A New Outdoor Arena for Second Act Farm

Learn about the new ring and barn updates at Second Act Farm.

In 2019, Stable Style first featured Second Act Farm here. Brittani’s barn was a beautifully done renovation that required a lot of work. Fast forward to the spring of 2021, the Director sisters Brittani and Chelsea decided to move their horses Gannon, Ego, Urban and Cody home to the farm. Chelsea moved closer to the farm and helps Brittani with the barn work while they both manage full time jobs. The sisters currently show with Ken Krome and Jennifer Newman of K2 Show Stables but are enjoying having the horses at the farm.

Horse keeping at home is rewarding but always requires upkeep and improvements. One of the biggest projects was the newly installed outdoor ring. The barn was originally a retirement destination and didn’t have a proper place to work the show horses, Brittani explained.

“Since the last Stable Style feature, we have brought all four show horses home (we still have my two mini donkeys). We divided some of the fields, and added two stone dust dry lots to the back of the barn. The dry lots allow us to get the horses out when the fields are too wet for turnout, they give my donkeys a place to be out most of the day since they cannot be on the grass like the horses can, and two of the horses have access to their field, dry lots, and stalls during the day,” Brittani said. “We have added tack hooks, blanket bars, and a wall box to make the barn better functioning for show horses. We did a lot of reorganizing and moving things around to better accommodate a full barn. The biggest update we made, however, was adding the ring.”

The farm’s adorable donkeys.

Tack Room

The 12’x12′ tack room had a refresh and was reorganized to create a better flow. New bridle, saddle and tack hooks were added, along with a larger water heater since all four show horses are at home. The hooks are from Tack Room Studio on Etsy (a favorite Stable Style source).

The poured concrete floor is covered with an indoor/outdoor rug from Home Depot to make the space feel warm and cozy.

Outdoor Arena

The new outdoor arena is 80′ x 180′. Initially the Director sisters were apprehensive about the arena being too small, but it has turned out to be the perfect size for schooling, lessons and lunging. The space is great for fitting a 4 or 5 stride line, singles, and gymnastics. It also only takes 20 minutes to drag which helps make maintenance more manageable.

The ring was built by FICS of Maryland and the grading work was done by MG Fulton Services, also based out of Maryland. Prior to construction, the ring site had to be chosen, then the ring size and exact location was laser measured and staked off. Brittani also had to file for grading permits with the county. The excavation and grading work started mid July of 2021. The location for the ring was a field that had a hill on one side, and then leveled out on the other side. The land was excavated and graded up to the existing hillside. The grading process took about a month, and consisted of a lot of moving dirt from one part of the field to the other. Three sides of the ring have buried drain pipes, and two sides have French drains. Once the grading for the ring was finished, and the ring pad leveled and rolled, the stone dust base was spread and rolled. About two weeks later the footing came in. The arena uses a sand/duracush footing. The sand has some texture to it, rather than it being super fine, and the duracush is a finely shredded rubber. The footing has done a great job holding moisture, and maintaining “cush.”

By the beginning of September the ring was usable, with exterior grading final touches still being done to the land, and hydroseeding the areas where grass was torn out. A few weeks later the ring was fenced in. The grading of the land is still being touched up here and there based on how the field is draining around the ring. The ring fencing/kick board was done by Oak & Iron Farm Fence based out of Maryland.