Arena maintenance is the most crucial ingredient for arena longevity. The most common queries we receive at ELD are to do with the maintenance of arenas.

An arena is no different to any other product you may purchase. A car needs servicing regularly, and when your car is driven more than usual your services come up quicker. The same applies to an investment such as an arena. If there is a lot of traffic on your arena you will need to undertake maintenance practices more often then an arena used on the odd occasion. A ‘service’ for your arena may involve getting a professional in once every three, six or twelve months, depending on the use of your arena, to laser level the surface back to the arena’s original state.

Tips for Maintenance

• Drag the Arena surface regularly using a product specifically designed for arena maintenance

After many years of building Dressage Arenas, and customers asking how they can maintain the depth of surface, ELD designed the ELD Arena Spread-a-bar. A product specifically designed for maintaining your arena surface on a daily basis. ELD have seen many and varied ways of dragging your arena, the most popular include gates - designed to keep horses in paddocks, tines and ploughs which can wreak havoc with your arena base layer as they are designed to rip up soil for planting.
Ideally your arena should be dragged at least once a week. Depending on the level of use, it may need to be done daily.

ELD recommends if using the ELD Arena Spread-a-bar that you should drag in a different direction each time so the surface does not build up in the same areas each time. Unhook your ELD Spread-a-bar in a different spot on the arena after use to avoid build up in one area. Each time place your ELD Spread-a-bar in a different corner to help drag out any build up. It is best to start on the quarter line of your arena or at least half a metre in from the edge and work your way out towards the edge of the arena. Be creative by the use of circles, triangles and the traditional rectangles each time you drag your arena and you will spread the surface more evenly.

• Shovel Arena edges on a regular basis to assist drainage.

Approximately every two weeks your arena edges should be shovelled, both on the inside edge of the arena and the outside (depending how high your arena surrounds are). If this is not undertaken then the surface will build up affecting the drainage from your arena.

• Keep Grass and Weeds away from your arena surface.

An ideal arena will have the base compacted and be made of a suitable product so weeds and grass should never grow up from underneath, most weeds on your arena are deposited by birds flying above. So they should be easily pulled out without damaging your base. Keep weeds and grass away from the edge of your arena as this will also slow down your drainage. During storm season it is suggested that the grass is kept fairly close to the arena surrounds (within 30cm) to slow down the water and avoid the surface blowing out while dealing with the large quantities of water in a short period of time.

General maintenance every week may help to add a year of life to your arena.