ExCeL London International Horse Show
Total Equestrian Construction were proud to be involved with pre show preparation at the ExCeL London Arena 2021 and to be able to show you our Cat Laser Grader levelling the Martin Collins riding surface ready for the 2021 London International Horse Show.
Horse Arena in Outstanding Natural Beauty
We had a request to assist with a client who had struggled unsuccessfully to obtain planning permission for a horse arena that in fact had received a refusal from their Planning Authority prior to our involvement.
After a site meeting we instructed our specialist equestrian planner and landscape architect to endeavour to overturn the planning refusal. We achieved this within 6 months and started work on site soon after.
One of the problems with this site was that it was in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the ground was very steeply sloping. This required a major excavation of approximately 8 metres at one end and a build up at the other end of 12 metres. Due to the extent of this build up, the fill materials had to be reinforced as well as compacted in layers to prevent future slippage and/or settlement. Because of the depth of excavation and the slope on the surrounding land additional drainage was required to divert storm water away from the arena.
The horse arena features a post and rail fence with training mirrors incorporated at one end and a waxed riding surface was the clients’ preferred choice.
As you can see the final result works very well and our client was amazed at the final outcome on an area of land he had not believed an arena would be possible.
Creation of an Equestrian Competition Yard
Wishing to create a competition yard and having recently purchased a property that had some stables in an old building, our client wanted to upgrade the equestrian facility to create a new competition yard. This required a new horse walker, 60 x 30m outdoor arena and an American barn with stabling for twelve.
We worked with our planning consultant on this new scheme which is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and after various changes and redesigns we came up with a solution that Planners could accept.
The outdoor arena on the crest of a hill required some levelling works and an earth bank to be planted with trees as a screen to one side. The horse arena has a sand, fibre and rubber surface enclosed within a post and rail fence with sloping boards to the bottom.
The stable yard involved the demolition of the old building including the safe disposal of asbestos and crushing of all hard core and existing concrete yard. This crushed material was then used in the base of the new yard area and track to the outdoor arena, saving money and vehicle movements compared with carting away from site and importing new road stone.
The barn has stabling for twelve with wash bay, solarium and stocks. The building has an oversail to the roof on both sides to provide shelter for the horses when their heads are out the rear doors. The construction is a galvanised steel frame with face brickwork to window height with timber boarding above. The roof was a cement fibre and underneath we added a white, lightweight steel liner sheet to provide a smoother underside to the roof that also makes the building lighter.
A six horse walker complete with roof was constructed to one end of the barn as well as a concrete ramp and muck trailer area.