A top Spanish equestrian centre will play home to the world’s largest “removable” indoor arena.
Vejer de la Frontera-based centre the Dehesa Montenmedio, host of the Sunshine Tour, has invested 750,000 euros (£640,000) into building a new 90x45m indoor arena. The arena, which is a tent-like structure rather than fixed, will add to the 20 grass and sand arenas on the site.
A spokesman for the centre said the arena, which will be first used in January 2022, will allow competitions to be held when weather conditions are not favourable and it offers “great versatility and functionality” owing to its “dismountable nature”.
“It has a two-layer roof of polyester textile membrane coated in PVC with high-frequency welded keder. The two layers form an air chamber that provides high thermal insulation and wind resistance,” said the spokesman, who told H&H that the centre does not have a building permit so they cannot build an arena with a fixed structure.
Sunshine Tour director Teresa Blazquez said the new arena is the “icing on the cake” for the centre.
“One of the keys to the success of the Sunshine Tour is that when in the rest of the world it is impossible to compete on outdoor tracks [all year round] due to the climate, we are the oasis of Europe. Everyone knows with us they are guaranteed to be able to compete outdoors, which is essential for young horses. Inexperienced horses come to the circuit and leave Montenmedio in good shape. Now with the new indoor we give them the possibility to alternate the indoor arena with the others.
The spokesman added that the president of the Spanish equestrian federation Javier Revuelta “checked first-hand” the execution of the project and was “very satisfied” Spanish equestrian sport has a new facility of this “magnitude and scope”, providing a “definitive boost” for the circuit to establish itself among the world elite of equestrian facilities.
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