June 2004

Extend Your Riding Time

With covered arenas in the $50,000-plus range, installing outdoor lights in your existing ring could be the next-best option.

A tall pole, such as a telephone pole, is a necessity to get the lights high enough to be effective.

Lighting your outdoor riding area can significantly extend your riding time, especially if you have a demanding job that brings you home late during the spring and fall months when daylight is short but the weather is otherwise inviting.

A lighting project is fairly straightforward. You’ll work with a contractor to create a lighting design consisting of an assessment of your current electrical power, identifying how much light you expect to need, positioning poles for the lighting fixtures based on the needed light and size of the arena, deciding on manual or automatic light operation and devising a maintenance plan for the future. This is rarely a do-it-yourself job, as placing…