Aachen, October 20th, 2005

Soil is ready for the WEG 2006
The grass has to be better than in a soccer stadium

The soil was sieved, a water drainage system fitted, and the grass newly re-sown in Aachen's Jumping Stadium in order to make it ready for the two big events next year.
Again the international equestrian elite travels to the Soers for the World Equestrian Festival, CHIO Aachen 2006 (17-21 May) and the World Equestrian Games (20 August-3 September).
The field for the dressage riders, who will compete for medals in their own 40,000 seat arena, has already been completed.
The Dutch company Agterberg BV, which already successfully prepared the ground for the WEG eventing test event's cross country course through the Soerser meadows, was assigned after the CHIO 2005, to temporarily remove the three layers of footing in the main stadium and to construct a new drainage system. "The footing for this year's CHIO was not ideal," says Frank Kemperman, Managing Director of the Aachen-Laurensberger Rennverein e.V. (ALRV). The roof of the new riders tribune caused too much shadow and not enough sun at certain spots on the ground. A problem, which has now been solved with the sowing of a special kind of grass."
"It is a grass mix, which grows well in the shade, grows also in the winter and which creates a very strong grass mat," says Kees Haaksman, managing director of Agterberg BV.
The grass mat's stability is of decisive importance for the jumping sport. "It has to be better than the best soccer field," explains Kemperman. And Kees Haaksman adds, "The power, a horse's hooves have when jumping, especially when lifting off, is much more severe than the actions of soccer players."
However, the footing itself can nevertheless be compared with the top layer of a good soccer field. In Aachen a mixture of lava sand and polypropylene fibers was used, which keeps the footing firm when heavily strained.
And as Aachen can not always count on beautiful weather, the ALRV had a drainage system constructed too. "The ground should cope with even the nastiest weather conditions," says Haaksman. Like continuous rain or short, heavy rain showers. And that is what they have in Aachen now and then.

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