In June we started building our covered arena. It is a 62m x 24m indoor arena with one end wall enclosed to accommodate the site's fall. We designed the arena cover to be low laying in the landscape, using 'monument' coloured cladding to minimise the look of the structure and help it blend into the landscape.
The critical part for us was to get the cover on. The weather has been very wet in the region so it has been hard to maintain training with the horses in work.
The space is really comfortable and will shine in the hotter months, for which it was designed. In the colder months it is a little dark but due to insulation (which I insisted on) the temperature is very much warmer than the outside on cold days. This will also lower noise impact when it's raining.
Here you can see the frames are complete. Next stage - cladding!
In August we finally finished and it's ready to use! The arena allows us to run clinics in all weather.
Next stage will be to line the ceiling and put in lighting, as well as expand the kick rail to fill the entire space and line it with timber, put in mirrors at the enclosed end and a gallery at the long side.
We will be running workshops and clinics from this space. Our first one is in October with Dr Raquel Butler , and following on with Nadine O’Sullivan classical dressage.