Please Share Your Thoughts

3/1/2013

30 Comments

Taz link

3/1/2013 09:08:31 am

Cool!

7/9/2013 06:13:47 am

This is so smart and thrifty! great ideas :)

7/9/2013 07:44:13 am

Thank you! I am all for thrifty! Plus, I find it fun to think up new ways to use things I already have or can get for cheap.

Kathy link

7/9/2013 07:24:29 am

These are awesome ideas! Well done. I'm tweeting these to my readers.

7/9/2013 07:45:12 am

Thanks! I was hoping this might help some like-minded folks out there :-)

Kerry

8/31/2013 05:46:06 am

I was so THRILLED to find your website. Thank you! My kids are getting into jumping, so I have been looking for some inexpensive ideas. Ironically enough, my husband's company has a ton of pallets.

Taz

9/18/2013 01:04:52 pm

Yay! You're welcome! With the pallets just be aware of the quality of the wood (some are sturdier than others) and any loose nails/staples. Also, the spacing between the slats should be such that a hoof wouldn't go in or would come out easily. Good Luck!

Kailee

10/18/2013 10:53:24 am

Thanks so much for making this site! Cant wait to start building jumps!

Olivia

10/29/2013 03:35:12 am

Here are a few ideas for inexpensive poles that I have found. To add weight to a PVC pole buy two caps for the ends and put some arena sand inside. Another cheap way to get a pole is to buy a 4×4×10 (or ×12 if you like) from your local saw mill cut down the corners off at a 45° angle and you have an octagon pole. I got mine for about $4 each.

Taz

11/1/2013 05:05:33 am

Both great ideas - thanks! How do you actually shave off the 4 corners of the 4x4? We have a sawmill locally that has 10' and longer round poles of various diameters but these seem to be hard to find in some places.

tracey jones

12/4/2013 04:48:49 pm

well done on the website! fantastic ideas and i am going to be putting them to use. luckily i am a technology teacher and have lots of tools to hand like welders and forge. i am in the process of making metal cups. i will let you know how they turn out.

by the way im from bonny scotland!
you are reaching far and wide!

thanks

Taz

12/30/2013 09:07:51 am

Thanks Tracey! We have some metal jump cups but they get all bent up, rusted, and lose their pins. I am too cheap to keep buying new ones for everyone else to use/abuse :-o And I have no forge to make some tho that would be awesome! I did look around on the web a while to see what people were using for jump cups before I came up with the rope solution and didn't see much. I would love to see your made ones! That is SO COOL you found this from Scotland! I LOVE that! (We actually have stone cutter ancestors from Aberdeen who took the long voyage to Maine by boat in the 1800s). Good luck with your jump building!

Lily

2/5/2014 12:36:51 am

AMAZING blog ! I'm getting ready to accomodate my horse at home and this is the perfect website to make jumps for him! Extremly helpful!

Taz link

2/10/2014 01:20:22 pm

Thanks so much! Enjoy having your boy at home. :-) It will be fun to create your own jumps and try them out. Let me know how they turn out!

Lily

3/9/2014 01:28:41 am

He adores jumping and he LOVES the new jumps my Dad made for me ! We couldn't be more pleased ! Thanks again for creating this wonderful blog !

Sophie

4/19/2014 02:22:18 pm

This website is a life saver. I moved to a western barn due to convenience & affordable prices, yet i am still a hunter jumper. Obviously they dont own jumps so how am i supposed to practice? Oh wait, thanks to homeade horse jumps.com my life is saved. haha thank yall so much!

Taz

4/20/2014 03:26:53 pm

I can totally relate to you! We are in a similar situation - there were a few scraggly jumps around but nothing interesting. And we aren't rich so we had to do something economical. Plus I like the idea of recycling, and it does make you get creative. I am so happy you find our ideas useful! Thanks for the note! I absolutely love to feel like this is helping people out there!

Sara

6/7/2014 02:31:30 pm

I love your blog so much. You inspired us and my friend and I made several jumps based off of your blog ideas. I hope you keep posting ideas! We are looking to make a corner and a chevron next.

Taz

6/25/2014 06:41:24 am

Thanks Sara! I would love to see your jumps! If you post pics let me know. Also, my email is accessible via the link at the top. I do have more ideas, just not enough time......

Taz link

7/11/2014 04:47:20 am

I posted your excellent jump pics on the site here:

http://homemadehorsejumps.weebly.com/guest-submissions-and-other-ideas.html

If anyone else wants to send me pics of their creations I will have a look and post them on the website to share with the world!

Kazo

7/10/2014 03:14:33 pm

Love these ideas ..... I am convincing my parents
Lol!! Another Idea I came up with was cereal boxes with filling to make them heavy. Makes a wall with adjustable heights and widths

Taz link

7/23/2014 08:36:51 am

Or maybe larger packing boxes, which come in all sizes and are cheap. Problem is deterioration in weather or blowing away in wind. You could paper maché and paint or lacquer the boxes, and then store them inside.

Caroline

9/2/2014 08:38:14 am

I've made maybe about four of these jumps using my fathers old pile of wood scraps! Its so much fun just making them!!!

Taz

9/9/2015 08:34:40 am

Agreed! I find it quite gratifying to turn discards into something useful and fun!

Ebony

11/18/2014 11:31:12 am

you can also use old tired cut in half side by side

Erin

12/4/2014 01:21:59 pm

I am so happy to have found this site! I shared it on my Facebook wall; a couple friends have already cross posted it! I can't wait to get my hands on some free pallets and marked-down paint. I would had never thought of these ideas on my own! Thank you! Question: Where are you from? We are lonely English riders in a Western rider dominated area of N.W. Iowa. There might be a handful of H/J or Combined Training riders within a 100 mile radius of our acreage.

Taz

12/4/2014 11:49:44 pm

Thanks! So glad you are finding these ideas helpful! When I started this site it was more for my personal record (and because I wanted to try out a website builder :-) After surfing around the web for jump ideas myself, and finding some inspiration scattered here and there, I thought maybe there's other people like us out there looking for these kind of cheap, simple, fun jump ideas (plus I wanted to share my jump cup idea. DIY jump cups were such a tricky problem, and the simple rope and wood blocks was so easy and cheap and effective).
I just kind of threw the site out there and forgot about it until I got some nice comments. It is so great to know some real people out there (like you!) actually found it and liked it! :-D I have yet more ideas and things in progress, but also a busy life.....
We are in N Colorado. There are just a few boarders at our barn who jump, though there is a decent H/J community in the area. We just can't afford a "real" H/J barn.....

Anne J

4/11/2015 05:26:43 am

love the jump cups you made. I had a thought that may make them Even easier... instead of moveable pins, what if you made pegs with dowel rods (don't even have to drill all the way through the 4x4 to save wood) so you could have pegs all the way up the sides with fewer pieces to lose. Then just move the strings. could even use hooks of some sort if they fall off too easily and just screw them in-- even less drilling involved.

Taz

4/11/2015 03:05:00 pm

Thanks! I use both regular and the home made jump jump cups on the same standards, without modifying the standards. Which is pretty convenient. I have to say the home made ones actually work better on poorly drilled holes (!) since the fit doesn't have to be exact. Anyway, funny you should mention the peg idea and saving wood - check out my "experiment" here: http://homemadehorsejumps.weebly.com/standards.html#misc_standards
I think you could use plain old nails as "pegs" and just take the 2 loops of the jump cups and put them over nails rather than drill pin holes. Wouldn't even need a drill then (except for the jump cup wood pieces).

Emily

6/12/2015 07:40:11 pm

So long as all sharp edges are rounded off and the poles are able to fall when the horse knocks them, I'm all for this! I might make this a project for the summer before I go back to college in September. Thank you for providing this website!

Author

My daughter, sister and I have horses and like to jump! We were all bored of jumping the plain old poles at our local barn. But having spent all our $$ on board and carrots, and not at a "fancy" show barn, what to do? So, a little "crafty", and not afraid of simple tools, I got to thinking....

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