Than again, maybe not

Unfortunately, watering and dragging the arena didn't solve the footing problem. It helped it a great deal, but Kaswyn was still struggling to trot through the deep spots, and there are a lot of them. Only one end, about a third, of the arena has decent depth of footing. The rest is too deep. Also, he was forced to change his length of stride depending on the footing, and that made it very difficult to tell if he was sound or not. Going off of his attitude and how the left lead canter felt when we were on the "good" footing, I have to say that he is sound. I think it would have been hard to tell just by looking at him because his stride was changing so much. I could also feel him getting a bit tight in his back in spots as he slogged through the deep sand. Not good at all.

I'm in a difficult situation. Marge is my friend, and she owns the barn. She doesn't have money to fix the footing in the arena, and I know this. The board is as low as it is because she realizes that the arena is not ideal, and there is not outdoor arena or place to put one. Marge's son has the equipment (tractors and bobcats) to take some of the sand out and level the arena, but he doesn't want to have anything to do with the barn, so Marge rarely asks him to help her out.

Susan is also my friend. At first she said she thought that the arena was deep in spots but overall it was pretty good. I told her last night that it was not and that we needed to do something. She said okay but I could tell from her reaction that she wasn't saying all she wanted to say. I said to her "Look, I think you're not telling me what you really want to say. We need to talk about this so please tell me what you think."

She said "Well I know it's deep in spots but overall it's fine."

I said "Since I've left here I've been at five different barns. I've had the opportunity to ride on good footing and bad footing. I have to say that this footing is good but it's just too deep. Both my horse and your horse were struggling to get through it."

She said "Well my horse needs to work harder so that's good."

I said "No, that's bad."

She said "I've ridden him through mud and deep stuff before and he's fine."

I said "Every day? In a training environment for 30 to 40 minutes?"

She said "Oh, well, no..."

I said "Listen, please believe that I don't want to make an issue out of this. I don't want to create problems, and I don't want to be a pain in the ass, or come in here and change everything. But the fact is I'm scared to ride my horse in there because I'm afraid he'll pull a tendon and be lame again. And I don't want to ride your horse in there and make him lame too so that you can't ride him"

Nodding, she said "Okay, I see your point. So what are we going to do?"

We have yet to decide what's best. We both think that Marge will say "The arena is fine. Leave it alone." Or "Okay, it's deep but I don't have money to fix it." Susan and I certainly don't have the money either, and to take the sand out a wheelbarrow at a time would take forever and break both of our backs. I don't mind asking Marge's son for help, but only if Marge agrees to it. But then she'd probably ask him herself.

I want to do whatever I can to get the arena fixed and I'm not opposed to doing a lot of work myself to get it done. However, I don't want to anger my friends. I don't want to get kicked out of the barn. I don't want to cause trouble. I don't want my horse to be lame again. What's the solution?