# adding rubber on top of sand school - where to buy some rubber!?



## Kelpie (14 December 2010)

right, that's it, I've had enough of my sand school freezing!!!!

as far as I can gather from another thread on here, having rubber on top of sand seems to be about the best chance I have of being able to ride on my (sand) school!  OK, so there may be some days where the sand underneath is so frozen that it's still unwise to use but they would hopefully be less and even then I'm think it may at least still be good to do walk/ trot work on?? (would appreciate any views on that tho??).

So, where can I buy some rubber/ what suppliers are good & bad/ what type of rubber is best?.... I'm based on the Kent/ Sussex borders in case anyone knows any good local suppliers?

thanks!!


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## Lanky Loll (14 December 2010)

Don't know your area I'm afraid but we're thinking of doing the same and the local source for us is a breakers yard (shredded tyres with the metal and crap removed) and apparently they deliver - may well be somewhere similar local to you?


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## kerilli (15 December 2010)

you need to decide whether you want rubber crumb, big pieces, long pieces, or interlocking shred pieces. also whether you want hard rubber or softer rubber (i avoid the hard pieces of rubber, if young horses kick them up against the side or a filler they can start freaking out)
after doing a lot of research, i picked the shred type, and have had Springride Shred on my last 2 arenas. This is the first time, in about 9 years total over the 2 arenas, that my arena's been unrideable... the temps got so low when it was all sodden that the drainage layer seems to still be frozen solid.
friends have a high proportion of rubber crumb with sand and tbh it's deeper, moves more than the rubber on my surface, but isn't holding at all, and is probably still rideable in these conditions.
it depends what you want to do it in it too - if jumping big fences, turning fast (practising for jump-offs, say) I wouldn't want a deepish surface.


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## flyingfeet (15 December 2010)

I bought rubber from McArdle Equestrian Surfaces, which was chopped tyres with plenty of cloth backing

It has not frozen even in latest weather, but I haven't done much riding as I pretty much draw the line after it hits -3oC, as too cold and pointless as everything cancelled anyway!!


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## Kelpie (15 December 2010)

thanks everyone 



kerilli said:



			you need to decide whether you want rubber crumb, big pieces, long pieces, or interlocking shred pieces. also whether you want hard rubber or softer rubber (i avoid the hard pieces of rubber, if young horses kick them up against the side or a filler they can start freaking out)
after doing a lot of research, i picked the shred type, and have had Springride Shred on my last 2 arenas. This is the first time, in about 9 years total over the 2 arenas, that my arena's been unrideable... the temps got so low when it was all sodden that the drainage layer seems to still be frozen solid.
friends have a high proportion of rubber crumb with sand and tbh it's deeper, moves more than the rubber on my surface, but isn't holding at all, and is probably still rideable in these conditions.
it depends what you want to do it in it too - if jumping big fences, turning fast (practising for jump-offs, say) I wouldn't want a deepish surface.
		
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oh no - not more things to decide on 

So, I'd want it for flat work and some jumping practice but it's only a 20x40 arena so I'm not exactly going to be doing course practice in there - and I'm happy to travel to other yards for any "serious" jumping height practice.  I do, tho, have one horse in particular who looks like he might struggle to stay sound on hard ground so I'm going to have to do a lot more of my fittening training in there with him than would be ideal but c'est la vie, I need to be carefull with him - so lots of laps of the school in a good to fast canter.  I also have a couple of youngsters to bring on.  

I don't suppose that given that information you'd happen to know what would be likely to be the best choice, do you??


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## flyingfeet (15 December 2010)

whatever you do, find one that won't turn your horses legs black!! Even Tina F's horses have black legs from the rubber at home. 

Also I hate big flat shred and found it really slippy


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## Kelpie (15 December 2010)

Jen_Cots said:



			whatever you do, find one that won't turn your horses legs black!! Even Tina F's horses have black legs from the rubber at home. 

Also I hate big flat shred and found it really slippy
		
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haha - good point!!!! .... would be fine for our Freisian but not so clever for my grey, LOL!!

... but how do you check that in advance?!?


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## kerilli (15 December 2010)

most rubber surfaces will turn the horse's legs black tbh, it's carbonblack coming off the rubber, not a lot you can do about it. it'll be on tyre pieces etc. depth of surface makes a difference though, my Springride shred doesn't ride deep, they stay on top, so it's only coronet bands and maybe an inch or so higher that gets a bit dirty. But on a deeper surface, it affects more of the legs...
I have the flat interlocking pieces and they have never ever slipped in there, I use it for canter work, turnout, lungeing, everything. never had a slip.
Kelpie, tbh you should go and visit local arenas with rubber and ask them, and if possible at least walk and run around in them (or ride in them) to see how it feels. I much prefer to ride on top of the surface, not through it, but that's personal choice.


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## Kelpie (15 December 2010)

thanks


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## flyingfeet (15 December 2010)

My arena doesn't leave any black marks!! 

How big are your shreds Kerilli - the one I really didn't like were over 20cm long and 5cm or wider (actually an arena at RB equestrian). Felt incredibly slippy!


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## kerilli (15 December 2010)

umm, it varies, small round pieces, flatter bigger pieces with lots of holes in, long thing pieces, all sorts. top right piccie on this page shows it:
http://www.springride.com/shred.html


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## flyingfeet (15 December 2010)

What is was talking about was much bigger black strips

More like this:


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## kirkton (15 December 2010)

We just did the same thing. We are at opposite end of the country but we paid £60 per ton delivered and we bought 20 tonnes to top up a 20 by 40 that was 4" silica sand and 2" of rubber over 10 years ago - so it was well over due a top up. It used to freeze a lot but since we topped it up no freezing at all even on minus 12 days!

Could prob have got away with 15 tonnes but 20 is great.


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## rara007 (15 December 2010)

We have that surface Jen_Clots, that we got as a cheap alternative to the springride shred  For what we use it for it is fab and we wouldn't change it, but I wouldn't chose it for proper horses jumping. No black marks, and it definately isn't 20cmX5cm apart from the odd piece. Def the same surface- you've got the picture from the website  It hasn't frozen, and is ontop of rubber crumb/rubber mix that did freeze


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## flyingfeet (15 December 2010)

rara007 - it was much bigger strips than the ones from the company in the picture, but couldn't find a better pic!

Being around 20cm long they formed a sheet like surface that got skiddy when wet.


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## ofcourseyoucan (15 December 2010)

i would contact all suppliers of rubber! they will send you sample bags to look at! and prices!!! mine has rubber chips about an inch by half inch. i got them from robert brazil. have worked well for all types of work and jumping. you might find cost comes into the equation, check about transport costs. i topped mine up about 6 years ago and paid 2500 i think so 100 per tonne delivered. rubber wont stop the sand freezing but remains springy on top. good menages have very good drains. if your drains are poor rubber wont be your perfect answer but will help a little.


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## boneo (15 December 2010)

We got ours from a company who re treaded tyres, to them, it was waste, and they were glad to get rid of it, but that is some time ago, possibly worth looking in Yellow Pages?


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## Kelpie (17 December 2010)

thanks ever so much guys... great suggestions and gives me something to go on


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## onemoretime (17 December 2010)

Kelpie said:



			right, that's it, I've had enough of my sand school freezing!!!!

as far as I can gather from another thread on here, having rubber on top of sand seems to be about the best chance I have of being able to ride on my (sand) school!  OK, so there may be some days where the sand underneath is so frozen that it's still unwise to use but they would hopefully be less and even then I'm think it may at least still be good to do walk/ trot work on?? (would appreciate any views on that tho??).

So, where can I buy some rubber/ what suppliers are good & bad/ what type of rubber is best?.... I'm based on the Kent/ Sussex borders in case anyone knows any good local suppliers?

thanks!!
		
Click to expand...

Have a look in Pegasus magazine, we got our's from there £50 per ton and its been great.


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## Kelpie (17 December 2010)

ooh, cool


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## vigoureux (18 December 2010)

Hi
It took me a while to decide on the surface for my arena, but eventually i decided to go with a company called Aspfase, the actual rubber stuff was called Equimulch, this is the web address http://www.aspfase.co.uk/html/equimulch.html . They also do other rubber pieces.
The rubber came from belgium, made from aircraft tyres, and boy, it's a bouncy surface. Horses love it. If you would like pics, can try and take some tomorrow (Sat) if you can see the surface from all the snow we're meant to be getting?


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## Kelpie (18 December 2010)

vigoureux said:



			Hi
It took me a while to decide on the surface for my arena, but eventually i decided to go with a company called Aspfase, the actual rubber stuff was called Equimulch, this is the web address http://www.aspfase.co.uk/html/equimulch.html . They also do other rubber pieces.
The rubber came from belgium, made from aircraft tyres, and boy, it's a bouncy surface. Horses love it. If you would like pics, can try and take some tomorrow (Sat) if you can see the surface from all the snow we're meant to be getting?
		
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ooh, thank you - if you're lucky enough to still be able to see your school after all this snow, then yes, some pics would be very much appreciated


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## vigoureux (23 January 2011)

Hi Kelpie,
Sorry for the delay in pics, just remembered after all that bad snow we had.
If your still looking, then these are the pics 












Hope the pics worked, never added any before.


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