Homemade cavaletti are done - photos added

[LarkspurCO]

Update: And here they are!

I'm looking to make something like this and wondering what materials would work. They look great but I don't want to spend that much for 6-8 poles.

http://www.burlinghamsports.com/store/product/72840/Quick-Cavaletti

There's a store in Denver that sells all kinds of closed cell foam, like what yoga blocks are made of. We could easily cut these to make riser blocks for poles but I don't know how the material would last outdoors.

I want something lightweight that will stay attached and be easy to move. Any other ideas?

Also...

What type and size of lumber works best? In the past I have bought 6" pressure treated posts and landscape timbers. These got used for other projects around the farm so I need more, and preferably something lighter.

Thanks for your suggestions.

[Alagirl]

I think cavaleti should have some weight to them, since you are likely going to use them in a grit.
4x4s should work nicely, if you have access to good wood working tools (table saw) they should be easy to make (cut ends on an angle, notch the middle to connect the 2 peaces.)

The dimentions of the lumber do determin the height changes when you turn the cavletti over

The foam could work as well, cut into squares, cut an off-centered hole, insert PVC pipe. You can stick a piece of landscape timber in there, adds a little weight without making it too heavy, cap the ends.

[GoForAGallop]

These are way cheaper than the ones you linked to, and they’re stackable: http://www.bigdweb.com/Jump-Blocks-Pairs/productinfo/BLOK77/

I think Big D’s has a 4th of July coupon lurking around somewhere, you also get a code for 15% off (I think?) when you sign up for their mailing list.

I would pony up the $$$ for those vs. trying to make something workable out of that yoga block foam. (Which I think is a high order!)

The true backyard version of cavaletti is poles on milk crates, of course. :lol:

Tractor Supplys around me sells 4" round fence posts…I like those quite a bit for jumps and trot poles. Really makes you focus on keeping your wiggly youngster straight when you only have 8’ to work with! :lol: I’ve used the landscape posts from Home Depot/Lowes before as well; because they have two flat sides, they don’t roll away when used as trot poles and tapped. I wouldn’t use them for jump poles because of that same reason, however.

[LarkspurCO]

Yes, thank you, those Bid D ones are cheaper but I still don’t want to spend $400 on a bunch of plastic.

I also like the idea of having the riser pieces attached to the poles so that I can pick up and move the whole thing without having to gather up the end pieces. I am in a walking boot for the next few weeks and I am setting these up for a trainer who is coming to work with my horse.

Mr. Larkspur has every tool imaginable and can make these out of wood, but I don’t want the wood because it’s heavy, thus my thought on high density rigid foam. I was thinking something harder than the yoga block stuff but along that line, or some other kind of plastic that can be repurposed. I picture cutting holes and sliding them over the ends of the poles.

I will check Home Depot and Big R for some timber options.

[LarkspurCO]

I should add that these are for basic ground poles to use for longeing/ground driving, to help with trot rhythm. Not for gymnastics.

[Alagirl]

I could also see cutting them from plywood. For outdoor use you have to go high end marina grade though…cut squares, drill hole, slide in pole.

[HungarianHippo]

Foam products often have poor UV-resistance-- ask the supplier. EPS (styrofoam) may be a better material and you can get it in big blocks. Can even paint it to make it purty.

How about traffic cones-- use your jigsaw or a 4" hole saw (not sure if they have them that big?) to cut a hole about halfway the height of the cone. Make 2 holes in ea cone so the pole ends can slide clear through the cone and stick out a little on each side. Could do something like drill a 1.5" hole in the end of pole, and use a dowel that’s a bigger than your hole diameter, to keep the cone from skooching off the pole when you move them around. Have them standing up on the cone’s base when you want cavaletti, tip them down for trot poles. I dont think you can go very tall with this setup-- putting the pole too far away from the base will prob make them tippy unless you can make a more broad base.

I haven’t tried this, but as I typed it out I think I want to try it. I’ve got poles on cinderblocks which are a giant PITA every time we mow.

PSA: Industrial catalogs like Grainger, ULINE, are a good source for high quality cones.

[LarkspurCO]

Traffic cones are an interesting idea. My current train of thought was toward little igloo coolers but Mr. Larkspur thinks that is stupid. He’s always right about stuff like this…

[QUOTE=Alagirl;7652254]
I could also see cutting them from plywood. For outdoor use you have to go high end marina grade though…cut squares, drill hole, slide in pole.[/QUOTE]

I hadn’t thought of using a flat piece of wood like that versus a block. Interesting idea.

[mkevent]

I’ve never tried these, but they look like a great idea!

http://www.sstack.com/rail-razer-jump-block/rail-razer/

I have the Burlingham Sports blocks you posted. I used to use the heavy weight pvc pipes in them and wrapped several layers of vet rap around the ends so they stayed snug in the blocks when moved. It stayed lightweight even fully assembled.

I also like 8’ landscape timbers because they don’t roll (as previously mentioned). I stain them white so they match the blocks.

[LarkspurCO]

Ah ha! Rail Razers look like just the thing, and cheaper than any redneck contraption I can cobble together. I think I will order up some of these. Thanks!

[macmtn]

White PVC pipe and 2 square pieces of plywood?

[LarkspurCO]

I also like the looks of these but it says “allow 4-6 weeks for delivery” and of course I do not want to allow that.

https://www.smartpakequine.com/lil-stacker-7859p

My concern about using PVC is that it can shatter into shards. My arena is in the middle of my pasture and the horses like to go in there and screw around. I can just see one of them stomping on a pole and having it break and fly up and poke his eye out.

They ruin every poop fork I leave out there and have almost destroyed my sprinkler tri-pod (I am getting a gear box to store these in). They have also gotten into the storage compartment of my mounting block and dragged everything out and played with it (I now have a lock on it).

[LarkspurCO]

@mkevent;7652400

I’ve never tried these, but they look like a great idea!

http://www.sstack.com/rail-razer-jump-block/rail-razer/

My plan would be to redneck these up with duct tape to attach them the poles so they don’t roll off.

[ACP]

I bought a set of sturdy 3/4 thick plastic forms. The were so handy that my SIL made a lot more from one sheet of marine plywood. Picture plywood cut into a 16" x 12" rectangle, with an offset hole thru which you slip the 4"x4". You can cut the offset hole so that you just have to turn the thing 1/4 of a turn to raise or lower, and you will have four different heights. Your husband could probably figure out how to secure them to the 4"x4". If don’t want holes, then use two thicknesses of plywood and just screw them into the end of the four by four. If you got 1" thick plywood you might not need to use two layers.

[fjordmom]

There are cavaletti plans in this book (and lots of other great DIY stuff too):

http://www.amazon.com/Jumps-Etc-Dressage-Arenas-Equipment/dp/0939481561

Or here:http://www.texashorsemansdirectory.com/thdcav.html

Here (scroll down the page): http://orum.horsetopia.com/boarding-farm-upkeep-real-estate/112738-building-cavaletti-jumps.html

Here: http://home.insightbb.com/~apmonte/Cavalletti.html

Or google “build your own caveletti,” you’ll find lots of idea for your handy husband to build.

It’s not hard with a few good tools. Years ago, DH & I built a complete 12 jump (coop, brush box, picket fence, stackable boxes that make a wall, planks, panel, ground lines drilled for flowers and lots of poles & standards) course for the kids from what was basically remodeling scraped deck wood. A few power tools, some paint/stain and imagination made a great course that is still in use today. Figure it saved several thousand $$ based on what we built vs. what they sell for (we never could have afforded to buy all those jumps.)

We made everything 8’ wide, partly because that dimension is so standard with plywood sheets & other lumber, but also it was lighter to carry. When the kids encountered wider jumps at shows it was always easier because they had learned to be accurate schooling over the narrower width.

Have fun. It’s very doable.

[mkevent]

Larkspur- you could always drill a hole through the rail and the razer and attach with a long carriage bolt. It might last longer than duct tape (unless you decide to use Gorilla Tape, haha).

It’s actually quite easy to drill through PVC, which was a surprise to me. I agree about not wanting PVC where the horses can play with it.

For drilling through lumber, these drill bits are the bomb!

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=self+feed+spade+drill+bit&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aself+feed+spade+drill+bit

[x-halt-salute]

You might be able to make something comparable to the original item out of those rectangular water coolers or squareish industrial fuel jugs.

At our barn we’ve put pvc poles through holes in buckets and then cemented caps onto the end of the pvc to keep them from falling apart when moved, and even in an unfenced arena with loose horses wandering through and occasionally (err, make that more than occasionally) tripping on them and knocking them around they’ve held up well. Haven’t had pvc shards or injuries and they’re easy to move around, but then again your horses may be a little more mischievous than the ones who’ve been playing with our pvc.

The bulk of cavaletti weight is from the poles in my experience, not the X’s, so cutting weight without going to plastics would seem to be a matter of finding suitable wood thinner than a 4" fence post to use for the pole.

[ThatScaryChick]

You already got some greats links from other people but here is one more link to making your own set if you want. http://www.equisearch.com/content/content/11521/PHJul10_make_your_own_cavalletti.pdf

[LarkspurCO]

[QUOTE=ThatScaryChick;7652653]
You already got some greats links from other people but here is one more link to making your own set if you want. http://www.equisearch.com/content/content/11521/PHJul10_make_your_own_cavalletti.pdf[/QUOTE]

Wow, that is perfect! Actually, reading the instructions it is more elaborate than I thought but the picture looks like what I had in mind with the pywood.

I told Mr L about the plywood idea and he likes it. I will show him this plan. And we just so happen to have half a sheet of marine plywood in the garage, so that’s probably the quickest and easiest thing to do.

I just picked up six new poles and found two more in good shape by the arena. The trainer asked for eight, so I’m hoping to get them set up for her in the next few days. She is really good with the driving reins and I want to indulge her.

Lots of cool ideas here. Thanks everyone.

[HungarianHippo]

OK, OP, I owe you a debt of gratitude. This thread was perfectly timed because 1) I’ve been meaning to make cavaletti for some time now, and 2) I just moved my PITA cinderblock+heavy poles setup for mowing yesterday, cursing them the whole time. So upon hitting “Post Reply” earlier I got in the car and went to the Big Box home improvement store and made 3 cavaletti this afternoon.

I formally officially retract the traffic cone idea-- I decided the cones will be too flimsy once you cut holes in them. Instead I used 5gal buckets like the above poster suggested. Mr. HH had a bunch of these in the shed, remnants from his escapades in container-grown tomato plants. I literally built three cavaletti in less than 90 minutes, including gathering the buckets and stuff, figuring out what tools I wanted, etc. I used a dremel with a rotary bit to cut my holes in the buckets–super easy. For now, I just zip-tied the poles to the buckets– will do something more substantial like a carriage bolt but for now I just wanted to test the theory, if you will. In their highest position, the poles are 12" high. You could stack 2 buckets to add some height. You can do poles flat on the ground by turning them 180deg. And there’s a middle ground with buckets lying on their sides–poles are about 4" high.

Oh, and weight? I carried all three at once out to my riding field. Though it took a few attempts to find the proper balance point so all three were simultaneously level-- Mr. HH said I looked like a bizarre, walking Calder mobile.

The PVC shards issue is something I hadn’t considered and will ponder. I’m thinking white or colored duct tape spiraled the full length of the pole would probably give fair amount of protection. And/or sliding in a wood closet rod/dowel inside the pole would give extra rigidity in the center and help prevent breakage/sagging without adding a ton of weight.

Can’t wait to ride them tomorrow.