Our Arena, or as some people lovingly call it, The Pony Dome or That Big Hoophouse Thing.

It started its life at the end of May 2018, but was abruptly put on hold because its owners had not gotten their permits in time.  Ooops.

The builders, who had come from Iowa, packed up their things and had their rental equipment picked up.  And the arena sat as a skeleton for months – as people drove by the property wondering – What the heck?  Is that?

End of July came and we finally had the permits, so the crew rented the equipment again and came back from Iowa and finished up in three or four days.  The company we bought it from is called ClearSpan and they were very easy to work with and very good. https://www.clearspan.com/

Now that it was done, we realized, it’s not done.  We need a wall around it.  A heel wall, some call it.  More money, more work.

We took some of our unused (and hopefully not needed for fencing) fencing posts and made a fence around the perimeter.  Then Kevin bought a lot of 2 x 4 wood and made a frame on the top and bottom.  Then we screwed in 4 x 10 sheets of wood.

Then came the sand.  Three truckloads.

Once we got that all spread out.  It was rider tested.

On one end, we also wanted to build a stall-type area for grooming and tacking up.  And a tack-type area for tack we use everyday.  More money.  More work.

The side for the horses, is built with mostly corral panels.

The side for tack, we had a bit of a flooding problem, so haven’t worked on yet.  The goal is to make some sort of wood, deck type floor so if it rains a lot it doesn’t get anything wet.

That’s our ATV in there.  Isn’t she pretty?  Or he handsome?

Right now it’s a little rough.  But we will get it looking good eventually.

What I like best of all about the arena is that the horses use it.  They come in at dusk to get away from the bugs.  They come in when it’s raining.  And though, we have another shelter they can use,  they all fit in the arena and can hang out as a herd.  And that makes me happy.