Help with arena dirt

[geethag]

I'm building a new arena (125' x 125' square) for cutting. The base is somewhat sandy where the arena will be though we have mostly clay ground around here elsewhere. I want an attachment to "groom" the arena once it's built and would like to use something less expensive than the Cadillacs (Kiser, 4n1, Riata Rake...). I have a chain harrow but think I'll also need something else at times to keep the footing optimal.

Any opinions? Anyone with experience using soil pulverizer for this? See below

http://befco.com/products/groundengage/pulverizer.html

[GAFarmer]

Never used a soil pulverizer. Chain Harrow always worked when we needed it (rarely).

[mike120]

The Befco pulverizer would probably work but unless you find a used one it's a bit pricy.

I use two main implements for my arenas...I use a tiller most of all. I can adjust the depth and go deeper when I really want to deepen the footing or I can go shallow to just smooth the top inch or so. A tiller has a couple of advantages.....it provides a pretty smooth subfooting underneath the fluffed up footing and you can go onto a wet arena fluff it up so it will dry faster and you won't tear it up with tire spin trying to pull something. I also have a TR-3 arena rake that I use to get the arenas leveled and fluffed in a hurry. It's a great tool but you can't use it in a wet arena.

A chain harrow will do fine to smooth things our, but horses in an arena cause some serious compaction. To get decent footing you need to do more than just scratch the surface. The tiller is the best thing I've found.