ArenaKleen Application at Tall Oak Farms

The following report and video details the ArenaKleen experience of Dr. Diane Williams of Tall Oaks Farm in Millis, Massachusetts.

Tall Oaks Farm is a private, 14-stall dressage facility in Millis, MA.  Water for the farm is supplied by a well.  Therefore, watering the outdoor dressage arena for dust control is not possible.  The footing in our arena is concrete sand.  It used to get very “deep” and dusty within 1 day of being completely saturated by rain.  In fact, within a few hours of rain, the top layer of sand would dry quickly and start to generate dust even though the under-layer was still damp.  The quick-drying nature of the sand made any form of watering futile as a means of dust control.  We considered adding other footing materials to our arena to help retain moisture, but we knew that no matter what we added, the dust would still be an issue.
 
During the most beautiful months of summer, we were driven indoors by the choking dust and poor consistency of the footing.  I am a hard contact lens wearer so I am bothered more than most people by the swirling clouds of abrasive dust (even when I’m not the one riding).  I have suffered corneal abrasions from the arena dust.  Tired of hearing “there’s nothing we can do about dust, it’s just a fact of life with outdoor arenas”, I made it my personal mission to find a solution to this enormous problem.  After doing a lot of research, I found references to the ArenaKleen product.  It sounded like a truly unique material that worked regardless of the amount of moisture in the footing.  I knew I would have to convince a lot of skeptics in order to spend any money at all on a dust control product.  Being a Ph.D. scientist, I decided to conduct an unbiased, controlled “experiment” to evaluate the product’s efficacy.

The Experiment
First, I constructed a 4 ft x 4 ft “test frame” adjacent to the dressage arena using 1” x 6” lumber.  I positioned the frame so that it would receive full sunlight and the same rain, snow, wind conditions as the main arena.  I transferred footing from the main arena into the test frame and filled it to the same depth as the arena (4”).  Then, I ordered a 5 gallon sample of ArenaKleen from DirtGlue and followed the application instructions precisely.  Using a garden sprayer, I applied 0.8 gallons of ArenaKleen to the footing in the test frame, allowed it to soak in, and then turned the material over every day with a garden shovel.  The date of application was April 19, 2008.  I invited my riding colleagues to walk around in the treated footing, kick it up, handle it, turn it over, etc.  As expected, during the first couple of months there was very little interest in my experiment.  But, as summer pressed on and the dust began to choke us out of the arena, I noticed people quietly inspecting the test footing.  The ArenaKleen product was beginning to win over the skeptics.  I churned up the test footing with a shovel several times per week to simulate some of the wear and tear imparted by riding and dragging. Even more impressive than the absolute dust control was the much improved consistency of the arena footing.  It had life and springiness to it when the adjacent footing in the main arena was loose and dead.  “Ahhh…” said the skeptics, “but what will happen to it over the winter?”
 
Fast forward to Spring ’09.  Once the snow and ice from one of the worst winters on record had melted and the footing was completely dry, I churned it up and it was as dust –free and springy as it had been at the end of the summer.  Approximately one year after ArenaKleen was applied to the test frame, the skeptics agreed that the product worked as advertised and they enthusiastically supported making the investment to apply the product to our dressage arena.

The Results
Our outdoor sand arena was treated with ArenaKleen on June 1, 2009.  ArenaKleen has completely transformed the footing in the arena.  The performance of the product has far exceeded our expectations.  The consistency of the footing is much improved and our older, slightly arthritic horses now are working happily in the sand.  As of October, 2009, 4 months post-application, the dust control and footing consistency are much as they were 2 weeks post-application, despite this summer’s torrential rains in July and August.  ArenaKleen is a remarkable product!

ArenaKleen-the end of horse arena dust!

by Brian McNeil, E=MC Equestrian Arenas, Inc.

To paraphrase Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, “Out, out, damn dust!” 
California equestrians see, breathe and endure dust, and our horses continue to pay the price.

Working throughout North America with equestrian owners, trainers and facility managers, I am constantly asked to make sure-fire recommendations for dust control for arenas, showgrounds, barn aisles and round-pens/turn-outs. Until recently, the solutions were short-term and less than environmentally sound and economically practical. Even with high-end sprinkler systems, water wheels, magnesium chloride, misting systems, water tanks or careful manure-removal management, dust would win out in the end.

A few years ago, I got into a heated telephone conversation with a manufacturer who claimed that his product could control all dust present in an arena for up to nine months. I doubted that. He said his product worked without chlorides (salts). Without water. And without any environmental risks or impact on horse and rider.

Having previously installed thousands of gallons of liquid magnesium chloride over the years, with adequate but short-term effectiveness, I finally asked one of my best clients to try this organic witches’ brew, this mysterious non-toxic liquid formula. It worked! And kept working. And it did not alter the feel of the footing, get crusty or, most remarkably, wash out of the footing when it rained.

My irritation with DirtGlue Enterprises, the environmental products manufacturer of this product, ArenaKleen, grew out of my own disbelief that their claims were valid. I was proved wrong. Trainers that had worked in dust-bowl arenas now tell me that it works. Owners in Carmel, in Pleasanton, in Orangevale, tell me that it works. No more dust on arena mirrors, on horizontal surfaces, on cars parked near the arena and, most especially, no more dust entering the respiratory systems of their horses and riders. 

I have never been so pleased to be wrong in my assumptions.

How It Works

Unlike other liquids that suppress dust by coating the sand/dust particles, ArenaKleen is absorbed into the sand/dust particles at a molecular level. Both non-corrosive and non-exothermic (it does not generate heat like calcium chloride does), the material does not wash off of the footing, even with heavy rains or waterings used to maintain footing density. It does not freeze - a plus for our northern riders. Of greatest significance to riders, it does not alter the feel of the existing footing. It just gets rid of the “damn dust!”

As California continues to grow, two realties are emerging: we are running short of water; and equestrian facilities once set in isolated and private locales are now trying, and failing, to co-exist with suburban neighbors who don’t want their air-conditioner’s filters clogged with arena dust.

DirtGlue Enterprises/ArenaKleen now distributes throughout North and Central America, and is available world-wide. The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto has used ArenaKleen for the past two years to control arena dust, while promoting the Fair as a “green” environment for its international  equestrian events. Vendors love it: no dust on the $4,000 saddles. The facility loves it: no water trucks! Lady Macbeth would have loved it, too.

Author Brian McNeil is the owner of E=MC Equestrian Arenas, Inc., which designs, installs and consults for equestrian clients throughout North America. Recently completed installations include arenas in Los Gatos, Pleasanton and Orangevale, CA. With over 150 installations since 1997, E=MC Equestrian Arenas approaches all projects with this single criterion: It’s All About the Horse!