How do you maintain your arenas?

ARENA maintenance and the footing for our horses is a very important job at River Lodge Equestrian (RLE). Not only are we a competition venue, we are an elite training destination and it is also home to my competition horses.

This means the footing has to be natural and forgiving in order to encourage the horses and build confidence, however, on the weekend it needs to be able to withstand up to 300 rounds yet not be jarring!

Normally every morning or evening the team will prepare the ground, during the week we just harrow and level it for my horses, for a weekend show we will also roll and depending on the weather water the arenas.

If I had clients coming to try a horse I would prepare the arena similar to a competition day, to give the horses a firmer take off to jump to a show in order for them to jump to the best of their ability. I’m careful not ride on the same surface all of the time. We’re blessed at RLE we have the old arena which has a very natural footing, the white sand arena which we use for the Shows and a fabulous three-acre sand based grass arena.

The grass arena is fertilised this time of the year. Every spring we then spread sand to maximise the footing and we cut the grass up to three times a week. If heavy numbers were to jump on the grass we would sow grass seed and roll if it was to get cut up. However, to date that hasn’t happened as we are very particular when we ride on the grass. It’s a well minded asset to the training regime for our horses.

What machinery do you use on a daily basis?

Our yard could not run without the tele handler. It’s a Manitou 626 which means it’s small enough to easily navigate around the different stable complexes from moving hay bales, delivering shavings to pushing back the muck heap, yet it’s strong enough to lift over two tonnes and stack to six meters.

We also have a modern micro tractor. It’s a Massey Ferguson 1528 which, again like the Manitou, is very convenient in the arenas, and easily manoeuvres around the jumps. We also use the tractor for the grass arena. It’s able to attach a spreader for fertiliser or a mower to cut the grass, etc. Something I actually have noticed much to my dismay is the team like to roll the arenas and paddocks with the Audi Q7. Obviously it’s more comfortable than a tractor!

I also use a Multisweep yard sweeper from Rota Industries that attaches to the Manitou, it sweeps the yard in 1% of the time it would take to brush!

We have a Mercedes Actros 10-stall Horsebox to go to shows. It’s big enough for me to take client horses that are based training with me. It also enables me to bring my own hay and shavings, and because it was built by Theault in France, the horses travel fantastically. For smaller runs, for example going to a vet check, we have a two-horse van. It’s very light on fuel and can be driven on a car licence. The way things have gone nowadays having the right paperwork is vital.

What piece of machinery could you not run the yard without?

I suppose we would be lost without the Audi Q7. We shopped around at the time and ended up going with Audi Wexford, not only for their close proximity but their premium after sales service.

It’s smart enough to pick up clients from the airport, powerful enough to pull three horses yet rugged enough to harrow arenas and roll paddocks.

Do you have a dream piece of machinery?

An Avant mini loader. We used to have one for the last fives years. They’re so small, they can drive into a stable, yet they can stack and manoeuvre haylage bales and they’re that easy to drive I can even drive one!

What do you consider when buying machinery?

Finances! How much do we need something versus what it will do or bring us. Can we be imaginative and come up with an alternative that gets us away without making to investment? What are the consequences if we don’t have one, and I suppose a very important aspect is will in benefit the horses?

For example, we recently went with an Irretec sprinkler system for watering the grass arena. Using a water spreader behind the tractor was fine except on such a busy stable it’s a job that often got over looked.

With Irretec the system in on a timer that kicks in overnight. I asked myself what would be the cost if one horse broke down jumping on a surface that was too hard? When you put it like that it was a no brainer and that rule applies throughout the stables.