Unfortunately for us horse owners, it is impossible for an arena surface to remain at its optimum and promote the best performance possible from your horses without regular levelling. Even ‘low-maintenance’ riding surfaces need some level of care and maintenance.
Why Riding Surfaces Require Levelling
One of the biggest mistakes we see is horse owners who make a substantial investment in their riding arena and its surface, but underestimate the importance of quality maintenance equipment. To keep the surface safe to ride on while promoting longevity of the surface components the correct maintenance equipment must be sought.
The main purposes of arena levelling are:
To keep the surface components and materials mixed together so you can make the most out of your riding surface.
To break up a compacted surface which could otherwise lead to slips, trips and falls which could injure both horse and rider. It can also increase the likelihood of lameness.
To redistribute the surface and ensure there are no shallow areas or holes.
To promote consistent moisture retention and therefore reduce dust content.
Remember: Arena levelling and maintenance isn’t just for making it look ‘pretty’. Proper maintenance is required to keep your surface compaction free and safe to ride on, and to protect your horse from nasty injuries while maximising the lifespan of your surface material.
How Often is Levelling Required?
There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to how often you should be levelling your surface, as this depends on the frequency of usage, climate, surface type, type of riding, etc. However, with proper arena maintenance equipment, maintaining your surface is quick and easy, and ensures you are providing your horses with a safe riding surface that they can perform their best on.
Signs that your surface needs levelling:
If there is a visible, sometimes quite deep, track around the outside of the arena, this definitely needs re-distributing and levelling.
If the surface is covered in hoof prints – or worse – has become so compacted it is difficult to see all the hoof prints, then the top layer definitely needs to be broken up and levelled.
We recommend using a leveller that has a built-in adjustable side blade, to automatically pull in the materials from the kick boards, rather than having to manually go around with a rake!
Patterns
Try to experiment with different patterns and not use the same one every day to prevent your vehicle from creating compacted areas. We can show you some effective patterns when we deliver your ArenaMate leveller, otherwise here are a few patterns you can use when levelling your riding surface:
Top Tips
If you jump in your arena, make sure to regularly move the jumps around so that the landing and turning areas are not always in the same place.
Always remove manure and leaves from your arena, otherwise, these can break down and change the consistency of your surface.
If horses are frequently lunged in your arena, try not to lunge them in the exact same spot every time, as this will affect the surface where they are repeatedly going over the same area.
How do I know if my arena needs replacing or just rejuvenating?
Not every poor-riding surface needs a full rebuild. Most problems are fixable with levelling, top-up fibre, or a deep harrow. But a handful of signs mean the surface itself has failed and no amount of maintenance will bring it back. Here's what to check before deciding.
Dead or "dead" sand
Sand that's lost its fibre content over time loses its springiness and starts riding flat and hard, almost like compacted ground. If harrowing brings it up loose for a day or two and it's compacted again within a ride or two, the fibre-to-sand ratio has likely dropped below a usable level. Topping up fibre can buy time once, but if you're re-topping every year, the surface is past rejuvenating economically.
Compaction at depth
Surface compaction is normal and fixable with harrowing. The problem is compaction that's gone deeper than your equipment can reach, often from years of riding without adequate maintenance, or from a leveller that's only ever skimmed the top inch. Dig a small test hole in a few spots: if you hit a hard, dense layer a few inches down that a fork or harrow can't break up, that's a structural problem, not a surface one. This is very common with waxed surfaces.
Contamination with other materials
Surfaces contaminated with soil, clay, or organic matter (commonly from poor drainage pulling material up from below, or from years of manure contamination) will never ride consistently again no matter how much you maintain them. Contamination changes how the surface holds water and compacts, and it's not something you can harrow or top up your way out of. A simple test: if the surface holds water in patches after rain instead of draining evenly, contamination or drainage failure is the likely cause.
Weed and grass growth
Weeds growing up through the surface are usually a sign the membrane underneath has failed or was never properly sealed at the edges and roots are reaching soil below. This isn't a cosmetic issue; it means whatever's stopping your base layer and surface materials from mixing is no longer doing its job, which leads to exactly the contamination problem above.
Broken or failed membrane
The membrane is what separates your surface material from the base/sub-base, keeps drainage working correctly, and stops materials mixing. A torn, perished, or improperly overlapped membrane is one of the few faults that genuinely requires opening up the surface to fix there's no maintenance shortcut. Signs include localised soft or boggy patches that don't match the rest of the arena, sudden appearance of stones or base material at the surface, and the weed growth mentioned above.
Uneven drainage and persistent wet patches
A surface that drains evenly when installed but now holds water in the same spots every time usually points to base or drainage failure rather than a surface problem levelling won't fix water that has nowhere to go.
Surface depth that's grown beyond design tolerance
Over years of fibre top-ups without removing old material, surfaces can end up deeper than they were designed to run, which increases strain on tendons and joints even though it "feels" cushioned. If you've topped up more than once without ever removing old material, it's worth checking total depth against the original spec.
Rule of thumb: if the problem is on top of the base (loose fibre, compaction, unevenness) that's maintenance. If the problem is happening because of the base (drainage, membrane, contamination from below, persistent wet patches) that's replacement.