Baby Novice Cross Country

[Lmabernathy]

Tell me all about it. Thinking about building a Baby Novice Cross Country Course at my house just to get out of the arena and still be able to practice some jumping. I know absolutely nothing about Cross Country. What all do I need to consider? How many jumps/how much space do I need to plan for? I do have access to a shallow pond and some creeks if you have any ideas on how to incorporate those. I have no desire to do anything very high, and just for fun and good desensitizing kind of stuff

[Highflyer]

If you just want something to play around over, you don’t need any set number of fences or distance. I think there’s a book on building xc fences on Amazon that might help but I will have to look for the title-- and I would strongly recommend going somewhere local that has events and checking things out and hopefully talking to a builder. That will help more than anything. First and foremost you want everything to be safe and there is a definite way to anchor fences and stuff so that if a horse hits them they don’t just tip over. We mostly just have logs at home, which is the lazy way to go!

[pony_grandma]

We built some jumps into our fence lines, some framed by tree limbs to use the change of light, picture frame experience. Wooden coops, log pile stacks, a shallow grass/dirt ground line dig-out ( mini ditch effect) under some log poles set onto wooden notched blocks on the fence posts that end it, a log pole strung with tires, etc can be done. Setting them into the fence line means we get more yardage to travel - and- less to have to mow around in the field. Gramps built a wooden bracket on the top of each side that a fence plank can be slid into place to regain the height of fence line. We also drilled the fence post on each side of these fences to place jump cups so we can add a rail to work more height.

You can go to many Horse Trial websites and get to see the actual photos of their course for many other ideas. or Pinterest has pages of ideas https://www.pinterest.com/explore/cross-country-jumps/ Most importantly you will need to brace or block some materials so they can’t shift or move http://practicalhorsemanmag.com/life…y-fences-27852

a bale holder. lots of easy ideas. We also have some of those black drainage tubes.

Pressure treated wooden fence panels sawed in half to make coops.

[beowulf]

Well, I’m the backyard maven of cobbling together XC fences. I won’t show you pictures because they’re embarrassing, but you get the idea. You need to have a basic understanding and skill/comfort with some power tools. Also, don’t be afraid to use everything and anything that is safe. I prefer temporary things as I am always moving things around in my ring.

Collect any tires you have and and bind them in a row with spare baling twine; run an old post through the tires and mount with either cinderblocks or stumps - you can carve a dip/hollow into upright stumps to “suspend” the block. If you’re wanting a permanent fixture, you can screw/bolt it down, but I don’t as I like to move my stuff around.

Stumps make awesome jumps - it’s fun to try to see if you can jump just ONE upright stump - play ‘Musical Stumps’ (or musical traffic cones) where you start with four in a line, then 3, then 2, then 1 - see if your horse is as honest and trained as you think he is.

I have an old tail-gate from a truck and I leaned it up against two stumps one year and yes, jumped it. It’s all about working with what you have and thinking outside of the box - I guarantee you, it’ll make an honest jumper out of just about any horse.

Ghetto ditches are easy to make but time consuming, just be careful you don’t dig them too deep and not in a place where there’s regular foot-travel. I did a ‘ditch’ in our backyard years ago; shovel a 6 inch deep, 1 foot wide, 6 foot long trench (this takes so much work, I was surprised - and I kept hitting ledge). I found some old pipes from a left-over construction gig and lined the ‘base’ on each side with the pipe (this required some cutting with a power-saw) - line the bottom of the ditch with something dark, especially if you make the ditch shallow like I did - this contrast is important so they read the ghetto-ditch well. I lined the bottom of it with a black construction trash bag and the poles kept it in and acted as a ground-line to the ditch. You can be a lot more creative than me but if you’re digging it any deeper than six inches you really need to reinforce the base, which involves rail-road ties which is way beyond my scope of interest or effort.

Pallet Brush fences are easy-peazy and a lot of fun. Find any leftover pallets and saw them in half - bolt them together in the middle. Stabilize them by making/sawing “legs”/stands similar to a regular jump post. Fill with whatever flora you find. You can really diversify this fence and move it around easily, I’m planning on making a bunch this spring.

I like Palisade fences, where you line up stumps in ascending/descending order - making cordwood is easy too but cordwood is more of a permanent fixture - stack old firewood on top of each other, stabilize by either digging a hole and placing posts down, or by building a “box” structure first.

Coops are easy too - take two pallets, saw both in half - bolt together one side & then the other, tilt them towards each other screw a “hinge joint” on it so it is on an angle - you can stabilize this by screwing a small 2x4 onto the ends as well - measure & saw any old plywood you have around, cover the ‘face’ of the pallets, nail in or screw, and paint - tada, a coop with minimal work.

I have a ton of old construction pipes, which we use for just about everything - some are big (culvert sized).

And of course, blue barrel drums are worth their weight in gold - I never run out of uses for them, from acting as “standards” lining a fence to jumping them upright, there’s just about no end to their uses. I also like cutting them in half and making it a weird liver-pool type deal.

Speaking of liver-pool, those are easy. Take an old piece of tarp, lie it over flat ground - take a pole, place it on top of the tarp, roll it a little. Take another pole, place it on the other edge, roll it a little. Tada, liver pool! Suspend jumps over it or jump as is.

Logs - pile them up on top of each other and bind/staple/bolt, or just suspend one between two cinderblocks, standards, or barrels with sawed holes in them.

Heck, when I was in college and really poor I even pulled the dog-kennel out, spruced it with some vegetation, and called it a Jump. Not a great picture, but you get the idea.

[Lmabernathy]

Thanks guys loved the suggestions and Pictures!

[Jealoushe]

I build my own 3 level XC for babies. Pics and ideas here; http://catorilane.weebly.com/cross-country-course.html

[retreadeventer]

Hey I’d like to add…if you are looking for a piece of paper with some actual measurements and specs, do check out the Guidelines for Cross Country Obstacles by the USEA, which is continually updated. It’s a printable PDF and has all the specs from Beginner Novice on up. All you have to do is subtract 3 inches if you want from the Beginner Novice measurements to get a range of low level obstacles that are quite friendly - using all suggestions above!
I’ve got it linked on my Course Design page at eventhorse.net. There are a lot of links there, sorry, it’s a hodge podge.

[sherian]

“design and build a cross country course” by Hugh Morshead is good. I have been slowly building a little course. Logs are great. Make sure any barrels have a good solid groundline of some sort so they don’t roll if hit. For a “ditch” that doesn’t involve digging I used a tarp and 6x 6
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