DIY show jumps

[TheChestnutThing]

Due to one of the liveries leaving on my yard, I no longer have jumps.

Have done a google search and am going to rope Dad and OH in and we are going to make them out of 100mm drainage pipe for the poles and square piping for the uprights, glue on keyhole strips and then pallets for fillers.

Does anyone have suggestions on what to use for the base of the jumps? I did think about old tyres filled with cement but that is going to be ridiculously heavy.

 

[Kizzy2004]

Be very careful using drain pipes for poles. They are to lightweight and will blow around and if a horse knocks them they won’t just drop and horse could end up with them around their legs. They also shatter easily if stood on.

plain wooden poles aren’t that expensive if brought from a timber yard

I have jump stands like the picture, not to hard to make

 

[JBM]

You can jump shavings bales? Or if you have the small haylage ones
Barrels
A tree branch on a mobile mounting block and the fence
Wouldn’t need a side post with these but depends how high you going I guess!

 

[Merry neddy man]

Sorry no pictures my some of my bases are similar to above but some have pieces of 18"" (45cm ) ply cut diagonally into triangles then screwed to each of the 4 sides, ( hope that makes sense) fill drain pipes with a bit of earth to stop them getting blown down or knocked with the slightest touch, for planks chat to scaffolding companies to obtain old scaffolding boards they cant use anymore. I've had round timber poles from agricultural merchants and only had 1 break in 15 years, they are tanalised and last years although mine are ready for a repaint.

 

[sport horse]

Drain pipes would be very dangerous - they do not fall safely if hit - just flex and there have been quite a few accidents in years gone by when people tried. Please invest a a few wooden poles which you can paint yourself. You can buy strips of cup attachemnts and fix them to your own uprights.

 

[Nasicus]

Drain Pipes are dangerous, they shatter on impact. Invest in some wooden poles, much safer and longer lasting

 

[Suncat]

You may have already thought of this, but be careful with pallets as fillers - just that the gaps can be easy to catch a hoof in, etc if you're horse has a daft moment. BUT, they are great for stripping down for free and often decent quality timber if you're willing to put in the effort - you can build super, robust fillers and other things from the pieces
I'd keep scanning the second hand market to, if you've got a way of transporting big items? It might be worth ringing around any bigger competition venues, to see if/when they sell off their old jump sets. They can be a bargain, if again you've got the time and DIY skills to refurb and fix up.

Good luck!

 

[TheChestnutThing]

Be very careful using drain pipes for poles. They are to lightweight and will blow around and if a horse knocks them they won’t just drop and horse could end up with them around their legs. They also shatter easily if stood on.

plain wooden poles aren’t that expensive if brought from a timber yard

I have jump stands like the picture, not to hard to make

Thanks for this, the poles will be filled with sand (we have a lot of it) and sealed to prevent it falling out. But I will have a look at local places for wooden poles aswell.

 

[TheChestnutThing]

You may have already thought of this, but be careful with pallets as fillers - just that the gaps can be easy to catch a hoof in, etc if you're horse has a daft moment. BUT, they are great for stripping down for free and often decent quality timber if you're willing to put in the effort - you can build super, robust fillers and other things from the pieces
I'd keep scanning the second hand market to, if you've got a way of transporting big items? It might be worth ringing around any bigger competition venues, to see if/when they sell off their old jump sets. They can be a bargain, if again you've got the time and DIY skills to refurb and fix up.

Good luck!

We are going to strip down the pallets and use the ones we break down to fill the gaps in others (if that makes sense).

 

[TheChestnutThing]

Have heeded warning on the pipes! Thank you!

 

[SpotsandBays]

Source a local timber/fencing merchant for poles! They’re not very expensive and I use wilko paint make them pretty (or just leave them rustic!)

edited to add: I get the 3 or 4 inch rounds. 4 inch are heavy but more traditional thickness, 3 inch are easier to manoeuvre around but still good! Half rounds or square rails are good for ground poles as they don’t roll when stepped on

 

[SpotsandBays]

Ooh and metal or plastic barrels. You can buy barrel cups that hook onto the top, or keyhole strips for cups can be mounted on them too!

 

[Merry neddy man]

AGRICULTURAL MERCHANTS FOR POLES a Google should sort you out.

 

[TheChestnutThing]

Source a local timber/fencing merchant for poles! They’re not very expensive and I use wilko paint make them pretty (or just leave them rustic!)

edited to add: I get the 3 or 4 inch rounds. 4 inch are heavy but more traditional thickness, 3 inch are easier to manoeuvre around but still good! Half rounds or square rails are good for ground poles as they don’t roll when stepped on

I saw Chelford Saddlery has them for £13

 

[TheChestnutThing]

Ooh and metal or plastic barrels. You can buy barrel cups that hook onto the top, or keyhole strips for cups can be mounted on them too!

Thanks, unfortunately i need more height, so barrels won't work. I have one jumping Newcomers (so fox at home) and one jumping discovery.

 

[Abacus]

Barrels are still good as fillers or the lower part of an ascending spread. I tend to eye up any odd garden items as fillers - old Christmas trees, a big wooden spool that had wire around it… I’ve slowly accumulated second hand poly jumps and also bought a load of painted timber poles cheaply. You can never have enough poles. When my fencing chap comes back I intend to ask him to sink in a few posts in the jumping field at pole width and will screw in the strips you can get for FEI cups.

But despite thinking a lot about this I still haven’t found a good cheap makeshift upright.

 

[follysienna]

Keep an eye out on ebay/marketplace etc. I picked up four wooden wings for £20. They need a little TLC but much cheaper than buying new, or buying the wood to make your own.

 

[ponynutz]

You can buy covers for shavings/straw bales and jump them and timber is fairly cheap from a timber yard. If you're employing Dad and OH already might as well use wood!

 

[MagicMelon]

Barrels are brilliant and useful. I have plastic ones which Ive owned for about 30 years and still going strong. Brilliant for jumping themselves (as fillers or on their own) or for putting the ends of poles on. Old square straw bales are handy for fillers, you can also get great brightly coloured bags from Jump Stack which you slip over the bale. I personally wouldnt use pallets, I use them for putting round hay bales onto and they have huge nails in them so be awful if horse hit / got tangled in one. I do have big black thick pipes which I use as poles. They're not guttering as much thicker and heavy, no idea what they are but they work well and were cheap as someone was selling them locally. Id never use poles thin/brittle enough which the horse could potentially put its hoof through. Wooden jump poles are good but mine have rotted, I have expensive plastic jump poles (jump 4 joy type) which are great however the odd one has been snapped over the years which is annoying. Ive also salvaged big thick branches from our woods opposite and sawed the branches off close.

I have proper jump wings (basic types) but to be honest I tend to use my jump blocks most - you can also use them for fillers too and I find them super handy for making skinny jumps or corners if you're into eventing.

 

[Flyermc]

ive made loads of jumps.

ive used old free fake Christmas trees that i cut the branches off and cable tied them to a length of wood as a filler.
ive used garden trellis stood up and cable tied to lengths of wood
ive drilled holes in length of timber and put fake flowers in it (so they stood up)
ive cable tied garden willow screens to lengths of wood as a 'brush' filler
ive painted ply wood bright colours as 'water trays' and stood them up as fillers.

we did buy the jump wings second hand, but they were very well made solid wood ones and i got 4 wings for £20. i bought 3 x 14ft round wooden poles for a local timber place and cut them in half, so i had 6 x 6ft poles.

my advice would to do it properly. All in all i think i spent about £100 on the lot, but i had them for a good 10 years and then sold the lot when i lost i lost my pony for more or less what they cost me. Good timber lasts and saves the time an effort of having to keep replacing them

 

[Abacus]

We have an old leaky ‘swimming pool’ at the yard - the round kind where you inflate the rim and fill with water. I’m planning to cut up the blue plastic to turn it into a water jump (sj type, not xc) - I’ll staple it to some long bits of timber to make a rectangle shape. Then it can go under an upright or spread.

 

[2 Dragons]

My yard manager is amazing at turning everything going free into a jump.
We have:
Brush fences made out of filled in pallets and fake Christmas trees
Various sized barrels as fillers
Bed headboard cut up and turned into a step jump
Wings from old wood offcuts with signs pointing to the pub, toilet etc- accurate too!
My daughter has dragged her old plastic see-saw and ride on car to the yard to use as fillers
We also got some old jump wings someone was throwing away and re -furbished.
Also buy poles from our local timber merchants.
Everyone gets together to paint and sensible livery does a safety check

 

[Vodkagirly]

Grow bag trays are ideal ditches/water trays

 

[TheChestnutThing]

Barrels are brilliant and useful. I have plastic ones which Ive owned for about 30 years and still going strong. Brilliant for jumping themselves (as fillers or on their own) or for putting the ends of poles on. Old square straw bales are handy for fillers, you can also get great brightly coloured bags from Jump Stack which you slip over the bale. I personally wouldnt use pallets, I use them for putting round hay bales onto and they have huge nails in them so be awful if horse hit / got tangled in one. I do have big black thick pipes which I use as poles. They're not guttering as much thicker and heavy, no idea what they are but they work well and were cheap as someone was selling them locally. Id never use poles thin/brittle enough which the horse could potentially put its hoof through. Wooden jump poles are good but mine have rotted, I have expensive plastic jump poles (jump 4 joy type) which are great however the odd one has been snapped over the years which is annoying. Ive also salvaged big thick branches from our woods opposite and sawed the branches off close.

I have proper jump wings (basic types) but to be honest I tend to use my jump blocks most - you can also use them for fillers too and I find them super handy for making skinny jumps or corners if you're into eventing.

Although I found decent priced wooden poles, rot and the elements destroying them is what puts me off. But if this is what I need to do...
Sadly the jump for joy types are going to bankrupt me. I looked at buying just the plain poles from a supplier but they are not much cheaper.

 

[Abacus]

I've had my wooden poles for about 4 years and they are still in decent condition. The paint has chipped a bit and they won't last forever but you should get several years use from them. I think I paid 10 pounds each from a local guy who delivered them.

 

[Merry neddy man]

As said earlier, my tanalised pressure treated 4"(10cm) posts are 15 years old used throughout the summers but kept undercover when not in use, they have been worth every penny.