Hippo, you make me proud. 
[QUOTE=x-halt-salute;7652635]
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.[/QUOTE]
The plans for the wood X’s call for four 27-inch lengths of 4x4 (9 feet total) so that about doubles the weight of each cavaletti.
I bought more 4x4 posts for the rails because I already had a few the same size, and I can handle them myself. Home Depot had some of those cheaper, lighter landscape timbers but they were cheesy and not pressure treated so I passed.
Now if I can just persuade the carpenter in the house to start sawing…
After our remodel, I ended up with a lot of large 5 gallon plastic paint buckets. I think they make pretty great cavaletti ends and they’re free. I’ve also repurposed some split and damaged water buckets (one of my horses likes to smash them) for this.
It would be pretty darn hard to shatter PVC pipe. They’re very thick, unlike the fencing stuff. I’ve seen PVC pipe used for jumps, ground poles and cavaletti at many training barns and have yet to see one break. Lighter than wood, easy to move around and less likely to injure a horse should it hit one. They seem to last forever.
[QUOTE=rcloisonne;7654698]
It would be pretty darn hard to shatter PVC pipe. They’re very thick, unlike the fencing stuff. I’ve seen PVC pipe used for jumps, ground poles and cavaletti at many training barns and have yet to see one break. Lighter than wood, easy to move around and less likely to injure a horse should it hit one. They seem to last forever.[/QUOTE]
UV exposure and temperature differences, maybe, but still as cavaletti, there should be minimal risk.
They have already proven their ability to break PVC pipe into shards. They have also demonstrated the desire to pick up ground poles with their teeth. I’d rather not go there.
http://www.jumpsusa.com/EMC-v30--Horse-Jumps-Cavaletti--Polyethylene-4-sets_p_151.html
My handy DH made some that we based on these, out of plywood. We just did one hole, so it can rotate to three different heights. Our poles are 8’ landscape timbers from Home Depot, and they are oval, so we cut out the hole to fit them. They are fantastic, light, and durable. I’ll have to ask DH what kind of saw he used. I think they are 12"x12".
Mr. Larkspur made the cavaletti last night, and my trainer used them today with my four-year-old. I forgot to take pictures then because I was too busy hobbling around moving them for her, so I sneaked out just before the rain and snapped a few.
My horse tried all sorts of ways around and over to get out of doing the work, even banged his knee on an edge (which Mr. L smoothed with a planer, or some sort of loud power tool). Then he decided it was more work trying to get out of it than just going through.
Here are some pictures:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/hfournier/Home/IMG_20140715_1637079991.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/hfournier/Home/IMG_20140715_1637337401.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/hfournier/Home/IMG_20140715_1640070771.jpg
