One of the biggest struggles with having an arena is keeping it tidy. Between jumps, barrels, and tack, your arena space can get cluttered and messy quicker than you can clean it. If you’re looking to keep your area less disorganized this riding season, consider the following ideas for your barn.
1. Store Your Jumps and Gear
Perhaps the best thing you can do for your arena is storing your extra training gear. When you’re not using them, put things such as jumps, barrels, or cavaletti away to give you more space to ride. Depending on whether you have an indoor or outdoor arena, there could be a couple of solutions for storage. For indoor arenas, wall storage might be your best bet. Rather than having your gear on the ground, hang it on hooks along the walls to keep it out of your way. For outdoor arenas, jump caddies will be your best friends. These are carts specially designed to hold and transport your riding gear to help keep things organized. No matter what type of arena you have, there’s a storage solution that’s right for you.
2. Keep the Surfaces Clean
Once you’ve mastered storage, it’s time to look to the cleanliness of your arena. Whether you have clients coming through your arena or it’s just you, keeping it free of manure and trash is important. After every arena use, you should make it a priority to pick up any manure or garbage that was left on the ground. This will help prevent your space from getting overly messy and becoming overwhelming to clean. Along the same line of thought, keep large trash cans and a manure cart inside your arena. Chances are that you’ll need them at least once during your ride, so having them there will save you the annoyance of mounting back up later. Another common problem with indoor arenas is the dust level. Depending on what type of footing you have in your arena, you could be dealing with a good amount of dust being kicked up with every hoof beat. One way to keep this to a minimum is by misting your arena regularly. Keeping your surfaces damp will not only minimize the amount of dust you and your horse are choking on but also give you a more secure footing to ride on. The more you take care of the surfaces in your arena, the better it’ll look during every ride.
