So as I eluded to on Instagram this weekend was full of some firsts. A couple weeks ago I showed my BO’s husband a picture of a jump at a horse trial I hope to attend in the fall. The offending fence scares the bejesus out of me for some reason. Yes sure I just posted about how I am conquering my eventing/ cross country fears but as you move up fences like the below come into play…Â 
It’s like an airy vertical but solid and huge and I don’t wanna. Sooo when BO offered to build said mind blower if I would buy the wood I was super excited. He sent me to Home Depot for the below supplies (all pressure treated wood):
- 4 12ft 4×4’s
- 8 12ft 2X6’s
- 1 10ft 2×4’s
The grand total including tax was $156. This was pretty inline with what I was anticipating and so worth it for the ability to school something scary at home before seeing it on a course. Being a cocky dumb butt I thought it would be a great idea to make said jump approximately training height… Cue the panic as said mind blower is being constructed.Anyways here is the good stuff! How to build your own hanging log (not so adjusta pole).
Step 1:Â BO and I marked the wood where it needed to be cut. I was left to the simple task of marking our 2×6’s with 3′ increments using a measuring tape. These boards would end up being the platform. You will want to have a construction square for this project. It is actually a triangle but called a square… Don’t ask me!
Step 2 I was fairly hands off for because power tools… I did observe though and essentially if you are comfortable with a saw and a drill this would not be difficult to build. Just time consuming and requires some man power for relocation if you cannot build the jump in the destination. 
Step 3Â was where more of the details came in. BO measured out an equal distance for our base 4×4’s and got me started with screwing the platform base boards (3′ 2×6’s) down. I would recommend trying to leave a slight overhang off your base 4×4’s so that you have some material to work with it something goes south. Because I am a weenie and also have negative experience with power tools – outside of a drill – BO did the heavy lifting with the saw and provided me with materials.
Step 4Â is where we started to see the project take life. You can kind of see in this picture above that the 2 4×4 sections have grooves and support the 2×6 boards pretty well. This required more sawing and basically chiseling the chunks of wood out so that we had a channel to insert the woods. In theory this would also make it so that the log could adjust up and down in height with the removal of boards from the sides.
Step 5 was the transportation of our base to the destination on the other side of the property so we had a small hope of being able to move it. When I say we I really just mean my BO. We also had to select a log for the top of our jump. 
Step 6 and what was our final step was using the bob cat to transport the log to the fence and drop it on top. Then you are done and can figure out which pair of breeches will best accommodate a pair of depends for when you inevitably pee your pants trying to jump your finished product.
Because that was so much fun we ended up making a smaller version of the jump above (3’3 H – 3′ wide stacked logs). This is where I ended up driving the bob cat.
Yep… You read right. I am not comfortable operating a circular saw but I can now navigate the world from the cab of a bob cat. Not that I would ever need to do so. I have to say though it was pretty darn fun! 
All in all with a few hours, a handy friend/ BO, and some powervtools (and a bob cat) you can make some pretty cool stuff. Next project will be a corner jump!
Have any of you made your own cross country jumps? Regular jumps? Do you have plans to make anything?Â
My ex boyfriend was a legitimate jump builder for the KYHP and other USEA venues, so that was cool.
Otherwise no. No jump building. We are lucky that we live 20 min from a park with almost everything you could ask for, so the gas for a few trips is equal to what you spent on one jump.
That’s pretty cool though, I like how you made it super adjustable.
Sidenote, your fear is legit. Didn’t the safety studies show that the airy jumps (and corners) were most dangerous? Granted, they’re talking about oxers usually. But still…scary.
Yeah unfortunately we don’t have many local venues so I like the fact that I will be able to jump some of the more difficult questions at home. I think my BO’s are going to build a water jump down the line too!
Yep that is one scary looking jump…the airiness really gives a nice fear level.
Yeah… And this is why I want one at home. At least then no one will see me wet my pants 😉
I want one
Make one! Although Henny is a beast and apparently thinks training is cake so you probably don’t need one!
Impressive!!
Thanks! It was a cool project!
Really cool! I’m a big fan of my colorful sticks that collapse when I mess up, but I do love learning about the more substantial stuff 🙂
Yes… Colorful collapsing sticks hold a special place in my heart. But if I am going to give eventing a go through a couple levels I need to kill the fear… and it’s the stuff that looks like this that gives me pause! 🙂
Very exciting weekend and very cool that you got to build that fence!
🙂 It is cool to have a BO that is so open to stuff like this!
That’s so cool!! What an awesome idea! I’ve never built a jump, though the event trainer I worked for years ago built a few stadium fillers, which were really awesome.
I definitely want to build some
Stadium fillers too!
I like the thought put into this–about the panels on the sides being removable to adjust the height! That ingenious. Also, operating a bobcat sounds was less intimidating that operating a power saw!
And I really cannot type, holy moly.
I can’t take credit given that it was almost totally copied off another jump. But it is a cool idea.
That’s a gorgeously built jump! I’ve built a few before – logs, ramps, etc. The one thing I might suggest about yours is no matter how heavy the log on top looks, think about finding a way to secure it. You don’t want it rolling if a horse crashes into it!
Hmm that’s a good thought.
This is really cool! I’ve never helped assemble something this substantial, but I’ve definitely help with coops, boxes, ladders, standards, etc. It’s so fun to be able to make a jump that’s exactly what you want!
Yeah I felt super productive! It’s big which I guess was the objective. Now I need to get up some nerve between now and October.
Ooh, I like this! It’s definitely getting added to my list of jumps to build.
It wasn’t that hard but definitely required tools and if you don’t have a bob cat or large tractor I am not entirely sure how you would get a log up there. That thing was a BEAST.
Very cool. The only jumps I have made were plain standards when I was a kid. Started with a pole on cinder blocks. Moved to the actual wood standard with feet and drilled holes. Fortunately, we have pretty much everything we need at Violet’s home base.
We have jumps in the arena so I am glad I can focus building efforts on more fun stuff!
Badass lady, very badass indeed.
Your jumps looks great. I keep meaning to make some XC jumps, but then I’m lazy and don’t. We did build all the standards/jumps in our arena.
Yep I can see why you’d be nervous of that jump… and also of power tools that cut things. So scary!