by Falon Phillips
The buzz around Rocky Mountain Show Jumping outside Calgary, AB, is not the horses, the last big show, or the latest big name to appear in the ring.
The new feature that is drawing people from miles around and flooding the rumour mill is Silica and cotton, or what is otherwise known as the footing in their indoor ring.
With a colour that is only likened to the cleanest Caribbean beaches, and with the tenacious strength to hold after a whole day of horse jumping, the vote is in: this is the best ground to hit the English riding world in years.
While competing in Europe, John and Tani Anderson noticed that the footing at these shows was far superior to anything they had seen in North America. As the owners of Rocky Mountain Show Jumping, they realized that they needed to spruce up their ground if they wanted to attract the quality and calibre of contestants at the top, professional level.
After investigating several European companies, the Andersons were led to a French company through Katie and Henri Trudent.
After carefully considering all of the options, John and Tani flew Frank Genfer, the mastermind behind the footing, from France to Calgary where Frank gave an assessment of what needed to be done in order to get their footing up to European standards.
“We had good stuff for what normal footing was, with a rubber underlay, but in this day and age it just wasn’t good enough if you are going to be providing show jumping at a professional level,” says John.
“Alberta and the western states are all impressed with this footing right now, but really, in the whole scheme of things, we are behind the times. This has been used in Europe for the past five or six years. The top European riders and shows all insist on the highest quality. It has become mandatory for shows to have the proper footing.”
To get this special mixture of Silica and cotton fibre, the Andersons realized that they needed the best ingredients they could find. Nearly 10,000 lbs of cotton fibre was flown in from France, and the Silica sand came from a site in the Rocky Mountains near Golden, BC.
With the help of a dozen semi trucks, 365 tonnes of sand was dumped in the indoor ring, which started the two-week process required to get the job done.
After removing all of the old sand from their ring and adding it to the fields surrounding the property, and making sure that the base was levelled for a sturdy footing underneath, the Silica was unloaded.
Three-and-a-half inches of Silica was spread out evenly over the base as a foundation for the cotton fibre. Once the fibre and the sand were ready, the ring was flooded with water for three days.
To mix the sand, water, and cotton fibre together, the Andersons brought in a tiller from Italy that specializes in blending this type of ground. Sure that this ground will take off and be a big hit in Alberta, John convinced the company to keep the tiller at Rocky Mountain Show Jumping for future use.
With regards to the upkeep and maintenance of the footing, John says “at the touch of a button we water the ground for eight minutes and then use the roller on the back of our PTO to smooth out the high and low spots.”
The roller is used in place of the traditional equipment, as this ground cannot be harrowed due to the coarseness of the fibre.
“The maintenance machine that we use loosens the ground up and then is flattened by the roller. When we have a tournament we do this everyday, but generally it only needs to be done once a week. The ground also doesn’t build up and draw away to the sides like traditional footing,” John explains.
All of the maintenance involved in keeping traditional footing ready to use on a daily basis is virtually diminished with this new ground. For the Andersons to complete this project, the cost was approximately $100,000. How- ever, for John and Tani, the footing has already paid for itself in only a few months of use.
“The time and the effort and the extra people – the crew that you normally have at a horse show like this – to take all of the fences down and drag and put all of the fences up again – to do this six times a day takes that much more time and money. People will get shocked at the initial outlay of putting this footing in, but it’s paid for itself already.”
For everyone involved at Rocky Mountain Show Jumping, the footing has improved the quality of life immensely. The ground is dust free, which means that both riders and horses are breathing better, there is less sickness in the stables, and everything stays clean.
With the value of horses on a steady increase in recent years, people are also looking to protect their investments. With a firm but soft base that allows the horse to take off and land without sliding when going over a jump, their joints and hooves are well protected.
However, even with all of the amenities this ground has to offer, there are a few equestrian sports that would not appreciate the firmness of the footing.
The ground will not give away, so a reining horse would not be able to perform a sliding stop. Also, the steer wrestler who has just taken a leap to grab the horns would feel like he was hitting a brick wall when he reached this ground. Nevertheless, for the jumping world, this mixture of Silica sand and cotton fibre is worth its weight in gold.
For a preview of the footing, contact John and Tani Anderson at (403) 668-7844, or visit www.rmshowjumping.com.
