We have a show jump course set up on a grass riding field and it is absolutely awesome. That said, the field is on a hill where we can get a lot of wind and pretty often the standards and rails blow down in the wind.
Does anyone know if there are stakes that can be used on the standards to keep them from blowing over so often?
might be able to use trampoline anchors
if not do a web search for Screw in Lawn Anchors ,there will be pages of products
(we taught our horses to ground tie so our kids could dismount and put rails back up… horse would remain where it was put)
Sandbags work well. Cheap and easy and no metal parts to worry about being stepped on or forgotten about when you move the fences.
Second sand bags.
Lol, this happens in sand or -all weather footing arenas all the time, too.
We just deal, but if I was inclined to care, the sand bags that are used in the film industry strike me as safe ways to secure things that tend to be top heavy.
Upside is they are cheap and adaptable and portable and safe,
Back when we showed in Hood River aka “windsurfing capital of the world,” they used sandbags on the feet of the standards.
Thanks for the ideas. Sandbags are a good suggestion. What I was hoping for was something less visible. Maybe if there was a u-shaped metal stake that would go over the standard’s feet and into the ground? Something like a narrow but stronger croquet wicket? That way it would not be too hard to pull up and move when it’s time to mow the jump field. I might need to invent something if this doesn’t already exist!
Get some rebar and bend it into U-s.
It’s probably a lot safer to have sand bags than anything metal around the jumps.
Same problem for me. First I built wooden boxes that sit beteween the feet on of the jump wings with the upper part resting on the feet and filled them with brick pavers fir added weight to the base. This worked OK but moving a jump meant lifting four 40 pound boxes each time.
Next I re-configured the jump panels to make them as light as possible and also less sail-like by including openings or enlarging openings already there.
Now I am in the process of replacing the feet which originally extended 2’ fore and aft with ones that are 3’. In other words, the original feet were 2"x6"x4’ pressure treated boards; the new ones are 2"x6"x6’ boards. The extended feet seem to be way more effective than the first two approaches. Here is a jump with shorter feet and one that’s been modified.
I wouldn’t have any kind of metal for this. It will take just one crash to put the end of any metal rebar/stake/etc in the path of flesh
We regularly stake cross country fences, and I have not heard of any injuries involving stakes.
But sand bags are the usual solution to stabilizing show jumps.
Thanks all! I’ll go the sandbags route. Cheers!
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