The community verdict: a summary of what GGT reviews really say
If you spend any time in equestrian forums or Facebook groups, you already know the conversation has shifted. Search for GGT reviews in any horse community and you'll find a pattern that's hard to ignore: riders, trainers, barn owners, farriers, and veterinarians are raising serious concerns about synthetic textile footing — and many are walking away from it entirely.
The question isn't whether GGT markets well. It does. The question is whether the product delivers what the horse actually needs underfoot.
We recently came across a public discussion in the Equestrian Footing Design and Planning group on Facebook that captured this shift better than anything we could write ourselves. A simple question — "Am I the only one who doesn't like GGT footing?" — generated dozens of responses from riders and professionals across every level of the sport. The answers were passionate, detailed, and remarkably consistent. What follows is a summary of what the community is saying. These aren't our opinions. They're the lived experiences of people who ride, train, and care for horses every day.
Soft tissue injuries are the dominant concern
More than any other issue, the thread returned again and again to a single theme: horses are getting hurt. Riders reported suspensory injuries, bowed tendons, shoulder soreness, tight hind ends, and generalized stiffness — consistently linked to sustained work on synthetic surfaces. The pattern described over and over is a horse that stays perfectly sound on sand at home, goes to a show venue running GGT, and comes back lame or body-sore after a week of competition.
Multiple respondents noted that farriers have begun modifying shoeing specifically to compensate for GGT's characteristics, rounding the toe or adjusting the breakover to counter the surface's lack of natural slide. When your farrier has to re-engineer the shoe to survive the footing, that tells you something fundamental about the surface.
Former vet techs and riders with long relationships with equine veterinarians reported the same observation from the clinical side: vets who have been practicing for more than fifteen years are seeing soft tissue injuries at rates they never encountered before synthetic footing became widespread. One commenter pointed to insurance data showing a measurable spike in soft tissue injuries within the hoof capsule that tracks directly with the adoption of synthetic surfaces at major venues.
The biomechanical explanation isn't complicated. When a horse's hoof lands, it needs a small amount of slide — a micro-movement that distributes impact force gradually through the limb. GGT's fiber creates grip that eliminates that natural slide. The energy that would have been absorbed by ground displacement instead transmits directly up through the tendons, ligaments, and soft tissue of the leg. On any given stride the difference is negligible. Over thousands of strides across weeks and months of training and showing, it accumulates into injury.
The surface is too hard and too grippy
Beyond soft tissue, riders consistently described GGT as simply unpleasant to ride on — hard, grippy, and unforgiving. The word that came up repeatedly was "no give." Horses trip and stumble. Riders described the surface as cuppy in spots, with horses getting momentarily stuck just long enough to strain something. Others called it too grippy, suspecting it's behind rotational injuries where the hoof catches instead of releasing naturally.
Course builders who work across multiple surface types reported that their own bodies feel the difference — feet and joints aching after a day of walking on GGT in ways that never happen on sand. Multiple riders said they wouldn't install GGT in their own ring even if it were offered for free.
Falls are more dangerous
One of the most striking themes was the severity of falls on synthetic surfaces. On sand, there's give — the surface absorbs some of the impact and the body can slide. On GGT, riders reported falling hard with no cushion, no slide, and in some cases dangerous entanglement with the fiber. Broken bones, spinal injuries, and compound fractures were mentioned at rates that multiple commenters said they never saw in the era of natural footing. One rider described a friend whose spur caught in the GGT fiber during a fall, resulting in a compound leg fracture — a mechanism of injury that simply doesn't exist on sand.
Respiratory issues, eye irritation, and glare
Several riders reported physical reactions to the fiber itself. Burning eyes and sinuses. Horses that develop chronic coughs on GGT and require allergy medication at shows, only to clear up completely when returned to sand at home. Outdoor GGT arenas created blinding glare on sunny days — intense enough that riders couldn't keep their eyes open and had to stop mid-ride to find sunglasses. The question of what's actually in the fiber and what it does to airways — human and equine — was raised by multiple people without a satisfying answer.
Maintenance isn't the miracle it's sold as
Despite being marketed as low-maintenance, GGT drew complaints about the constant attention it demands. Watering, dragging, depth management, and the obsessive requirement to pick up manure immediately to avoid contaminating the fiber. Multiple riders described barn owners who would interrupt lessons to sprint out and collect manure before anyone rode through it. The maintenance burden, many said, is comparable to or greater than what properly managed natural footing requires — it's just a different kind of work, not less of it.
Environmental and health concerns are growing
The environmental dimension of GGT is one most riders don't consider until someone spells it out. One of the most detailed comments in the thread explained that GGT originally entered the US market with massive stockpiles of recycled carpet scraps — one of the most chemically treated consumer products manufactured today. Those fibers, mixed into arena surfaces, leach chemicals into the surrounding soil with every rain. The runoff often flows directly into adjacent turnout fields where horses graze. At least one European country has moved to restrict synthetic footing materials over groundwater contamination concerns.
For an industry that cares deeply about what goes into and onto horses, the question of what's leaching out of the footing beneath them deserves more attention than it's gotten.
The core problem: GGT is an additive, not a footing system
Perhaps the most important insight from the entire discussion was one that reframes the whole conversation. Multiple experienced commenters made the same point: GGT is not footing. It is an additive. Its job is moisture retention and a small amount of binding. It does not create stability. It does not determine how the surface performs. The stability, consistency, and safety of any arena come from two things — the sand specification and the base construction.
GGT's marketing has successfully convinced riders that buying fiber is the same as buying footing. It isn't. It would be like buying chocolate chips and thinking you'd purchased cookies.
This is why GGT reviews are so wildly inconsistent. The fiber performs differently in every single installation because everything depends on what sand it was mixed with, what ratio was used, what base it sits on, and who built and maintains the arena. Riders who love their home GGT ring and hate the same product at a show venue aren't experiencing two different fibers — they're experiencing two different arenas with two different foundations, two different sands, and two different maintenance programs. The fiber is almost beside the point.
In their own words
The summary above draws from dozens of comments. Here are some of the individual voices that stood out:
"We took two horses to the show late last year. One pulled up with a bow tendon on course and the other came home with a soft tissue injury that took months to heal. That footing is different, it's hard. It offers no give whatsoever."
"GGT's job is really just moisture retention and a little bit of binding — not to create stability. If the sand isn't the right blend or the base isn't done correctly, the footing will either feel hard or shifty no matter what you add to it."
"GGT did a hell of a job with their marketing. They have insisted they be called footing. But they are not. It is an additive. It would be like me going to the baking aisle and picking up a bag of chocolate chips thinking I was buying chocolate chip cookies."
"When it first came to the US, the installers and sellers all said it was meant for competition grounds… it was never intended for full-time use."
"My farrier rounded the shoe where the shoe hits the surface. The reason was to counter the lack of slide in the GGT footing. As he explained, a horse's foot when landing must have some give or the entire landing apparatus takes a beating."
"Ask insurance companies — the rise of soft tissue injuries within the hoof capsule went up tremendously since these have been put in."
"There were no fancy footing 25 years ago. We rode on simple sand, we rode in fields, trotted in woods… never in my life I saw so many soft tissue injuries as now. The structure of soft tissue has not changed."
"A friend of mine fell off her horse. Her spur got stuck in the GGT footing and she destroyed her leg with a compound fracture."
"Recently while in Europe I noticed many rings being switched out from GGT to ebb and flow. Which is basically just plain sand, in a system that self-waters. Have seen and tried a few ebb and flow rings in Ocala and they are superb to ride on."
The Performance Footing® approach: ArenaSpec
At Performance Footing® we've been saying for years what this community thread confirms from the field: the answer to better footing isn't an additive. It's engineering. Our ArenaSpec process starts where performance actually originates — the sand itself and the base beneath it.
It starts with a sand sieve analysis
Sand is not sand. The particle size distribution, angularity, and mineral composition of your sand determine everything about how your footing performs — how it compacts, how it drains, how much give it provides, how it responds to moisture, and how it interacts with the horse's hoof.
An ArenaSpec™ sand sieve analysis breaks your material down across multiple mesh sizes (18, 35, 60, 100, 140, and 270) and compares the distribution against proven performance targets. For an outdoor arena, the ideal distribution concentrates the bulk of particles in the 60-mesh and 100-mesh range, with controlled amounts of finer material for binding and minimal coarse particles that create concussion. An indoor arena shifts the distribution to account for the absence of natural weathering and rain compaction.
These aren't guesses. They're engineered specifications developed from decades of performance data across thousands of arenas. When you take your ArenaSpec™ report to your local quarry, they can blend a sand that meets the target distribution — giving you a surface that performs consistently from day one without any synthetic additive.
Base construction is non-negotiable
A properly engineered arena base provides three things: structural support so the footing doesn't bottom out under load, drainage so water moves through rather than pooling, and a consistent plane so footing depth stays uniform across the entire riding surface. Without this foundation, even perfect sand will fail. It will migrate, compact unevenly, and create hard spots and soft spots that change with every weather cycle. No amount of fiber will fix a bad base.
Moisture management is designed in, not bolted on
The core argument for synthetic fiber has always been moisture retention. But moisture retention without moisture control just means the surface stays wet when you don't want it to and dries out when you need it damp. The Performance Footing® approach addresses moisture through drainage engineering, irrigation planning, and sand selection — a system designed to work together, not a sponge thrown into the mix as an afterthought.
As one rider in the thread observed, the best facilities in Europe are now switching to ebb-and-flow systems — self-watering sand arenas with no synthetic fiber at all. The footing stays in place because it stays consistently damp from below. That's not an additive solving a problem. That's engineering eliminating the problem entirely.
Making the right decision for your arena
If you're building a new arena or reconsidering your existing surface, here's the framework that both the science and the community's experience support:
- Start with an ArenaSpec™ sand sieve analysis. Before you spend a dollar on surface material, know exactly what sand specification your arena needs based on whether it's indoor or outdoor, your climate, your discipline, and your drainage conditions. This is the single highest-value step in the entire process.
- Engineer your base. The base is the foundation of every ride your horse will ever take in that arena. Proper grading, compaction, and drainage design pay for themselves many times over in footing longevity and horse soundness.
- Select sand to spec. Armed with your ArenaSpec™ targets, work with a quarry that can blend to specification. The right sand, at the right depth, over the right base, will outperform any synthetic-augmented surface — at a fraction of the cost.
- Manage moisture intentionally. Whether that means a planned watering schedule, an irrigation system, or an ebb-and-flow setup, your moisture strategy should be part of the design from the beginning.
- Skip the additive. If your sand and base are right, you won't need it. If your sand and base are wrong, it won't save you.
The bottom line
The GGT reviews are in, and the equestrian community has rendered its verdict — not in a press release or a sponsored post, but in the kind of raw, honest conversation that only happens when real riders share real experiences with nothing to sell and nothing to gain. Dozens of professionals and horse owners, all arriving at the same conclusion: synthetic footing was a marketing triumph that created new problems while solving one that proper arena design already had covered.
The alternative isn't going backward. It's going deeper — into the science of sand, the engineering of base construction, and the biomechanics of what a horse actually needs underfoot. That's what ArenaSpec™ by Performance Footing® is built to deliver.
Your horse already knows the difference. It's time the industry caught up.
The rider comments referenced in this article are from a public discussion in the Equestrian Footing Design and Planning group on Facebook. Their experiences represent their own horses and facilities.