Cheap DIY jump ideas! Here's mine

[Crown_Royal]

I bought three of these plastic storage boxes this morning and am painting them with a textured brownish red spray paint to use as fillers (lid facing down)! Super cheap, super light weight, come in different sizes if you want a taller filler, and you can help anchor them down better by putting something heavy in it before closing the lid and turning it upside (brick? block? whatever you have). You could even drill holes and put fake flowers in the top…I may buy some more later and do that.

Anyone else? My horses are at home and I’m trying to think of new ways to spruce up my jump field. I’m painting the poles, have a tarp for a fake ditch, and have a lattice rolltop type jump, but the more the better!

[beowulf]

i wouldn’t love that from a durability standpoint but it sounds like a fun project…

as someone else that looks for ways to spruce things at home on a budget: old hay bales make great jumps. cinderblocks make excellent (but heavy) cavaletti poles. barrels/drums from lakes (i have been known to swim out to get one!) make excellent jumps and you can stand them upright and saw half-moon holes in them to make them hold poles.

i’ve used blankets over a hay bale or barrels, towels, traffic cones, etc. you can take a bale and stick it full of “brush” to make it bigger.

[Crown_Royal]

[QUOTE=beowulf;8752825]
i wouldn’t love that from a durability standpoint but it sounds like a fun project…

as someone else that looks for ways to spruce things at home on a budget: old hay bales make great jumps. cinderblocks make excellent (but heavy) cavaletti poles. barrels/drums from lakes (i have been known to swim out to get one!) make excellent jumps and you can stand them upright and saw half-moon holes in them to make them hold poles.

i’ve used blankets over a hay bale or barrels, towels, traffic cones, etc. you can take a bale and stick it full of “brush” to make it bigger.[/QUOTE]

But at $15 you can’t beat it for a filler! It wouldn’t hold up for horses rough/lazy over a jump or being heavily used, but I think it’ll work well for one person with 2 careful jumpers that only go over fences once every week or two!

Hay bales are great- I just haven’t recently had any extras I was willing to sacrifice and had to finally get rid of the old bale fillers. Currently using paver blocks to hold cavelleti poles! I have a big pile of extras and they really come in handy.

[Arelle]

I’d rather use hay bales as filler.

Imagine a horse accidentally sticking a foot through those. I bet that plastic will shatter and slice. :uhoh:

Landscape timbers, natural brush, pool floaties anchored down to intimidate your jumpers :lol:

[awesomenessity]

I have a whole album of DIY jumps I’ve built! Most notable are the fabric wall, “pallet” fillers (1, 2, 3, 4, instructions) and the pallet flower boxes (instructions). Also the half barrels I intend to cover in astroturf soon!

[Crown_Royal]

awesomenessity- where did you get the brick looking fabric?? How did you secure it over the pole- velcro or did you sew a sleeve? Love that!

I can’t believe I didn’t think about the possibility of a horse sticking a foot through the plastic…that’s something my pony would have done (he did it with a plastic pipe) but I just think of my 2 TB’s that are extra extra (TOO) careful)- but accidents can always happen of course!

[intheirons]

[QUOTE=awesomenessity;8753570]
I have a whole album of DIY jumps I’ve built! Most notable are the fabric wall, “pallet” fillers (1, 2, 3, 4, instructions) and the pallet flower boxes (instructions). Also the half barrels I intend to cover in astroturf soon![/QUOTE]

Your jumps are absolutely beautiful! I’m impressed!!

[beowulf]

I love the pallet idea! We have TONS of those lying around!

[SonnysMom]

I saw a xc jump that was a box that they added a roof to become a doghouse. They painted the box blue and white and the roof was red. It was really cute. The box is that really heavy plastic and I am not 100% sure if it was a deck box or a really big cooler. It had built in handles on the sides. Hopefully this will post correctly.
https://www.facebook.com/EZGOEquestrian/photos/a.429718440559908.1073741835.329673067231113/488906844641067/?type=3&theater

[awesomenessity]

Crown - I bought the fabric from an Etsy shop. She had a 280cm wide version for $15 when I bought it though, so I only needed 2 yards. Worked out to about $30CAN. Definitely not cheap, but cheaper than trying to construct a real wall with removable blocks etc etc! With the 140cm version, you’d probably have to buy 4 yards, cut it in half and sew together to get the full pole width, plus enough width to make the wall higher than 3ft. If you need to jump higher than 3ft, that is!

In the top photo I just have the fabric laid over the jump pole, and weighed down underneath by ground lines on the inside of the fabric. The fabric is quite a heavy material (meant for curtains) so it actually doesn’t move really at all, even when you jump it. In the bottom photo I had the fabric doubled over and freely hanging over the rail, and it didn’t move at all! I intend to put some velcro strips on it soon though, just have to stop being lazy/getting distracted by other jump projects :lol:

Intheirons - Thanks! Jump building has become quite the hobby for me… keeps me out of trouble

Just wanted to add another great resource for DIY jumps! I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from her She has tons of pallet ideas beowulf!

[fordtraktor]

I also use old trees that fall on the farm as super heavy duty cavaletti. They are great. Here is a pic of my baby KWPN jumping one today. You can also see some of those barrels cut in half… Those are great. Don’t roll so they are very safe.

https://www.facebook.com/sarah.pojanowski/posts/10209588382128415

I have been meaning to do some pallet jumps but all my pallets are under hay! I saw a big pile at the feed store, might see if I can snag some nice ones there.

[RugBug]

@Arelle;8752931

Imagine a horse accidentally sticking a foot through those. I bet that plastic will shatter and slice. :uhoh:

Yes. I wouldn’t use those for this exact reason. They will become brittle VERY quickly in the sun and they will shatter and be sharp if hit.

For reference, I had a little tub similar to this in my backyard for weeding. In less than a year, it was so brittle that it almost fell apart in my hand. This type of plastic is not meant to be outside and breaks down quickly.

[RugBug]

Does anyone worry about all the nails in pallets? That is what has kept me from doing anything with pallets despite having access to a lot of them. I do not lot nails in my ring at all…

[AmmyByNature]

Yeah that kind of plastic will get destroyed by the sun and shatter into a million sharp shards - be careful!

[LilyandBaron]

I only do super low pallets as filler, and hang a rail over top. I suppose if I were jumping high enough where the risk of crashing and splintered wood and nails would be there I’d be concerned. I don’t know if I’d want to hang a pallet for that reason, and maybe not make it too tricky? But for little brush boxes/walls, they work great.

[beowulf]

[QUOTE=RugBug;8754411]
Does anyone worry about all the nails in pallets? That is what has kept me from doing anything with pallets despite having access to a lot of them. I do not lot nails in my ring at all…[/QUOTE]

Doesn’t worry me - most jumps are made with nails and screws. Most barns too.

[RugBug]

[QUOTE=beowulf;8754513]
Doesn’t worry me - most jumps are made with nails and screws. Most barns too.[/QUOTE]

IME - most jumps are made with screws, not nails.

Sure, there are nails in barns…but they are being BUILT, if you know what I mean (good wood, built to last). A pallet is an afterthought in construction. It’s not meant to last…and that is what worries me.

[awesomenessity]

Judging by how hard I had to work to pull apart the pallet I used for my flower boxes… I think they’ll be okay! Took all of my weight, bouncing up and down, on the end of a crowbar to get the boards free, and even then I was breaking the wood before I was moving those nails. Some pallets are built TOUGH.

[SonnysMom]

[QUOTE=RugBug;8754596]
IME - most jumps are made with screws, not nails.

Sure, there are nails in barns…but they are being BUILT, if you know what I mean (good wood, built to last). A pallet is an afterthought in construction. It’s not meant to last…and that is what worries me.[/QUOTE]
Pallets seem to come in many weights. There are some that are really thin light wood and I would be concerned with those. I have some at home for storing firewood on that are HEAVY. Those suckers are made of oak. The slats are thick and the cross members are a solid 3x3. They weigh a ton.
Some pallets are built to be shipped with a light product and never reused so they are lightweight and disposable.
Others are meant to be reused or to hold really heavy product so are built much more sturdily.

[CindyCRNA]

[QUOTE=awesomenessity;8753570]
I have a whole album of DIY jumps I’ve built! Most notable are the fabric wall, “pallet” fillers (1, 2, 3, 4, instructions) and the pallet flower boxes (instructions). Also the half barrels I intend to cover in astroturf soon![/QUOTE]

Love your adjustable brick wall thing! Great idea!