6 Considerations for Riding Arena Design
Equestrian arena design depends on its intended use. However, multiple factors determine […]
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Industries
Equestrian
Fabric Building Structures
Fabric Buildings for Equestrian Arenas—It’s All About Loving Your Horse(s)
Our equestrian clients are a special breed. They absolutely love their horses, and it shows when we talk to them about building a tension fabric riding arena. Everything about our structures—the natural light, the quiet acoustics, the protection from heat and cold—makes your riding arena perfect for your equine friends.
Why Choose Legacy Fabric Buildings
Built for Permanence
Legacy's tension fabric structures are built with solid steel I-beams, making them long-lasting and weather resilient. Solid steel is the best material for a structure you can use for decades. Our rigid steel frame design give our buildings customizability and engineering certainty.
Engineering certainty means our structures can withstand snow loads, high winds, and seismic conditions. With buildings in the Andes, northern Alberta, and hurricane alley Florida, are testimony to the building expertise we offer to our clients. Our Florida Product Approval, one of the strictest requirements in the building sector, tells you we know buildings.
Add to that our proprietary Exxotec™ PVC fabric; our buildings are creating a new standard for equestrian structures.
Building Ventilation
A Legacy fabric barn or fully enclosed riding arena is custom designed to provide maximum airflow, reducing moisture buildup and condensation. Gravity ventilation is the most cost-effective source of cool, fresh air to keep horses and riders comfortable.
Riding pavilions can allow a slight breeze through the building, supplying a constant fresh air source. Legacy designs buildings with a higher roof, allowing more air intake and clearance for warm, wet air to rise.
Options for rooftop ventilation include an entirely open ridge and various-sized exhaust ports. A constant airflow ventilation system can be created using roof vents and ground-level air intake.
Overhangs extend beyond the structure's sidewalls, mitigating moisture and repelling precipitation. With the additional building height and higher overhangs, your barn or riding arena will have ample clearance for tractors, stacked hay, or equipment to pass underneath.
Building Atmosphere
Horses have more sensitive hearing than humans but can also multitask and pay attention to multiple sound sources simultaneously - their sophisticated hearing raises the importance of acoustics in an equine environment. Fabric structures are naturally quieter, with reduced reverberation - especially compared to traditional steel sheeting materials. Customers report that their horses are much calmer in an enclosed tension fabric arena, barn, or open-air riding pavilion.
The fabric walls and roof panels are also thermally non-conductive, meaning it generally stays cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.
Legacy's white ExxoTec™ PVC fabric provides 12% translucency. Choosing a Legacy open-air or uninsulated structure would allow natural sunlight to enter, which can be beneficial for horses. Additionally, the light that enters can reduce shadows, which can spook horses. Not only does natural light create a beautiful environment, but it can also make humans more productive and horses more serene.
Our customers are reconsidering how barns and arenas can look and operate as a result of the new trend Legacy has started in these structures. You can be confident you get an ideal solution for you, your horses, and the equestrians using the facility.
Legacy structures can be tailored to your horses' needs. Options include insulation, attached barns, wash bays, and tack rooms. Our tension fabric equine structure offers superior performance compared to traditional buildings and other fabric structures in horse care.
Our Process
Design
01
Whether you have a complete building spec or just an idea in mind, our team will lead you through the design process with expertise and efficiency.
Engineer
02
Our in-house engineering team leads the charge on creative solutions that benefit all project stakeholders—namely you.
Manufacture
03
Legacy is an end-to-end manufacturer, meaning your project will be built right on site in our 87,000 sq ft facility in St. Cloud, MN.
Install
04
Now to the good stuff. Your installation benefits from our safe, effective process in one of two ways—your Legacy rep onsite with local crews or full install services.
Case Study
Silver Drache Farms Dressage Arena
22,000 sq ft Professional Riding Arena | Palm City, FL
Silver Drache Farm is a private equestrian facility used to train and board dressage horses in Palm City, Florida. The highly trained horses require daily exercise – which is not always possible with an outdoor arena. “The type of training that we do would require us to be in the sun for an extended period of time,” said Andrea Eppley, owner of Silver Drache Farm LLC. “In south Florida that’s just not practical.”
View Case Study
Winnemucca Rodeo and Event Center
54,400 sq ft Equestrian Event Center | Winnemucca, NV
This structure provides the advantages of an open air design with protection from the elements for the cattle. An adjustable vent system keeps it dry and cool inside.
View Case Study
Seahorse Run Covered Riding Arena
20,000 sq ft Covered Riding Arena | Suffolk, VA
Seahorse Run is an equestrian boarding and training facility that provides a full range of services to riders of all disciplines, including training, clinics, and competitions. As a top class riding facility, Seahorse Run uses specialized footing that allows the horses to perform their best and prevents injuries. Protecting this footing is a high priority for Seahorse Run owner Flynn Gladden. “If you don’t have a cover, the ground is too inconsistent to ride,” said Gladden.
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Kuka Equestrian Center Riding Arena and Barn
50,400 sq ft Riding Arena with Attached Barn | Maple Plain, MN
This combines a barn area with a riding arena, so it does it all. Natural light and horse-friendly acoustics are just two benefits of working with fabric.
View Case Study-1-1-1.jpeg)
Palm Meadows Training Center
118,192 total sq ft horse barn pavilions
These four barns were built at Palm Meadows training center in Boynton Beach, Florida. These barns are 83 feet by 356 feet, each housing 96 stalls in each barn.
View Case Study
Red Tail Ranch Equestrian Center
30,800 sq ft Fully Enclosed Riding Arena
Red Tail Ranch is a state-of-the-art equestrian center located in Colorado. The center features full service horse boarding, outdoor riding area and an 140x 220 indoor riding arena designed, manufactured and installed by Legacy Building Solutions.
View Case Study
Testimonials
Their mission is customer service.
My family owned and operated Kuka Equestrian Center LLC. From the get-go, Legacy Building Solutions has been absolutely wonderful to work with. Their mission is customer service. If you have any questions, you don't get the runaround and someone is on it right away, and they stay in communication with you. If you are in need of a building, look to Legacy Building Solutions and let them put together the perfect building for you.
Mike Kuka
Amazing amount of light.
You stand inside and have this amazing amount of light. It’s hard for me to imagine that anyone would want to have a metal roof over them.
Lynda Krogh
Highland Farms
It's kind of like being outside all the time but still having shade.
I love the amount of sunlight that you still get through the roof. It stays pretty warm in the winter and cooler in the summer. It͛s very quiet inside. When you get rain or hail or wind, there's no banging or clanging, no sharp or rough sounds. The acoustics are good. It's fresh and dry and clean. You don't ever have condensation dripping off the roof. It's a controlled environment, yet you still get the benefit of the daylight coming in.
Joel Marr
