footing investment placed in the wrong spot is not going to be the best footing for you. So you want to consider when you're looking at an arena and this could be indoor or outdoor arena is the slope of the land, how much excavation is going to need to be required in order to build your arena. That's going to significantly increase your cost if you're going to have to dig into a hillside, remove a lot of rocks, tree removal, those sorts of things that go into it. Is there a place where maybe you want your arena in full sun so it dries quicker or maybe you want it in partial shade so you have the option on warm summer days to have some shade. Is there an area where there's more wind or like in a wind tunnel spot would not be a good area to put your arena versus somewhere where maybe you have some natural wind protection that would make it more comfortable to ride, especially North Dakota with our strong winds that we have primarily or most of the part of the year. The other thing to consider is the soil type so what type of soil is in your area is that heavily clayed mostly sand a combination of the both would be considered like a loam type. So we will talk a little bit about different soil types. We get a lot of questions about size and size is really the area that you have to work with and is also event specific so there really is no perfect size but I will tell you that most standard arenas for certain competitions. Are typically 100 by 200 or more ideally 150 by 300 you can do most events in and I also mentioned that you can always make your writing arena space smaller, but it's a little trickier to make it bigger so the recommendation will be go to as big as you're able to go to within reason. But again there's no right or wrong answer it really depends on what your uses. And then lastly for location. Think about access for equipment to get in there and build things and then also for maintenance of that arena space and then also access to the horses you can build the best arena on your property but if it's you know a mile away from where you keep your horses me you maybe aren't going to utilize it as much as if it was a little bit closer. On the same side you don't maybe want it right next to your house or right next to another barn or something like that on your place because of the the dust and the drainage that will need needed around the area so a lot of things to think about in location and there's no perfect answer you just have to be thinking about in your head, where you want it to go and what you have to work with. All right so an ideal arena surface probably doesn't exist, but if it did here are some of the things to consider so an ideal surface is going to provide adequate cushion traction and drainage. So it's going to be material that will cushion your horse's hose, it will hold up to their their turns and their athletic maneuvers without slippage and will drain quickly and dry out adequately without becoming too dry and dusty. We want our footing to be compaction resistant most footing over time is going to compact and we'll talk about why that is. We'd like it to be non abrasive to hooves or minimally abrasive to the horses hooves, not slippery when it's wet require minimal maintenance of course and then be not cost prohibitive. The most expensive part of building an arena, often or not maybe building so much as hauling in the footing is the transportation of that that footing so the footing itself that you select might be fairly affordable or you know really within your budget. But when you factor in the transportation if you have to haul it in from you know miles and miles or hundreds of miles or hours away that's not going to be cost effective versus if it's a few miles down the road. So that's the ideal arena surface again probably doesn't exist you just try to check as many boxes as you can that works for your situation. The surface challenges that we end up and depending upon what type of footing we have and where we located and how it's built are the following so we can get footing that is too hard and compacted that's going to cause more concussion on our horses, particularly their joints. However, if your footing is too soft or too deep. That's where you end up with issues on their soft issues so some tendon strains and injuries that way. And we'll talk about how footing can get too soft or the wrong type there. If it's too dry it's dusty can be hard on horses with respiratory issues or even healthy horses that that dust over time can cause some problems. If it's too wet is going to be slippery or unusable uneven ground is going to cause some concerns for for slippage and injury as well. In North Dakota we have to worry about frozen footing, a majority of the year so what can we do to keep that footing from freezing or to keep it usable as many months as possible. If it's too wet it's slippery and then lastly we end up with debris or it can be debris so whether that's rocks coming up from the base. Maybe it's tree roots because we put our arena too close to our shelter belt or a tree row, or maybe you're on old farmstead and you're always finding what I call treasures things that are coming up from from previous things that were in the area so that debris can cause some challenges as well. Your particular selection is going to be unique to you and it's going to depend on the timeline that you have to build both build the arena, but also how long or how permanent do you want it to be there. Is this something that you just need you need to ride now this summer, maybe you're in a space where you don't plan to be there forever so you just need something that will work for that property at that time. Maybe there'll be quick and less permanent. What's your budget you can really start with where you're at and what you have and do the best you can with what you have to make it work for you, or you can get extremely elaborate. It also depends on the event that you're choosing to do are you building an arena just for a safe footing for general riding and training, or are you event specific so if you're doing speed events we have some different considerations. If you're doing an event that requires a sliding stop like raining or cow horse, or maybe some some deep stops like cutting or some really quick turns and maneuvers, your every event is going to have different requirements and preferences. If you hang around a specific event long enough, certainly you'll find a horse owner that'll say the footing isn't right or the footing is an ideal for what they want to use the for. Again, what you select is going to depend on your primary use footing or pounding the ground that'll also depend on your selection of footing. So over on the right hand side we kind of break into three categories so I say good is using what you have till the ground that you're that you're on and you're given and ride your horse and for some people that is the option and that they need to do. A better option would be if you have the ability to remove that tops will compact and grade the sub base in the base and we'll talk about that a bit and then blend your surface material for your primary use so design it for what event you want to do the most. If you can hire a contractor or unless you or your somebody you know with an experienced heavy equipment operator to install that's usually going to give you a better surface in the long run. There may not be a whole lot of arena design companies up here in North Dakota but there are across the nation that are willing to travel if you're really looking in investing in someone to help you build this. The other option is a lot of people that are building roadways. It's kind of similar to building arena you have the sub base you have the base and then you know instead of paving or putting gravel down on top we have our surface that is suitable for writing so that's another area of expertise that can be converted to building helping you build an area. The best option of course would be to get somebody that is extremely knowledgeable in the area and have them help you design it. And then if you can put a liner down it's going to certainly last a lot longer as well those fabric geotextile liners. All right, so we talked a little bit about this intended primary use considerations for general writing, oftentimes you can get by with a little bit less design, especially if it's temporary so our general writing we typically want about two inches. of that surface material speed events are going to need it to be quite a bit deeper, along with a different base and whereas our raining cutting, you're going to need to have also a different surface and base. So, keep that in mind and we can certainly we don't well we don't have time today to go into specifics for each of the events we're going to talk just about general writing arenas particularly. The other thing I just want to throw out there right now is there are a couple of different considerations for indoor versus outdoor facilities. So we're going to primarily talk about outdoor, however, keep in mind that if you're designing an indoor facility. Typically, it's smaller square footers so sometimes people are willing to invest a little bit more in that because in North Dakota maybe they're going to use their indoor facility, more than their outdoor facility, especially in winters like we had recently. It's also easier to justify dust control products inside because they're not going to wash away or leach away like they would in the outdoor space. And the synthetic materials the same they're not going to blow away, wash away or kind of disintegrate as quickly in an indoor facility as they would in an outdoor. Our outdoor arenas typically are larger maybe because we have more space we're not worried about the cost of putting walls in our roof over our indoor. So often they are built to be larger. The outdoor and the indoor should be graded as well with the building but the outdoor it's really essential that it's graded for drainage if we don't grade it. What happens over time is that as we work that soil it becomes a bowl it becomes a holding area for rainwater and snow melt runoff to pool and sit so the drying process occurs much less slowly and you'll get less use out of it so grading your arena is essential at a 2% slope is recommended 1 to 2%. The other thing the outdoor has is those weather impacts that we mentioned before so when sun, the rain, snow, you're going to end up with some weeds over time to if you're not maintaining it or using it as much and then dust so we will visit about some of those considerations as well. This image is from one of our resources that we referenced to me and it's from Iowa State University and it gives you just a visual of that slope that you'd want to design on an outdoor arena so there's different ways to do it. Most commonly we have the cross section of the slope where the 2% slope begins at the top of the arena and it narrows all the way over to the bottom of the arena in one direction. And you can crown them as well in the center but those crowns over time if not drug properly will wear down and you'll end up with a flat surface so typically grading from one side of the arena across the long end all the way to the other side like shown in the cross section be over on the right hand side is the most common in this area. It is recommended to grade before fencing it's much easier to do and and outdoor arenas don't need to have fences around them that's a personal preference if you want it for safety. Or maybe you're doing an event that you need to like cow horse or cutting where you need to keep those livestock in then you need a fence, but not all arenas have fences around them. It's recommended that you make the pad of your arena that basically arena at least 10 feet wider than the arena needs to be and that will help keep the footing from kind of expanding out of the area that you want to write in. That's a good recommendation to keep in mind make it bigger than you think it needs to be. Okay, so let's talk a little bit from the ground up. So the first step that we'd recommend is that you remove your top soil. That top soil getting mixed into the footing causes some challenges that we'll talk about. But removing that is the best recommendation placing your footing on top of your top soil is not as ideal. It can be done. And if that's where you're at that it is acceptable. It's just not ideal and we're going to try to talk about an ideal situation. And then you'd want to go down to the the sub base, and that's going to be whatever your native soil your clay is underneath there and compact that and slope that at that 2% one to 2% I recommend 2% Most horses and riders aren't going to really feel or see a 2% grade but that water will drain much more quickly. And then the the fabric liners optional this will add considerable expense and also require some expertise and installation. But what that does is it prevents the native soil from mixing with whatever footing you choose to bring in. And it also keeps the rocks from migrating up into your footing through the freeze thought process that we deal with quite a bit up north. That's a real thing to have those rocks from the sub base, moving up into your desirable footing over time. That helps with that. It also helps drain and dry your footing quickly after a rain event. Then you have the base, the base is going to be compacted well draining material and some people use clay for this. But if you can use a road base material or some people call it stone dust limestone dust. It will work down really nicely and be the best draining material. If you that's not in the budget or you don't have the option, some will also use a clay. This base is going to be four to six inches deep sitting on top of that sub base, or even on that fabric if you have that option. And then lastly, this is what most people think of when they build arenas is just the footing, and that's the two to four inches depending upon your, your use of the arena that's on top and that's what people see and that's what they think about but there's so much more to it. We need that base, we need that sub base and we wanted it installed correctly so that it serves us the way that we are hoping and last long as well. As far as the material goes we're going to talk about these next so we have the native soil option that that might be the best option for you in your situation. However, the better option and probably the most common we see North Dakota is bringing in a sand product and blending that potentially with that native soil. There's also some recommendations out there about using wood products which isn't as common in North Dakota because we just don't have that byproduct readily available so it actually adds an expense. Recycled rubber shavings or ground up rubber is an option synthetic fibers and road based mixes so we will discuss each of those individually. The first one is the native soil so some choose to start with their native soil and riding it and choose to maybe add a more ideal footing to it over time as their budget allows as their schedule allows as they develop their property. So if that works for you, this is certainly an option that native soil is going to be a mixture of clay, silk, sand and organic matter. The downside is that it is dusty and gets hard when it's dry. And then unfortunately it's pretty slippery when it's wet and it dries very slowly because that organic matter holds a lot of moisture in it. So native soil arenas tend to work best if the soil is amended at at least 50% with another material typically sand. Sand arenas are the most common and and seems like the go to option for the variety of disciplines. You ideally would want to bring in sand that has been screened for rocks this will save you many many hours of rock picking or many hours of labor having to do so. And then also investing in a sand that has been washed so both screened and washed will help reduce the fines and the dust particles in those sands to give you a more pure product. The next point on here is very important as well is when you're purchasing your sand you want angular sand or quote unquote sharp sand. If those sand molecules are really round which is common and river type sand sands that have been weathered by water moving through them over many many years. Those are more slippery and provide less traction so we prefer angular sands typically those are coming out of gravel quarries in North Dakota. You can mix 5 to 30% and you know the lower recommendations is what I'd start with a lower percentage of clay or organic material blended into your sand to add stability and the next slide I'll show you why that is. The other thing is to start with the least amount and continue adding it slowly. So say you know you just bring in all these truckloads of sand and all of a sudden you end up with eight inches of sand on top of your footing. It's gonna be really hard on your horse and it increased their risk of soft tissue injuries just because that it's too deep it's too loose. So the recommendation is to start with a two inch layer across your writing surface and then add additional footing one inch at a time. Most general writing purposes will be okay with two inches, but I'd recommend going at least a three to four. That way you have a little bit extra time before you need to add more sand into the future. Most of our events are going to want four inches as well. It's kind of just a good number to go by. So this kind of homemade picture is trying to help explain why those round river sands on the left aren't as ideal. They all have a similar shape. There's a lot of poor surface. The water does drain quickly through these sands and dry quickly for you to ride in, but these sands are extremely slippery so they don't provide the traction for quick maneuvers, sharp turns, so whether you're barrel racing. The footing just comes out underneath of the horse and and they don't provide the traction that we need. What is better is to have those angular sands as well mixed in with that five to 30% of a clay or loam material because they have various shapes and sizes to those soil particles so they're able to kind of glue or meld together better. They're more stable under your horse's foot. So think about like if you're walking on the beach, that really deep sand that gets dry is harder to walk in and you really kind of feel that in your muscles when you're walking through versus the ones that are more wet closer to the shoreline. And that goes into watering, which we'll discuss in a little bit as well. But again those various shapes and sizes of our sand mixed together with that clay and organic materials going to be more stable. It'll also hold on to water a little bit longer so we don't want water to pool on top of our arena that would be our heavily clay footings that do that. But we do want some water to stay in the surface because moisture provides that traction so that goes back to the comparison of the really dry beach sand that's deep and doesn't provide traction versus some closer to the shoreline that has moisture in it, much easier to maneuver on. There's also a lot of additives out there and these we're going to touch on briefly there may be there's certainly options to haul in. There's pros and cons to them and sometimes just availability and getting it done is an issue particular in North Dakota so one of the options is wood products so mixing in sawdust or shavings that provides an organic material that will hold on to that water a little bit longer and provide more cushion and a little bit more stability however if you get too much of that it can do the opposite and cause more slippage. The downside is this is that it does break down quickly, and that turns into a dust products anytime you have organic material in your body, you're going to have more dust when it's dry. You also risk if it's not clean shavings you risk having debris in there so say you're getting some ground wood pallets or something there could be staples and nails no matter how many magnets they run through them there's some of those risks of having contamination in that product. The other thing that some people inquire about is rubber. The big thing on using rubber is that you want to make sure that it's guaranteed to come from a wire free facility so ground car tires would not be recommended they have all of those very fine wires that would cause damage and injury to your to your horses so not recommended there but there are things clean rubber recycled rubber that is an option. They will separate out of the footing quite readily so it does require frequent incorporation and they do float to the surface with excess moisture as well. Lastly or not lastly but the next one on the list. So you will hear some people say well I just put some of the dirty shavings to hold a little bit of moisture in my arena. We don't recommend this well while it is an option and some people do choose to use this we don't recommend this because it gets very slippery when it's wet. It does attract flies when it's wet particularly so there'll be much much more organic material there for the flies to lay eggs in and feed on and then it gets really dusty when it's dry and you're lofting that that dust into the air for both you and your horse to breathe. Synthetic fibers there's something that is option on the market as well. Typically these are more common indoors because they are a little bit more expensive so you don't want them blowing away in the wind or washing away in a rainstorm. They add cushion and they hold moisture and they blend in typically with your your sand to provide a little bit more cushion and the dust reduction depending upon your budget they may work for you they may not. They're very common in a lot of the English events particularly really use a lot of the synthetic fibers in their arena surfaces. And then the last one would be road base or stone dust so these are very common in some areas that have access to access to this material. It does compact very quickly and very firmly there's a reason why it's used in in road base setting so I would prefer that this be used in your base material rather than your top surface material because it does need to be worked very regularly. It gets dusty pretty easily when it's wet it really compacts down so it is best suited for a base. Let's talk briefly about dust management indoors versus outdoors so outdoors a lot of times it's a little bit more economical because it lasts longer and outdoors sometimes we lay out mother nature to provide a little bit of dust control. And if you're trying to do dust control outdoors it could leach and then it dries out really quickly in the sun and the wind. So you can add a lot of water to an outdoor arena and it's almost a daily event on hot sunny days. But the idea behind dust management that we really want to reduce the fine particles that are being kicked up and lofted into the air. So we can do this through watering and it is a good idea to keep your arena watered to a depth of three inches in the top surface. The other additive that you can use is is a variety of salts. So most recommended is going to be magnesium chloride salts and calcium chloride salts. You can use a straight up sodium chloride, but that has one less ion to bind on so it doesn't quite last as long it doesn't quite absorb as much moisture so magnesium chloride and calcium chloride are the most common. You can get these in bulk you can get them shipped in and small bags depending upon the size of your arena. The recommendation is 20 to 50 pounds per thousand square foot. Often times in North Dakota people like to do this right before winter to because these salts help the prevent the footing from freezing and be so then you're able to use your footing all season long, as long as the weather allows. There are some oils that you can add out there, they're not readily available you really have to search for them, but some different by product oils that again coat the surf up. There's also commercial polymers out there and waxes up out there that do the similar thing. They're not as readily available, nor as cost effective. So primarily we see salts being used for dust management. So watering is very important whether you have an indoor or an outdoor watering is good. So it helps maintain the stability of your footing again the dry really dry footing is going to be less stable on the flip side we don't want it to wet because that causes issues as well. So we want to keep it evenly moist to adapt the three inches three inches. You know if you think about like just watering your lawn if you just go out there and kind of hand sprinkle it. It doesn't do a lot of good it evaporates really quickly it doesn't last. You also don't want to flood it to where it's setting so even moisture three inches is recommended, probably going to be much less than the winter because if you over water in the winter you're going to risk leaching those salts out washing those salts away, and then you're going to have a frozen footing that's unusable. When you're designing an arena space consider installing a hydrant near the arena, or placing it somewhere where you can easily get water to it, or maybe you're going to do a tractor or a truck mounted watering setup that's, that's another option so hand watering while it takes a lot of time might be the option for some people, not just getting out there with the hose and watering the arena. Using sprinklers is okay but a lot of times we end up with a really wet area right underneath where that sprinkler was, and then 3040 feet out at the end of the stream it's it's not as much. There's also self traveling irrigation systems that you can look into and purchase if you want to cut down on the time and get a little bit more evenly watered, and then tractor or drag mounted watering systems as well. So just use what works for you, what fits into your your method your budget and your schedule. So the one of the last things we're going to talk about is maintenance so again you can build that best arena but if it's not in the right spot. It's not going to be the best arena and then you can build the best arena in the world but if you don't maintain the surface regularly or properly. It will degrade much quicker and not be as use the frequency of surface maintenance is dependent on how much you use it if you're a single horse owner that's just out there with a couple horses a day. You might not need to work it all the time. If you're out there with managing an event where there's hundreds of horses running around that surface you might need to be working at every couple hours or every so many events however you set up your schedule. The high traffic areas are going to need the most attention. So these are along the rail typically within 10 feet of the rail, the center line, the diagonals across the arena and areas where a specific event is occurring like around barrels or poles for speed events or if you're roping when they, you know, straight out from the roping shoot you're going to need those high traffic areas to be maintained more closely and more frequently than some of the other areas. Another recommendation is to minimize that debris contamination so maybe it's not going to be practical in an outdoor arena to pick every minor pile that occurs and some of it's going to get worked into the sand or the footing over time and that's okay. It does provide some of that some benefits a little bit, but you don't want to get it overdone so say you have an indoor arena and it's wintertime and you kicked your horses out there to exercise or to get away from the shelter. You don't want to remove that money or you don't want to have a lot of money or getting put into that footing over time. Okay, so within reason, try to keep the money out of the arena. Same thing for hey I mean try not to feed your horses, hey or bed on the arena surface that's very difficult to get out can kind of plug it up your drags and equipment as well. Weeds and weed management and arenas that are being used as pretty minimal because you're working it regularly there we just aren't going to have a chance to establish. But if you aren't working it regularly, or don't have the equipment to do so. You might want to consider some other methods of control, maybe spraying them, or just keeping in mind like when those weeds start to germinate and pop up, go and take care of them. You might have problems with people if they're working it regularly the weeds are kept at bay, you might have problems around the edges of the arena though. And then would chip so a lot of times people again will want to add some of the either contaminated bedding or they'll want to add what into the the footing which is sometimes acceptable. Just to minimize any large pieces of wood, or any of the debris that could come with you know ground pallets and that sort of would buy product. The other thing to keep in mind for wood is that there are some trees that are toxic to horses so think of our black walnuts and our cherry trees that can cause foundering and laminitis in our horses we want to avoid those materials as well. I'm not going to go in depth on implement selection because this is highly variable depending upon your budget, what sort of towing view do you just have an ATV are you using a pickup do you have what horsepower is your tractor. So it's highly variable. It's a highly variable on price point to, but I do want to highlight that you can have a very simple option where it can just be a hair on a drag. If you have a light surface that's only a couple inches deep for light riding. That is an acceptable and affordable way to maintain your surface is getting a hero and and using whatever means you have to pull that hero around. The more advanced methods are going to be pretty specific so if you look for rain arena maintenance equipment out there there's a lot of different opinions there's plenty of companies that are selling different types of implements anywhere from a couple thousand dollars up to six figures or by the time you have the implement and a towing tractor involved in that. The advanced ones have some pretty cool features though they'll have something that will level your base as you are working your arena so we'll keep that base level and compacted nicely and just dig into the surface footing and fluff that up. They can contain watering systems and you can adjust that to add just the right amount of water to keep your footing stable and keep it from blowing away and provide that extra cushion and traction for your horse. Some of them contain laser levels so that you can maintain that grade in your arena more accurately. And then depth settings as well so if you want to work you know that you have four inches of or five inches of top soil or not top soil your surface on top of your base and you want to work it down to four and a half you can really work that depth setting or you wanted that three inches depending upon what event you're prepping for. So it can get really, really advanced and really cool stuff or it can be as simple as a simple hero that Mary showed for dragging in her piles to a lot of different options depending upon what your fits your situation the best. I'm going to touch briefly on arena drag patterns though because this is something that I think a lot of people can benefit from. So consistent speed is important. If you're going fast and you're going slow you're going to put waves in your arena or kind of like undulations in your arena surface. So when you're shifting gears on your four wheeler your tractor that can cause some issues. So keep your consistent speed the entire time that you're working the arena. The standard drag pattern for an arena is to drag parallel with the long end so you're going to come in on either of the short ends of the arena and go straight and keep it parallel with the long end of the arena. That's the most standard pattern switching which direction you turn each time you drag so a standard pattern and then kind of reverse it and go the other way. Do not drag across the center in a crowned outdoor arena because you will lose that grade and you'll lose the you know if you're sloping two degrees kind of like think of it as a peak and you're sloping out to the edges. If you come across the center and drag it the short way or perpendicular to the long wall, you will eliminate that grade pretty quickly. So keep with the grade by dragging parallel to the long edge of the arena. Another method that will help smooth out ridges and those undulations, maybe you got a new tractor and you're struggling with shifting it and you got all sorts of ridges in there. It's kind of the spinning method so that's taking your surface drag in there and driving in small circles and spiraling your way up the arena and then spiraling your way back down again and that's going to help smooth out the surface and remove some of those undulations. There are also some really good YouTube videos so to get a visual of that go on YouTube and search for you know arena drag patterns if you're struggling with getting your arena leveled out that'll give you a visual of that as well. I do want to point you out to a couple of the resources that extension has so the first one is the horse facilities handbook this is for purchase publication. They have more than just arena footing in this book though so if you're building a facility it's definitely worthwhile to to look into that purchasing that particular handbook. And then the other one is is Penn State they have a lot of information about arena footing, and there's a lot of information through the horse calm they have a lot of great research that's been published. And that's kind of interesting. Again maybe not as accessible here in North Dakota as far as materials and supplies and practicality goes, but it's out there and and there are being some, they're finding some new things about arena footing so if you have a horse that maybe you're struggling with keeping sound or you just want to do the best I am. And this is of interest to you. Reach out to me and I can send you some of that research. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mary, and she's going to summarize the day. Okay, so up on the screen you should see your poll. It's our last poll. And so just a usefulness rating. Thank you so much for today. Thank you so much to Rachel and page for joining, not only as my co host for this entire series but also for presenting for the last two that we've done. And so, just looking at everything that Rachel and page talked to us about today maintenance. I don't do I have a pony, and we do little two and a half year old riding around on the back right now and brushing the pony. And so none of these things we do as far as maintenance of an arena. Man, it's a lot like you guys put a lot of effort into maintaining those arenas and so really good information here. So page there were two questions that I think you could answer one of them you did answer but I just wanted you to summarize again. And so the first one is, what are options for keeping the ground from freezing are there any safe products. Yeah, those those salts are the most common and easy to use. There is a concern by some that they can be corrosive or damaging to the horse hooves. So some people will choose to rinse off the horse every time they use that footing that probably is going to be practical in the winter in North Dakota, or wipe down any of that that salted sand that could be on their legs. And other, I guess we haven't found any real solid research that it does any long term damage, but if you have a horse that might be sensitive to that, that might be something you consider but those salts magnesium chloride and calcium chloride are the best options for this area. Okay. Another question is, what would you recommend for an arena that has a rock hard base, no sub base and only two inches of river sand on the top. And indoor that we are trying to save. So we considered textiles but not sure what else we should be looking at. Sure yeah so that's that is a lot of options to it, and it would depend on your primary use so if you're if you're primarily using that arena for general riding. I would say adding more surface material would be an option, I would ask more questions about what that current surface materials like is that sand worn out and maybe I didn't touch on this enough that putting doesn't last forever so this. It depends on how much you use it, but over time, even that sand, you don't think a sand is breaking down it's it's an organic compound, but it does it breaks down into smaller pieces it can get dustier over time with more use. And sometimes the best option depends on your situation is stripping out all of that two inches or whatever you have in your arena and replacing it with a more desirable new fresh footing, particularly if you're struggling with dust issues. If you're not you can add to that two inches with a type of material so I need to ask more questions on exactly what you have I'd want to see it I'd want to know a little bit more. But it's it's salvageable, and oftentimes it comes down to how much you want to invest in it as well. Okay, very good. We had another question come in here. And so we have dust issues for sure. Yes. So how does one mitigate all the gopher holes and mounds in an outdoor arena. Sure. So if you can reduce or eliminate the gophers that are causing the issues that would be the number one solution. And then I would be curious to know if that outdoor arena was just the native soil, or if it has a base to it. Typically gophers aren't going to work down into your compacted limestone base, or even into a heavy clay base but they can and they do, especially the persistent ones. So it would, you know, kind of depend on how bad the situation is whether you would need to kind of start over, or just work those gopher mounds up and get them to relocate or choose a gopher poison. There's a lot of different options just depending upon what route you want to take. But I would recommend getting those gophers to relocate. Okay, very good. And this is a new farm. So. Oh, okay. Yeah, so you could try just a continuous tillage and see if they choose to go elsewhere. Otherwise you might want to consider some lethal control methods. Okay. So with that, I think we will end for the day. Unless there are any further questions. And just know that you can always send us an email. And we will answer those questions too if anything comes up after this is over. So with that, I want to thank Rachel and page for joining me as co-host of the series. And like I said, feel free to send us any suggestions for future webinars. Thank you.