Naturally many of our equestrian clients are either in rural or semi-rural settings and many environmental factors must be considered. If you are unsure of any of the detail, we have tried to cover here please contact us as we are more than happy to discuss the process in more detail.

The first and most obvious question. What size should the Arena be? The Olympic Size and preferred by serious Horse Trainers are 60 x 20 Metres. The alternative and used by those with size constraints is 40x 20 Metres.

Once you understand the size of the Arena you want to build the next issue is understanding the best location on your property and properly understanding the Terrain and Soil. You never know what is under the surface. A simple soil sample or test can be a very small expense and a worthwhile exercise.

Once you understand the size of the Arena you want to build the next issue is understanding the best location on your property and properly understanding the Terrain and Soil. You never know what is under the surface. A simple soil sample or test can be a very small expense and a worthwhile exercise.

A soil sample will also help understand drainage and machinery required for the preparation of the site.

Site access is also a large consideration. Many of our clients like their Arena’s away from the main house or property on their site. This can add extra complexities when trying to get the machinery needed to the proposed site and of course add a little wet weather and we sometimes can have a major effect on the entire project.

Base – what type of base will suit the weather, soil, and drainage at your location. We always recommend visiting a site using the base you select to see how it performs after back weather and heavy use. No one can guarantee no bogging however the more research the better.

To fill the site or cut? There are costs incurred for both options and its very dependent on the location you select. We always recommend pricing both options. Levels can be deceiving and it’s easy to think a site is flat– from a distance of course.

Drainage is of course a very important consideration. It will depend on the style of site cut, natural fall around the surrounding area, and that all-important soil sample.

This is the most important consideration, and the base is the most important part of that. You must have a fall and that should slope away to where your water drainage direction will be. There should be ideally about 1% fall.  

One of the other factors to consider when thinking about drainage around the area which is sometimes overlooked is Mosquitos. Wherever Water lays, Mosquitoes Breed. These in turn bring great risk to your Horses and especially these Days, Ross River Virus, Hendra Virus, Murray Valley Encephalitis and more, can all be passed on via these insects.

Council requirements and local bylaws. It always pays to check with your local council, a simple phone call or email can save a lot of extra expense at a later date.

Fencing the site. Consider all the factors. Some of our customers ask should they have fences? Here are a few reasons why:

Risk Management
Negligence at Law
The Training of the Horse
The replication of Show conditions
To ride your corners well and the Fence is handy for training…like Leg Yielding

 
Simple tip – Arena Access – make sure the gate is large enough to allow tractors and trucks back into the Arena.

If you need more help and would like to discuss in more detail options for your Horse Arena please contact our team at Benson Ecavation.

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This year the weather has been quite extraordinary. The La Nina weather pattern has remained active in the tropical Pacific and continues to bring higher than normal temperatures and rainfall to coastal Australia. Here in Tamworth New South Wales, we have experienced many flash floods and extreme downpours.

All this weather activity has, of course, resulted in many washed-out roads and driveways. There are certain ways to fix and repair the damage caused by this weather. We always tell our customers to ‘plan for the worst – weather, that is.

So, where do we start? Drainage is the key. Before setting about repairing the existing road or driveway, we need to access the flow of water. Where does it start, and how is it collected, and what fall is in place. The best way to prevent any gravel washout on a driveway is to improve the drainage by installing swale drains, culverts, and channels.

Geotech fabric can be placed between a natural subgrade below and stone aggregates above in unpaved roads, serve not only as separators but also to increase the subgrade’s bearing capacity to take heavier traffic loads.

DGB stands for ‘Densely Graded Base’ and is a material used in various applications where a strong foundation is required, most commonly as a road base by the RMS, councils, and developments. Its the base of choice when a high level of compliance is required.

While still compliant with RMS specification 3051, DGS road base is a slightly lower grade of road base than the DGB variety.
DGS is commonly used in the construction of roads but can also be used in the following where an economical but compliant product is required:

● Under concrete slabs in construction
● In driveways and footpaths
● In carpark construction
● Under pavers
● On access tracks

One question our customers frequently ask is how to stop gravel from moving. One of the alternative options is a hotmix or spray seal option. This is where a base layer is placed on the driveway. Then a layer of hot mix or spray seal is applied, with the spray seal option 7mm-10mm aggregates are simply laid over the emulsion, so that they stick to it and are held fast, hotmix is applied through a paving machine and rolled in to place. This is a manufactured product made with much the same type of ingredients as Concrete, except bitumen is used to bind the mixture together instead of cement. A blend of aggregates (crushed rock), sands and fillers are passed through a heating drum to completely dry them and raise the temperature to around 160°C adding hot bitumen in the process.

There are many types of mixes for various types of applications. The most commonly used mixes are 14mm, 10mm and 7mm, referring to the largest aggregate in the mix. 14mm and 10mm are typically used on roads, 10mm and 7mm on car parks, driveways, sports courts, etc. The thickness the hotmix is laid depends on the traffic loading it will be subjected to.

Here is the list of the top 5 ways to stop your driveway washing away:

● Drainage
● Edging / curb
● Geotech Fabrics compacted gravel products, DGB OR DGS Limestone and Basalt road bases.
● Bitumen products (spray seal, hotmix)

If you need advice about your gravel driveway, contact the team at Benson Excavation today, we would be happy to talk you through your requirements.

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