I am a hunter/jumper rider looking for an eventer’s advice. I recently completed a pasture project that left me with a bunch of leftover dirt. I love schooling over cross country obstacles, so the thought occurred to me that I could use the dirt to build a bank. Having never done this before, I’d love some tips from anyone who has done it before on size, shape, etc.
The plan right now is to use 6" x 6" boards stacked on top of each other. My husband has built walls before, so he knows to do it securely. It will basically be a 14’ wide by 30’ long rectangle that is 18" high. Do these measurements seem right? I am especially curious about the 30’ length.
For those who have built them or those with experience riding them, do you have any other suggestions? Is it better to have a slope on one side rather than a bank on all sides? (my husband was worried that we would just lose dirt down the slope)
For the record, I did read a couple of other old posts which is where I came up with the 30’ length but there really wasn’t much other useful information in terms of building it.
A slope is nice for super green horses and riders to get used to riding up and down hills. I would also make sure you length fits either a bounce,1 stride, 2 strides, etc taking in consideration the landing spot on the bank so it’s not awkward.
The bank isn’t going to be built over wood. You need either boulders or indestructible telephone poles. They will hold the earth placed in the direction of going off the bank, hidden inside, to structure the bank. You. Will need to talk to people who engineer these things to avoid your horse putting a leg through a settling hole. And no, it will NOT be built out of wood.
6X6 are basically rail road ties. they’d be fine if they were pinned at the ends assuming the dirt is packed right. She didn’t mean it was actually going to be built out of wood. I’ve never seen an XC bank made out of boulders?
I’ve built several - ridden many First, do you have enough dirt available? The rectangular bank you describe will need 23 cubic yards of fill dirt. That’s approximately two tandem axle dump trucks worth. You’ll likely need more than that since the dirt needs to be well compacted.
And I’d recommend that two of the sides be slopes if your plan is to use the bank for training. Having 2 slopes and 2 flat sides gives you more options. Of course, adding slopes means even more dirt will be needed.
If you have a gentle slope to build on, even better. Then one side will be a relatively flat approach, with a drop on the far side.
Yes! This is the plan. We have more than enough dirt from our previous project and have a plate compactor to tamp down the dirt. Even so, we plan to let it sit for a long while to grow grass and settle before we begin to use it.
LCDR, I hadn’t considered having two sloping sides, but that is an interesting idea.
One of the most useful Bank complexes I’ve ever seen was built on Mark Phillips’ course for Woodlands in Edmond, OK. It was basically an octagon with differing ON/OFF heights on each side. It ran from BN up to Prelim (If I remember correctly the maximum Down Bank dimension for one level is the maximum Up Bank for a higher level). The Woodlands version was topped off by a Bounce Log - that might be too much but it could always be added.
Depending on how much room you have to work with, the more versatile banks seem to be the best. Keep in mind that you will need to measure the related distances, if you are going to make it a bank complex vs just a single bank. I prefer banks that are “lipped” with the telephone poles, not other kinds of wood (or stone). Personal preference is they hold the fill in better, need almost no maintenance given how heavily treated they are, and are much cheaper from a cost + install standpoint - you can get them almost anywhere and they are very useful for other projects too. You will want to give the bank time to “settle” after tamping it down - generally a month or two, or longer, depending on the fill. It’s not unusual to top off the base of the bank with some sort of crushed stone/stone dust, as the footing at take off and landing needs to be something fairly resistant to weather and poaching and able to sustain lots of traffic - nothing like building a bank out of regular old topsoil fill and not being able to ride it when you want because it’s too muddy.
If you are doing this as a personal project, I’d look at different types of bank complexes online and go view some banks in person. I built a couple as a teenager (father was a contractor) and I think as a rider the ones I like the most are the rectangle-shaped ones, that have multiple sides on a slope in which to enter, vs a “jump up” into the bank.
Something like this, where ==== is the bank side, and – or | (or nothing) is the slope:
|=======|
|
|
|
|=======|
Which looks like this in practice minus the one side not being a slope:
That way you have multiple ways in which to enter, and can choose to do the bank up/bank down question, or, turn and go down the slope. Much easier for greenies… but does require a fair amount of space. If you can build it into the side of your riding ring (IE, along the edge) it can save some space if space is a factor.
For schooling, I prefer the ones that are raised above grade vs the ones built into a preexisting slope.
Beowulf: That post was super helpful! Thank you! I am actually headed to cross country school tomorrow, so I will definitely be checking out their bank to see how it is built. I love the idea of adding footing at the base. This particular bank will not be built into an existing hill but will be located on a relatively flat area with plenty of room for approach.
I keep hearing you all talk about using telephone poles, but are they really that cheap and easily available? My neighbor works for the power company so I could probably see if he could get his hands on some. Where else can you find them?
You can probably get them free from your neighbour.
Definitely don’t use 6x6, it might work for a year maybe 2 but after that it will fall apart and become dangerous. XC jumps are not meant to be built willy nilly, that is how they become dangerous.
@enjoytheride lots of banks are built with boulders!
Check with your town, or local power company (Nat-GRID, NSTAR, etc). Towns routinely replace telephone/utility poles, and power/electrical companies usually remove them for the town. They then tend to go somewhere like an off-site lot – ask them if they have any for sale, and if they have any that are damaged that no one wants. If you ask, they will generally give it away for free… No one wants to buy the broken/damaged ones and they can’t be used for much besides horsey stuff once damaged… they take up a lot of room and are difficult to get rid of.
It’s worth taking the time to build a bank correctly so you don’t get slumping and settling. In order to keep the sides from slowly shifting, they are usually tied back and anchored with steel cables
