Riding Arenas for fun and play.
Riding arenas are used for a wide range of activities, from children's pony riding lessons to horse shows with dressage, voltege and jumping competitions. A good riding area will keep horses, riders, trainers and spectators sheltered from the elements. Some riding arenas are fully closed while other consists of a roof-only structure. Which arena that is ideal for you will depend on several factors, including the main use of the riding arena, your horses, the climate in your region of the world and of course your budget. Even a roof-only structure will shelter from rain and hail and lower the temperature during hot summer days. If your area is prone to more dramatic weather, such as severe cold, heat spells and strong winds, fully closed riding arenas are recommended.
The first riding arenas were often wooden structures, but for prominent riding arenas stone and brick constructions have also been used. When steel became more commercially available it grew popular since fires in a wooden riding arena can be disastrous, especially if grass and straw is used as substrate material. When you choose between different materials it is also important that you consider the forces that they must be able to withstand. How is the region in which your riding arena will be located? Will your arena have to endure strong winds, hail storms, heavy snowfall, flooding or seismic stress?
When a riding arena is constructed from steel, a main support system is typically combined with connective parts and protective covering. In more advance riding arenas, insulation will also be added to keep the environment inside the riding arena more stable. The basic structure and covering parts can be varied almost endlessly, as long as high quality steel with the right properties is used. Today, most buyers purchase prefabricated steel riding arenas since such buildings are economical, commonly available and can be erected in short period of time. Prefabricated riding arenas can be obtained a many different styles and can also typically be modified to suit your particular needs and preferences. If you want a highly individual arena you can however go for a non-prefabricated riding arena and have one designed and created especially for you.
If you want to keep the cots down for your riding arena, you should ideally choose a pre-fabricated riding arena that requires no or little use of heavy equipment when being erected, since such equipments can be costly to rent and for each day they are used the overall cost of your riding arena can increase significantly. Also keep in mind that if you choose a riding arena that requires a large foundation or spandrels, the costs for these features will be added to the overall cost of the riding arena. It is also important to try to estimate how much the maintenance that the steel riding arena will require in the future while calculating the total cost of a steel riding arena. A seemingly cheap construction that requires plenty of maintenance during its life time can turn out to be very expensive in the long run, and vice versa. If you think that you might need to expand your riding arena in the future, you should also check the flexibility of potential arena constructions. How difficult would it be to add more space to the riding arena that you have in mind, and approximately how much would it cost? Can it even be done without severally interfering with the overall design and aesthetics of the building?
One of the newer additions to the riding arena market are buildings constructed by combining steel and concrete. These structures are often also super-insulated with one or several layers of foam material. In this type of structure, the compressive strength of concrete is combined with the large tensile strength of steel to give the riding arena more durability. This type of riding arenas is especially popular in areas where the arena must be capable of withstanding a rougher climate. The strength of the riding arena that is achieved by combining steel and concrete will make the building capable of enduring storms, heavy snowfall and other types of coarse weather. The foam will isolate and keep horses and humans protected from heat as well as from cold. Riding arenas made from steel and concrete becomes very strong due to the fact that the two materials complement each other in a good way and this means that a high quality riding arena of this type will be able to withstand even a tornado.
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