RR tie arena?

[jeannero]

Anyone use RR ties for an arena boundry? Is it possible to place them on the base and secure them/drive the rebar into compacted limestone/road base? My plan is to place the RR ties and then add the footing. Any insight appreciated......Jeanne

[CatOnLap]

Yes. exactly as you state. Drive rebar/stakes into the existing holes about 10 inches deep with a sledge hammer and a giant guy on the end of it, and they work great for keeping your footing in place, But check with your bylaws- because of the creosote/arsenic content of recycled ties, some municipalities will not allow you to use them on the ground due to groundwater contamination. (we only found this out because we were going to use recycled telephone poles for ours and its not allowed here)

[Pippin]

we used RR ties.. not a problem.. and it does save your arena sand from spreading all over ..

P~

[draftxfan]

Word of warning: try not to land on the RR ties arse-first when your horse scoots out from under you. That's how I broke my back.

[merrygoround]

;) Try not not land on them at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[backinblack3@hotmail.com]

We have a RR tie dressage arena. It's so funny...since I've never allowed my horse to step over them (I made that mistake with my first one and she would jump out whenever she felt like it!) he religiously avoids them. Like, I can run him into the side of the arena (just RR ties) and he will stop. Leg yield against them (which he fusses about sometimes) and when he's upset, instead of going forward over them, he'll just stop or back up. He doesn't realize that they're go-over-able!! The oddest thing-we are eventers and he jumps them out cross country!!

[exvet]

We used them for an all weather arena and they worked great that we put in at our previous farm. Secured them pretty much as you described. Wish I still had THAT arena.

[EASY RIDER STABLE]

Although sadly still expensive but they are great. You see them at all the big stables throughout Europe.

[Touchstone Farm]

Yes, we used them in my outdoor arena. Not that expensive if you have a Menard's (or similar home improvement store) in your area. Definitely drive the rebar through the RR ties. If you have a powerful drill, that helps or at least get the holes started, but we burned ours out (not that powerful of a drill, unfortunately!). Then had to just drive them through the RR ties with an 8-lb mall. But DO set them in place or the drag/tractor will knock them out of place. Ours are so "stuck" in place we can drive the tractor over them and they don't move.

Do the base/sub-base and then put them in. Then add your top footing.

Edited to add: Go to our website below and click on the tab, "About Us," to see the outdoor w/ RR ties.

[Tiligsmom]

Another one here who built a RR tie outdoor arena. It was fabulous! We did not drive rebar into the ground to hold them in place as they each weighed hundreds of pounds a piece and took a great deal of effort to move at all!

[dressagediosa]

Ours are held in place by rebar too. I think it looks great: http://spriesersporthorse.com/farm_photos/pages/Dressage%20Arena.html

[carrie_girl]

We have one too, and it works great! Ours is not even staked down and it hasn't moved at all.

[n2dressage]

If you get a lot of rain in your area make sure you allow for drainage. My friend built an arena with the rr ties and when it rained hard the first time the base washed out from under the rr tie taking the footing with it. The best bet is to put the base down and where you expect it to drain putting down landscaping cloth on top of the base at that end/side on the inside and outside of the arena then adding the rr ties on top. That way when you put the sand in if it rains the water goes thru the cloth and the cloth acts as a sift to hold the sand in. I have 2 friends that found this out the hard way...

[hoser1]

I have RR ties around mine. They work well to hold footing in. However, over time with a traditional chain drag/tractor the footing tends to collect some up against the ties (you can't pull all the footing away from the ties unless you have more specialized arena grooming equipment). So I have to get someone with equipment to come in and rework the footing so that I don't get low/high spots every so often.

[Dune]

I have RR ties around mine. They work well to hold footing in. However, over time with a traditional chain drag/tractor the footing tends to collect some up against the ties (you can't pull all the footing away from the ties unless you have more specialized arena grooming equipment). So I have to get someone with equipment to come in and rework the footing so that I don't get low/high spots every so often.


Won't a simple handrake work?:confused: