I know the answer to this question will not change the way we view the world today…but, still it’s important to me :).
Does anyone know of a good site, or a book I can buy, that will tell me what’s best to put down in horse corrals and arenas. Sand? Gravel? How thick? etc.
I muchly appreciate all of your vast knowledge and wisdom.
trisha
Grass is best.
If your corral does not contain enough grazing space for the hourses it holds they will turn it into a mixture of manure and mud pretty quickly.
You will have to remove this (with a skid loader preferably.)
Since you will probably be scraping it out a couple of times a year, I wouldn’t recommend putting any material down, as long as you have some soil in place. Do remove rocks and other hazards though.
I own and breed horse, and would be glad to help if you have further questions.
Thank you, but I do not want grass in the corrals. I have pastures, so don’t need it in the corrals.
Specifically, I don’t want mud in my corrals and I know that they put some mixture down in arenas, so they aren’t muddy.
trisha
I wouldn’t use gravel. I’ve seen some indoor arenas that use wood shavings, and I’ve heard of some rubberized shavings (made from tires used in outdoor arenas, though I’ve never seen them.
Will your horses be spending enough time in this corral that it will need a lot of resurfacing, or are you mainly plnning on using it for riding in?
Excuse my typos, this keyboard is sticky. In my riding areas I dig out about 4 inches of soil, create a 4-6% grade. I fill it with rough gravel, sand, and then a sand topsoil mixture. I rake it with this tine thing I drag behind a tractor to keep it soft, and level, and stop the weeds.
I think of something else besides a riding ring when I hear the word corral.
If you are serious, there is some high quality stuff called Equi-tread. THey have a web site that you can find easily enough probably WWW.equi-tread.com or something.
Thank you muchly. That’s actually very helpful. It’s along the lines of what we were thinking.
I’m not sure what corrals are called in your area 
Here, they’re fairly small enclosures to keep the horses. Like outside their stall, off the pasture, etc.
trisha
Jazz:
We call 'em paddocks around here.
I would recommend against that stuff if the horses are going to be spending much time in that area.
You will find that they can crap it up and turn your expensive footing into weedy mud in no time at all. Also they may have a tendency to ingest the stuff.
My holding areas are basically scraped down to clay (by the skidloader.) they are pretty soft footing, weedless, and easy to clean. Overrall ideal.
If you don’t have clay under your topsoil. you can probably buy clay fill somewhere cheaper than the tire stuff.