Practical Horseman Magazine, March 1997 issue, New Products column.

FOOT PLEASERS - From our testers, the latest on the newest for horsemen. PERMA-FLEX High- Performance Arena Footing

Made from 100 percent recycled tires, PERMA-FLEX High- Performance Arena Footing comes with a fifty-year Warranty against decomposition of its rubber particles.

The manufacturer, who's installed PERMA-FLEX at such high-visibility locations as the Devon Horse Show, says the footing drains quickly, doesn't freeze, doesn't trench out, doesn't stick in hooves, is not dirty, doesn't get hot, smells rubbery only for the first couple of days it's down, and is environmentally safe.

Our tester, a hunter trainer in the Northeast, was interested in trying PERMA-FLEX because she was tired of dragging her sand arena three to four times a week and unhappy with how "dead" her footing seemed. Working with the folks at parent company TIREC, whom she found very helpful, she calculated that her 110- by 180-foot outdoor arena would need a twenty-one-ton truckload to cover it at the inch-and- a-half depth the company recommended as appropriate for her after taking into account such factors as type and frequency of use, number of horses, and weather. (The company is happy to help customers make such calculations for their individual needs.) For optimum stability, TIREC recommends laying the footing over a sand base, as our tester did, but says the footing can also be put down over plain dirt or grass.

Our tester prepared for installation by dragging the four-inch sand-and-screenings base in her ring very well. After a delivery truck dumped the PERMA-FLEX particles in several large piles around the arena, she and her friends went into action, spreading and leveling with a front-end loader and chain harrow. The material was so light and easy to manipulate, however, that she thinks an energetic few people with wheelbarrows and rakes could have done the job with no problem.

Then the testing began. For four months, our tester and her students pounded the footing, riding on the flat and over fences, on wet days and dry, with high wind and no wind. As promised, it didn't trench out. And in our tester's estimation, it also did a good job of cushioning horses' legs and banishing the "dead" feeling underfoot that she's been unhappy with. Its darkish surface made work easier on the eyes by cutting down on the glare that bounces up from white sand. And it requires no more than once-weekly dragging with the chain harrow.

After rainfalls, the PERMA-FLEX didn't seem to drain quite as quickly as her plain-sand footing had - but, because usage had mixed the particles in well with the sand, it wasn't at all slippery. The mixing also helped the particles stay in place despite the brisk fall and early-winter breezes. When, after a heavy rain plus a temperature drop to the mid-teens, our tester crunched out to the ring over frozen ground, the surface was still somewhat spongy - and, being dark, it absorbed sunlight faster and warmed up sooner than sand alone ever had.

Our tester's verdict on PERMA-FLEX? An unhesitating all thumbs up!

Copyright 1997 Practical Horseman reprinted with permission. Practical Horseman is published by Practical Horseman, PO Box 589, Unionville, PA 19375. $33.00 for twelve monthly issues.