After seeing the success of the new footing in the Dixon Oval at the Devon Horse Show (Pa.), Devon and Pennsylvania National show manager Peter Doubleday announced that the Pennsylvania National show arena will also be getting a footing upgrade.
The Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania National, Oct. 14-23 in Harrisburg, Pa., approved installation of synthetic footing from Bart Poels’ Equestrian Services International company. Poels installed the footing at the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong and in recently redone rings at the Winter Equestrian Festival (Fla.).
“Redoing the footing at Devon was the best thing we ever did,” said Doubleday. “Because it was new, we had to roll it for a couple of days, but it worked out beautifully. It got a lot of work and settled in very well. All the disciplines that showed at Devon loved it, even the Saddlebreds. They saw a huge improvement with less shoes getting thrown. They only lost one shoe in a class, which is unusual.”
The current footing in the main ring at the Farm Show Arena, where the Pennsylvania National is held, is four years old. It will be removed and replaced with new footing the week before the Pennsylvania National.
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“In the past, the material that’s in there stays in there all year long and it gets used for various purposes and things got mixed up in it. Everything that went on in the Farm Show Arena all year either drove on it, rode on it or walked on it,” Doubleday said. “With the investment involved, we’re going to remove the new footing after the show and store it covered on-site.”
For now, the main ring is the only area slated for the new footing, but Doubleday plans work to improve all three of the schooling areas as well.
Doubleday said that the new footing at Devon had an unexpected benefit.
“It also sped up our schedule,” he said. “We didn’t have to spend 15 minutes working the ring with a big water truck and big tractor. We had a small water truck and two smaller tractors. We dragged it more and got it done faster. That was a huge improvement and, hopefully, we’ll have the same result at Harrisburg.”
