Could the key to perfect footing be as simple as a profile blade on your arena drag?
What components make for a good riding arena? There are multiple different factors in regards to your footing, such as moisture, depth, and compaction that affect how well your horse can perform. Many times there are underlying issues below the surface of your arena that are not visible to your eye. These issues cause your horse to be unable to keep cadence and rhythm like they are trained to do. This typically happens when horses learn to shy away from areas of footing that are compacted and uneven under the top few inches. Some horse owners and trainers avoid this by installing a base into their arena. But bases can be costly to install. A simple, effective alternative is to create a faux base in your arena and clean up compaction under the surface with a profile blade.
A profile blade is a patented part of ABI’s arena drags that removes compaction just above the base. The main use is to eliminate hidden factors underneath the surface that you cannot see. For example, have you ever ridden in an arena that was a bit too wet? When your footing has excess moisture, the footing material tends to compact quicker than normal. Then, once the arena dries up, you will have hard, compacted foot holes throughout the entire arena.
This is a great time to engage profile blades and ripping teeth. Using both of these ground engaging components will tear up the hard dried ground and continue to break up the compaction underneath the footing surface. This is how your faux base is created with your profile blades. The pressure of the drag and the blades create compaction below the profile blades. This faux base will allow your arena footing to be the same depth throughout and more consistent overall. If you already have a base installed in your riding arena, these profile blades can be adjusted to the desired depth above your base, and simply clean the surface of it, eliminating the compaction.
Our arena drag competitors use tools like chain harrows to try and accomplish compaction eliminating. But chain harrows and similar implements aren’t able to give you the consistent loosened footing without creating ridges underneath the surface of your footing. Instead of ripping through footing with perpendicular teeth, profile blades slice through the footing in quarter inch increments and loosen the footing. Which means, with every single pass of the tractor you’ll be loosening 100% of your hard compacted footing. This saves an enormous amount of time on the tractor, UTV, or ATV because the driver no longer has to make two or three passes over the same footing with different patterns. Profile blades clean the base of compaction and lift the footing material to add cushion. Giving you and your horse the cushion needed for a smooth consistent ride.
Check out what a profile blade can do for your arena, or talk to a product specialist at 888-930-7394.
