The ground for horse reining needs to be maintained and watered every day, drug every day and be made of a sandy clay mixture. Understand the importance of a well-maintained ground during horse reining with helpful advice in this video on riding and caring for horses.
The ground for the reining horses is very, very important. It needs to be maintained and watered every day. It needs to be drug every day. I prefer sandy clay kind of a mix. It need to have some, some push back to it so when your horse runs down and stops, it kind of pushes back a little bit and doesn't give way underneath their feet and it's too easy for them to stop. You need a deep enough base so that when you are running circles your horse's feet don't slip out from underneath them. With your arena footing it's very important to keep the rocks picked up out of there. It prevents chipping their feet and bruising their soles and frogs. With the reiners, it's important to have a good enough base that you can run in footing that you can run and stop on. We have a clay base here at our farm and we use a sandy clay type of mix which also forms a base and a barrier on the ground. It's important for it to be deep enough and soft enough that your horse can run down and stop and not slip and fall. You want your sand to be a little bit on the heavy side so that it's not too easy for your horse to stop and it's also important when you run in circles for them to have a good base and feel comfortable running.
