East-West Arena Construction Blog

Dealing with personalities in the ring has been a challenge for trainers and competitors alike since the dawn of horse shows, this is nothing new. After all, horses have distinct and individualized personalities just like their human handlers. Since a horse has no control over who owns him or where and under what conditions he lives, bonding between a horse and his owner isn't always a smooth process. Unfortunately, sometimes this animal-to-human bond never becomes firmly established. 

Conquering horse jumps is often an intimidating venture for your horse.  However, with these simple steps, some time and patience your horse will learn how to jump like a pro.

First things first, your horse must learn to walk before he can fly.  Set up some ground poles about 2-3 footsteps apart and have your horse examine and smell the poles.  You want to make sure that he is comfortable with them before he attempts to walk over them.  After he has been given the time to investigate, put a saddle on him and warm him up, away from the poles.  Once he is nice and warm, dismount him and walk him over the poles a few times until he is comfortable with the footing and gets used to the sound that the poles make when he hits them.  Once he realizes that this is no big deal you may mount him again.  Walk him over the poles a few times, praising him every time he successfully completes this.  Next, move the poles about 4-5 footsteps apart and trot him over the poles.  Once he is comfortable with this, move the poles 7-8 footsteps apart and canter him over the poles.  Repeat this until he is completely comfortable with this task.

A horse's legs and feet are his life. How the floor takes the impact of hooves is very important for the horse's performance and his health and safety. The way the floor is built and the carpet of footing on the floor surface of primary importance when designing or maintaining an arena.

Do you find that your rubber horse stall mats become wet, slick, goopy, or just plain gross? This is not uncommon, mostly due to the fact that traditional rubber matting material in horse stalls do not allow for the drainage of moisture and urine. This can lead to a layer of moisture and decay just below the bedding, which is bad for balance and bad for your horse's hooves. So what can you do about it? You can install GGT Stall-EZ of course!

If you hadn't guessed, GGT Stall-EZ is made by the same company that produces GGT Footing!

Most horse people have been schooled in basic safety about riding- always wear a helmet, always wear a boot with a heel, check your girth after getting on, don't approach a horse from the rear and things like that. However, you'll note that these tips are all about keeping people safe. It's good to keep people safe. But a surprising number of experienced riders don't think enough about horse safety.

Although horses are very large, powerful animals they are surprisingly delicate and are very prone to injury. As prey animals they tend to panic easily and turn even the most minor mishap into a major crisis. They also have finicky digestive tracts, long skinny breakable legs and prehensile lips. 

Saddles come in a bewildering array of types and sizes. When selecting a saddle, the first thing to consider is what are you going to be doing with the saddle? If you're going to be participating in a particular sport, obviously you should start by selecting a sport-specific type of saddle- a jumping saddle, a barrel racing saddle, an endurance saddle. If you're not sure or plan to do a lot of different activities, a basic all-purpose English or Western saddle is the place to the start. 

Anyone who has managed even a small barn knows there is a lot of record-keeping involved. Keeping track of the vet, farrier, and feed deliveries can be quite complicated. If boarders and barn workers are involved, billing and payroll suddenly become part of the task. The horses themselves have a lot of information that has to be tracked and stored, particularly if they are involved in showing, breeding or sales. Developing and tracking a show or sales prep program for a single horse can be a daunting task; multiply it by 50 horses, and it's obvious that software would be better suited to the task than the traditional battered notebook or random scraps of paper. 

Dragging an arena is an important part of arena maintenance. Dragging is intended to fluff up any areas of compacted footing and make the footing conditions uniform across the entire arena. Everyone seems to ride in the same places in a ring- for example, the packed-down track around the outside is a common sight. Dragging restores the footing to its ideal state. 

Despite its name, the influence of the footing laid down in horse arenas doesn't stop at the hooves. Interactions between the horse's hooves and the footing below can have an all-over effect on the horse's body. Many amateur competition steeds and pleasure riding horses end up retiring early due to complications such as navicular disease. Additionally, race horses may sustain leg and joint injuries while still in their prime, causing them to withdraw from major competition. This led many to wonder; is it the ground they're trotting on?

Many people think of lameness as just something that happens, but most cases of lameness are preventable. Even injuries that seem to be the result of uncontrollable events can often be traced to errors in basic horse management. Preventing lameness starts from the ground up.