Equine surface Fibre additives, which one to choose?

19/07/2019

Here at Equine surfacing headquarters this week we have been looking at the various Equestrian surface fibre additives on the market and running comparison tests along side our own Poly Pro fibre.

We have drawn up a series of things you may want to consider when purchasing your fibre additive and more widely your pre-mixed Equine Surface of which the fibre additive will make up a large percentage.

There are many factors to consider when looking for the correct fibre additives for your Manège surface.

Some considerations when deciding may be:

Cost

Environmental impact, both positive and negative

Asthetics

Consituant parts

Cost

Cost can be a major factor when considering which fibre to purchase as there are many cheap options available on the Market.

Our advice would always be no matter what the implications always purchase a fibre which is 100% fully synthetic such as our Poly Pro fibre.

There are many cheaper alternatives available however these tend to be produced using old shredded carpet.

60% of the carpet produced is made from natural fibres these will rot away during the first 6 months after installation. This will mean 60% of your new fibre will be lost within a very short period of time.

Environmental Impact

Most fibres on the market these days are set into one of three camps

Either

Post production (brand new unused off cuts etc)

Purpose produced Post Consumer (used contaminated product ie old carpet)

Both post production and post consumer materials have great environmental benefits as the material which would other wise have gone to land fill or be incinerated is being repurposed.

The purpose produced fibre is just that and has no real environmental benefits as such though still produces a superb fibre, our Poly Pro fibre falls into the Post production category.

Aesthetics

Here at Equine surfacing ltd we put a big emphasis on aesthetics, though your manège fibre is there to do a job we feel it must also look pleasing. The last thing you want is spend good money on your Manège surface only to have the look spoiled by purchasing a sub standard fibre.

Consituant parts

Your fibre can be some from of shredded textile alone or alternatively it can be mixed with other materials.

We have been producing surface fibre additives for many years now and have found the best all round fibre is a blend of our polypropylene textile along with a pvc granulate and polyester hair fibre as in our Poly Pro fibre additive.

The polypropylene provides flex and stability to sand surfaces, the hair fibre binds the sand particles together providing the surface with a root structure which best emulates turf and finally the pvc granulate provides a small amount of bounce to the surface which stops the surface ‘riding dead’.

In conclusion we have found there are two main types of Equestrian fibre on the market which are available at a sensible price, however their lifespan and appearance differ greatly.

These tend to orientate around post production and post consumer materials.

Our advice would be to steer away from the post consumer fibre which are now widely available, though cheap to purchase are far from ideal.

This is for three main reasons

It more often than not contains rubbish, screws and carpet grippers for obvious reasons non of these things are good news when riding in them.

The shred tends to be coarse, this speeds up the time it takes for the producer to shred the carpet though this also means large chunks of carpet on top of your surface.

As a rule 60% of carpet sold contains wool, this means that 60% of your fibre additive will have rotted away within the first 6 months.

If you would like more information or samples of the fibre that we produce here at Equine surfacing ltd please don’t hesitate to contact the team.