In a single working day, CHZ Lighting completed the installation and commissioning of a full outdoor arena lighting system at Joy Pony Equestrian Grounds. Thirty-two FL27B-400W LED floodlights across eight towers were delivered, installed, and brought online on schedule - transforming a facility that once had to end training at dusk into a venue with dramatically extended training hours and significantly improved training quality.
Background
Joy Pony Equestrian Grounds is a professional equestrian training facility offering dressage, show jumping, and eventing training, along with regular clinics and recreational riding. The main outdoor arena serves as the centerpiece for daily training, with demand for evening and after-work riding slots growing steadily.
For years, the arena relied on an older, undersized lighting system patched together over multiple upgrade cycles. A mix of metal halide floodlights from different manufacturers, mounted at varying heights on aging poles, produced uneven light with significant shadow lines. As the facility's program expanded, the limitations became impossible to ignore.
Night training sessions were cut short as soon as the sun dipped low, forcing instructors to wrap up lessons 30-45 minutes earlier than riders wanted. Evening clinics were also severely limited: under inconsistent light, riders could not accurately judge distances or footing conditions, and schooling young horses was particularly challenging - uneven shadow patterns could easily distract even the most level-headed animals.
The management team knew they needed a full arena lighting upgrade - and that the wrong solution would be worse than no solution at all. After evaluating proposals from three suppliers, Joy Pony selected CHZ Lighting for two reasons: the depth of the photometric analysis, and the flexible twin-optic design approach no other vendor had proposed.
The Challenge
Equestrian arena lighting is one of the most demanding applications in outdoor sports lighting - not because it requires the highest light levels, but because it places unique demands on light quality.
Uniform Horizontal Illuminance
An equestrian arena requires extremely uniform horizontal coverage. Horses and riders move at speed across every square meter, and a dark patch or shadow line - even a subtle one - can cause a horse to misjudge its footing and stumble. Achieving high uniformity across the full arena with only eight towers requires precise beam shaping and accurate aiming.
Color Rendering
Coaches, riders, and farriers all depend on accurate color rendering in their daily work. Coat color, hoof condition, muscle definition, and jump detail all need to be clearly readable under artificial light. The higher the CRI, the more true-to-life the colors appear - and the easier it is to observe the horse's condition and movement details.
The existing system performed poorly on both counts. The mixed metal halide array produced roughly 80 lux average - barely enough for casual riding - with uniformity well below 0.3. And as the lamps aged, color temperature drifted and CRI declined, making light quality increasingly inconsistent. The facility needed more than just brighter lights; it needed a completely redesigned photometric solution engineered specifically for equestrian training.
Lighting Solution
CHZ's engineering team approached Joy Pony as a photometric design problem first and a product selection problem second. Starting with a detailed site survey and performance targets tailored to equestrian training requirements, the team worked backward to determine the optimal fixture type, mounting configuration, and beam arrangement.
Why FL27B-400W?
The CHZ FL27B-400W was selected for several reasons:
- High lumen output. At 400W, the 25 degree beam delivers 65,278 lm and the 45 degree beam delivers 64,658 lm - powerful enough to cover the entire training area with a relatively small number of fixtures.
- Multiple beam angle options. The platform supports beam angles from 25 degrees (long-throw) to 120 degrees (wide flood), including asymmetrical distributions. This flexibility makes mixed-beam configurations possible on a single fixture platform.
- Slim die-cast housing with low wind load. The aerodynamic profile minimizes wind resistance - important for outdoor arena towers in exposed locations.
- Proven reliability across sports venues, golf driving ranges, port terminals, and logistics yards.
Twin-Optic Strategy: 25 Degree Primary + 45 Degree Supplement
The core design approach is the twin-optic lighting strategy - primarily 25 degree long-throw beams with a 45 degree mid-field beam supplement. Of the 32 fixtures, 31 are fitted with 25 degree long-throw optics and 1 with 45 degree mid-field optics - configured flexibly according to the actual site requirements rather than a simple even split per tower.
25 degree long-throw beam (31 fixtures) - aimed along the centerline and main training tracks, delivering high-intensity, precisely controlled light in the areas where horses and riders spend most of their time, ensuring the core training zone has ample illuminance.
45 degree mid-field beam (1 fixture) - filling in corner areas and dark zones between towers with a softer, more diffuse layer of light, improving overall arena uniformity.
This flexible combination approach is the key to high-quality equestrian lighting. If all fixtures used 25 degree beams, there would be hot spots directly under towers and dark patches between them, making it difficult to achieve good uniformity. If all fixtures used 45 degree beams, uniformity would be better but overall illuminance would be lower, requiring more fixtures and higher wattage to meet targets.
The twin-optic strategy also optimizes the total fixture count - Joy Pony achieves all its performance targets with just 32 units, lowering material cost, reducing electrical load, and simplifying installation.
Product Configuration
Fixture Specifications
Site and Photometric Parameters
Measured data from on-site 10m x 10m grid photometric survey report. Measured average illuminance of 329 lux achieves 99.7% of the design target; measured minimum illuminance of 230 lux achieves 90%+ of the design target.
Installation
The most remarkable aspect of the Joy Pony project is the speed and precision with which the entire system was deployed. From factory dispatch to on-site commissioning, the full installation was completed inside a single working day.
This kind of turnaround is unusual in the lighting industry, where multi-day or even multi-week installations are the norm for arena-scale projects. The answer lies in three capabilities most suppliers cannot match: end-to-end manufacturing control, pre-aimed factory testing, and in-house photometric design.
Tower Mounting & Wiring
Tower crews mounted and wired all 32 fixtures across eight towers.
Power & Control
Electrical team completed all power connections and control wiring.
Commissioning
System powered on, tested, and commissioned - with no re-aiming required.
Pre-aimed optics: zero field adjustment. Every FL27B fixture was individually aimed and tested at the CHZ factory before shipping. Using the photometric design model as a reference, factory technicians set each fixture's precise tilt and rotation angle, then verified the beam output in CHZ's in-house Type-II photometric lab. The result: when fixtures arrived on site, they were already aimed correctly.
End-to-end manufacturing. Because CHZ designs, engineers, and manufactures its own fixtures in-house, the company controls every step from optical design to final assembly. This vertical integration eliminates the delays, miscommunications, and quality gaps that come with outsourcing.
By sunset on August 17, Joy Pony had a fully operational, design-compliant arena lighting system - ready for evening training that same night.
Results
The performance of the new lighting system has exceeded Joy Pony's expectations on every measurable dimension.
Photometric Performance
The on-site 10m x 10m grid photometric survey confirmed the system meets or exceeds all design targets:
The measured average illuminance of 329 lux achieves 99.7% of the design target - the design and reality are nearly identical. The uniformity U0 of 0.70 is well above the 0.4 minimum for equestrian training facilities, significantly improving both training experience and safety.
Operational Impact
- Extended training hours: Evening training now runs until 10:30 PM or later - adding 3+ hours of usable riding time per day (from ~7:30 PM shutdown previously).
- New program capacity: Joy Pony has added evening clinic series, night jump schools, and after-work adult riding programs - enabling 15-20 additional riding sessions per week.
- Significantly improved training quality: High-uniformity lighting allows riders to clearly observe footing conditions and horse status, and coaches to more accurately guide movement details. Nighttime training quality is nearly on par with daytime.
- More flexible scheduling: Extended lighting hours allow the facility to flexibly arrange training sessions at different levels, better meeting member needs.
Energy Efficiency
- Power draw: ~12.94 kW total (32 x ~404W) vs. an estimated 24 kW for the previous system - a ~46% reduction in energy consumption
- Maintenance: LED fixtures require no lamp replacements and have a rated lifespan of 50,000+ hours
- Control: The system supports dimming and scheduling, allowing lower light levels for casual riding and full brightness for intensive training
Client Feedback
The first night of training under the new system told the story. Riders, trainers, and spectators all noticed the difference.
"I was worried the horses would react to the new lights. Every time you change something in a horse's environment, you hold your breath a little. But they settled in faster than expected. Clean, even light across the whole arena with very few shadows. It's like riding in daylight, but without the heat. We don't have to rush the last lesson of the day anymore."
- Head Trainer, Joy Pony Equestrian Grounds
"I school my horse here three evenings a week, and the difference is night and day - literally. Before, by the time we got to the jumping portion of the lesson, the light was fading and I couldn't really see the distances properly. Now I can see every stride, every pole, every detail of the footing. You can't ride well when you can't see well."
- Amateur Show Jumping Rider, Joy Pony
"I've taught at facilities all over the region, and the light quality here is among the best. The color is clean - I can read coat colors and see muscle definition clearly, which matters for observing a horse's movement. I can focus on the horses, not the lights."
- Visiting Dressage Clinician
Spectators along the in-field apron have also commented positively. The Joy Pony system delivers evenly distributed light, making it comfortable to watch horses and riders during training sessions.
CHZ Capabilities
The Joy Pony project showcases a set of project delivery capabilities that set CHZ Lighting apart from conventional suppliers. These are not product features - they are end-to-end engineering and manufacturing capabilities that ensure a project goes from concept to commissioning on time, on spec, and without surprises.
Photometric Design
Every CHZ sports and area lighting project starts with a full photometric design, produced in-house by certified lighting designers. The team models light distribution, uniformity, and energy performance before a single fixture is built.
IES Files & Type-II Lab
CHZ maintains an in-house Type-II photometric lab where every fixture model and beam configuration is tested and verified. Signed-off IES files are produced for every standard and custom configuration.
Customized Optics
CHZ's optical engineering team can design and manufacture custom beam angles, asymmetrical distributions, and tailored light patterns for virtually any application. Projects are not forced to fit a catalog of standard beams.
Manufacturing Capability
CHZ designs, engineers, and manufactures its own fixtures in vertically integrated production facilities. This end-to-end control means consistent quality, fast turnaround on custom configurations, and full traceability.
Installation & Commissioning Support
CHZ provides full installation guidance, commissioning support, and post-installation verification services to ensure every system performs as designed. The engineering team works directly with the installation crew to answer questions, troubleshoot issues, and confirm the as-built system matches the photometric design.
Ready to Light Up Your Equestrian Facility?
Whether you're upgrading a single riding arena or outfitting a full equestrian complex, CHZ Lighting handles every step from photometric design to on-site commissioning.