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RE: [RC] Pros and cons of deep sand - T. RashidI would not do deep sand in an arena. It's a bit different to have a horse moving down the trail - a concept most horses seem to "get" quite naturally and allowing them to adjust their stride as needed for the conditions. Arena work can be more taxing for the horse, both in terms of the amount of time spent turning, and also because it's an odd game to play - keep running around in the same area for 20-90 mins (or whatever your arena workout is). Even when you mix up your drills most horses will fatigue mentally more quickly in an arena than out on the trail or in a cross-country field. Asking them to do more formal arena work in deep sand just seems too hard to me. I would really worry about tendon injuries. And it will limit what you can reasonably ask the horse to do in terms of collection and circle diameter. Not to mention jumping. It may firm up and pack with dry weather, but at the first rain it will tend to bog up badly. (Or so has been my experience from a round pen with deep sand.) That said, I have no idea how you get it out without causing a problem. So I could certainly understand if you felt you needed to leave it there. But I would *try* to see if there was a way to get it out - even if you had to go more slowly and use smaller tools to avoid damaging your base. Even if you can't get it down to 2", I am sure you can take off some without doing damage if you are careful. Good luck! .Terri -----Original Message----- From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Kristi Schaaf Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 8:56 AM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] Pros and cons of deep sand A question for those of you who live in areas where you ride in a lot of deep sand...does your horse get conditioned enough to it that you don't worry about strain? I'm asking because I live in the midwest where deep sand is fairly scarce. I recently had an outdoor arena built, but with one small (huge?) error....due to a miscommunication, instead of 2" of sand, there is 6". Walking on it feels like walking on a mattress! I want to ask the construction company to remove the excess sand, but hubby thinks we should just leave it alone. He says it will settle and firm up, and that if we try to remove any, there's a good chance we'd disturb the base and have a mess. I plan to do basic training, suppling exercises, trotting patterns, etc in the arena. Should I be paranoid about the strain on tendons/ligaments from that deep of sand, or should I see the glass as half full and find a positive in having it? Thanks, Kristi iluvdez at yahoo dot com Life's a journey, so enjoy the ride (and try not to fall off) __________________________________ Discover Yahoo! Find restaurants, movies, travel and more fun for the weekend. Check it out! http://discover.yahoo.com/weekend.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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