As any good horse professional will tell you, arena grooming is at the top of their daily list of priorities in the barn. Without proper attention to detail and regular maintenance, your horse may be forced to work in footing that is too hard, an area that is too dusty, too deep, too wet or slippery or basically just inconsistent. And surprisingly, over 80% of all soundness related injuries are a result of poorly constructed or poorly maintained arenas.

Since Clay specializes in the disciplines of reining and working cow horse, his arena footing needs to be of a depth that is deep enough to work cattle in and yet, possess the  characteristics that still allow for sliding stops. It makes for an interesting mix of dirt and believe me, it took a long time to get it the way Clay wanted it. Not to mention, 2 construction crews, 2 reworks and a consultation from Bob Kiser… That’s why Clay is extremely particular about the way he cares for his arena ground.

Obviously, footing concerns vary with every discipline but some factors are steady across the board. These include the combination of the proper moisture content, the right depth, right consistency, levelness and lack of hard/soft spots. Having the ability to add water, change your footing depth, level out your arena, eliminate all hard and soft spots and regularly groom the footing surface is key to your success in the showpen. If you’re looking for some advice, here are a couple of pointers to increase the benefits of your “Pay dirt”:

WATERING:
As mentioned, being able to water your arena dirt regularly is key to keeping the dust down. However, it means you must first understand the water holding capacity of your dirt. Too much moisture may leave slippery spots and too little means you’ll be inhaling dust 30 minutes afterwards. Effective moisturizing also depends on your watering system. Sprinklers and hoses work well but require constant supervision because too much water can also damage your base and result in the loss of its stability. Another common error when watering with sprinklers or hoses is too much water in the center of the arena and not enough on the edges, sides or the rail.

Clay uses a Kiser Dragmaster for our indoor and outdoor arenas in Regina, SK. This system features a 300-500 Gallon watering system which evenly distributes water with variable flow control from the seat of the tractor. Plus, the pull behind design offers a long distance between the tractor wheels and the DragMaster wheels and the leveling blade sits in between these wheels, creating the perfect ground plane that is critical for level consistent footing. And an independently controlled hydraulic leveling blade enables precision leveling without changing the conditioning depth of the arena dirt.

GROOMING:
Combing, harrowing or disking your arena dirt regularly is important for maintaining the integrity of your footing. Too little grooming means your dirt will become hard-packed and too deep of harrowing may affect your base.

Remember that daily maintenance also means picking out any rocks that may have surfaced during your arena drag and on occasion, shoveling dirt that has been pushed up to the arena walls over time. Also, over time your arena may need extra loads of material added to it to compensate for material blown away in the wind or dragged out in the hooves of animals.

Clay uses a Kiser Edge in our Arizona arena. This is a 3-point tractor arena drag that incorporates "Base Safe Profile Blade Technology." This technology grooms every square inch of the footing material and safely cleans the base, under the surface, of dangerous compaction layers. On the surface it creates the ultimate finish & premium cushion.

The front "push blades" of the Kiser Edge™ fill in huff prints and low areas, making a smooth path for the stabilizing wheels. The profile blades loosen 100% of the footing layer, lifting it to add air for cushion and clean the base of compaction. The "floating comb" then pulverizes dirt clods and smoothes the footing, leaving a beautiful signature finish to the arena.

We’ve all heard about them and some of us may have even had the opportunity to put their benefits to use at one point or another, for our horses. The advantages they pose for equine rehabilitation and fitness advancement are ten-fold. Not to mention the opportunities they provide for physical therapy and anesthesia recovery that conventional methods have a harder time restoring back to normal for our precious equine companions.

I’m talking about hydro therapy and equine underwater treadmill systems. Last year, I had the opportunity to hang out at Bandalero Ranch in Tucscon, AZ, a facility that regularly puts their aqua-treadmill to good use and I was amazed to learn all about all the positive advantages these systems can offer.

To start, I had a lot of questions: Aren’t horses initially afraid to be immersed in water? If you are rehabilitating an injured horse, how do you keep it from panicking once inside the system and causing further injury? And, does hydro therapy really offer better advantages than conventional rehabilitation means?

The head rehabilitation manager told me, “The horses are scared at first, so once we get them inside the exercise stall, we add the water slowly. The horse needs to get used to a treadmill under their feet and water all at the same time. So we first start the treadmill and get the horse moving, then we add the water. Typically, the horse doesn’t really react to the water at all because he’s moving and he has a vent for any anxiety he may be feeling. It’s only if the horse were standing still inside the exercise stall, and then water is added, that he may be likely to panic.”

The horse enters into the ground-level tank (exercise stall) through a water-tight door at the rear of the treadmill. The machine at Bandalero Ranch loads just like a standard horse trailer and features a dry loading treadmill. As mentioned, water is only introduced after the horse is in and the water-tight door is closed. Then the treadmill is turned on and water slowly fills up the tank afterwards.

Once the desired time is reached for the horse to be exercised, the tank is then drained of the water and the horse is allowed to carefully step out of a front gate. All of the horses I watched at Bandalero loaded into the HydroHorse like pros and walked out just as gracefully. Many seemed to really enjoy their treatments and yawned or pooped (releasing tension), during their treatments.

What I learned was, the HydroHorse provided the means of far less traumatic competitive conditioning of horses as compared to some conventional conditioning. The buoyant effect of water with the increased resistance to limb movement in water, combined to offer less concussive force to the limbs, therefore increasing muscle tone and minimizing injury. And for horses that had previous injuries, their rehabilitation in this machine did not involved a series of “up-hill” limb thrusts, which in many instances could cause harm to the animal as the legs perform an unnatural all-out type of flexion. Instead, the treadmill could be set at a very slow rate of speed and contain the horse’s movement to some extent – however, it’s important to note that it is nearly impossible, to truly control equine aquatic exercise.

For more information, check out: www.horsetreadmills.com