The ongoing maintenance of your surface is essential to its effectiveness and longevity.
Mansfield Sand offers expert advice on how to keep your surface in the best possible condition all year round. Here are a few tips to get you started:
Regular, light harrowing or levelling of the surface should be carried out to maintain as level a surface as possible along with the removal of any horse droppings daily, which will make a significant difference to the performance of the surface. A neglected surface may eventually result in an unusable Manège during adverse weather conditions.
As with any fibre stabilised product we highly recommend that the surface is harrowed or levelled whilst in damp/moist condition, as maintaining the surface in dry condition will encourage/tease the fibre to the top of the surface.
It should be remembered that the water percolation rate through the sand to the base will gradually diminish with time. This is due to the lower layer of sand becoming compacted whilst the upper layer becomes contaminated with general dirt, airborne dust, horse droppings and leaf debris. Deeper harrowing of the sand at periodic intervals is recommended to relieve lower-level compaction and minimise the effects of organic residue build-up. This can be achieved by using a weighted spike harrow or a hydraulically controlled harrow.
The outside ‘track’ region of a Manège will gradually but almost inevitably become more compacted than the rest of the surface and may even develop a ‘pan’ layer which will significantly reduce water drainage rates. This will depend, however on the intensity of use and its amount of organic residue that is trodden into the surface. Therefore, even in a well maintained arena it may be beneficial to replace the track region at periodic intervals.