Explanation of textile and sand footings:
One of the biggest concerns with Carpet not only the germs involved with recycling product, but
the shredded carpet usually has carpet backing on it which does not allow the carpet fiber to knit
together. It’s also important to note that fiber additives are purchased by weight and some additives
with carpet or loaded down with the backing or a plastic that offer no advantage in the form
of improvement to cohesion of the sand, so you are paying for weight of a product that cannot
help your arena. In this scenario where carpet has been used with the rubber backing you would
need to use four times as much as that additive when compared to lose fibers Like our GGTFooting
fibers that are used in our many different blends.
Also, Carpet is designed for the yarn and fibers to stay together by twisting and setting, this is
not what you want for Arena footing although it does work well when you were laying down a
carpet in the home.
GGT FOOTING prides itself on using remnant, not recycled. So, virgin only products in our mixtures.
We use only polyester as this does not break down and has proven to provide the best footing to date.
This process has helped us with quality control and make sure that you get the most durable product available. Our
fibers have a high denier class as well as UV ratings.
SAND
The key to a good arena is the sand!! Many times, people make the mistake of settling for an inferior sand and then
suffering the consequences later. High quality silica sand falling within specific ranges of sieve analysis is what we use
for our arenas. The issue with a high clay-based sand mixture is that overtime the clay will lock up when watered and
become as hard as cement.
We will be recommending a high-quality Silica sand that has proven itself to be durable and will bond perfectly with our
GGT- FOOTING high-quality textiles and fiber content In the United States we have arenas that are 10 years old and in
Europe we have arena’s that are over 20 years old.
MAINTENANCE
It is important that once you’ve made the investment of purchasing new footing that you continue with a maintenance
program where the Arena builder will come in once a year and assess your arena, most likely re-grade the arena and
check that your arena maintenance products are set to the proper depth as well as noticing if you need anything else to
maintain the high quality investment. With any type of textiles, it is important to maintain enough water level.
Your arena should be kept at a high moisture content like walking along the edge of the beach where the tide comes
in and hits the sand. This is not only beneficial to keep the textiles mixed but it provides the appropriate cushion and
support for horse’s ligaments where they are riding on top of the footing and not sinking in to dry sand it gives way and
can cause ligament damage.
We are happy to provide more info, but I think this should be enough for an education discussion and to help make an
informed decision on the proper sand and textiles to provide your facility with first class Footing.
www.EliteEquestrianMagazine.com 41
We now carry a line of virgin rubber
flooring to be used in wash stall
area flooring in barns.
GGT Footing has teamed up with a
large German manufacturer of virgin
rubber products. We now offer rubber
flooring for wash stalls, aisleways and
paths to the barn.
GGT Footing is still offering the Butterfly
matting system for those who would
like to offer alternative to gravel and
stone as their base material. We have
had excellent success with this product
at private farms and at the Kentucky
Horse Park.
Please like our Facebook page,
Instagram and twitter!
Call 864-804-0011 for
further information and
please check our website
www.ggtfooting.com
Equestrian Footing comes in many forms.
This page will describe the lower performance textiles first and then move onto the more
popular and technical products that we see in the industry today.
At the low performance and cost there used to be footing material made from wood chips
which are made usually from waste from a lumber mill or recycled pallets. they are considerably
cheaper but completely inferior to what is now available. One of the reasons why
we consider them to be inferior is because their low level of grip makes for slippery arenas
and the product easily biodegrades and can be displaced easily from the arena. We do not
see too many wooden chip situations in the country currently
Several years ago, prior to the new additive such as German geo-textile there was a low
performance lower cost product which is rubber pieces.
The rubber pieces are usually made of various rubber piece sizes and have other materials
attached such as fabric backing.
Recycled rubber pieces from recycled tires offer a cheap method of offering some shock absorbency, however rubber contributes
very little cohesion otherwise known as sheer strength and these products can also feel slippery and lack support on
cornering jumping and landing.
Many times, we see carpet that is inexpensive and is a recycled by- product usually pulled off hotel rooms and after testing,
we have found that most of the carpet that has been recycled is loaded with streptococcus and E. coli bacterium
GGT -FOOTING™
EE
As used in the
Kentucky Horse Park
and Menlo Charity
Horse Show
/www.EliteEquestrianMagazine.com
/www.ggtfooting.com
