DIY Making Ground Poles and Jumps

I'm really enjoying making these little tutorials so this is a bit more elaborate one than the blankets. The first part is making the poles which can be used as jump bars or as ground poles and is a pretty quick project. The second part is a bit more tricky but I've tried to simplify it as best as I could and provide good step by step instructions. Some of these may actually end up in my etsy shop. Also If you are a kid, make sure a parent helps you cut the wood for these.

Making the Ground Poles

   Supplies

• 4 8” x 3/16” lengths of dowel rod
• painters tape
• 2 coordinating paint colors
• paintbrushes
• cup of water to clean paint brushes
• And a horse of course!

    Instructions

1. Cut the dowel rod/ have a parent cut the dowel rod into the specified sizes
2. Paint the entire dowel rod with the base color.
3. Let paint dry.
4. Wrap painters tape around dowel in 1.5” intervals  starting from both ends
5. Paint the dowel with 2nd color.
6. Let it dry.
7. Remove tape and make sure that paint didn’t seep under.
8. Fix up any seepage spaces.

I found the instructions for making the jump stand here: (https://www.breyerhorses.com/index.php?pageId=635) and I've made a few alterations and added a lot of pictures to follow along with.

Building a Traditional Sized Jump

Supplies

• 3/8” Square wooden dowel (4 cut to length of 6” and 4 to length of 1.5”)
• 5/16” wooden dowels (3 cut to length of 10”)
• Popsicle sticks
• 1/2" x 1" cardboard strips (6 of these)
• Paint
• Paintbrushes
• Tacky glue
• Legos for straight edges and measuring
• A model horse for sizing

Instructions

1. Cut out all the pieces of wood to their necessary lengths. If you are a kid make sure to have adult supervision.

2. You can paint all of the pieces now or wait until the end when it is assembled. Either time works

3. Take two of the long square dowels and two short square dowel pieces. Using a lego as a straight edge, glue the short dowels between the two longer dowels approximately 1 inch from each end. Make sure the long dowels are even. See picture below:

4. Repeat step 3 with the remaining square dowel rods.

5. Next we will make the cups. Cut 6 small rectangles from the cardboard ½”x1”. Next make the cuts shown in the picture with the middle being the width of the jump post. he pictures will be a better guide than my explanation. 

 

6. Then bend into thirds with the top tabs folded backwards and the bottom tabs folded upwards.

7. Glue the bottom tabs to the top tabs to form the shape below. This will make a cup.

8. Glue the cups to the post at heights of 3cm, 6cm, and 9cm on both posts.

9. Now is the time to paint everything if you didn't at the start! 

DIY Model Horse Blankets (Basic)

This probably won't end up in my etsy shop but I've decided to add tutorials as I go along as well. One of my major passions in the model horse hobby is sharing skills and information. I enjoy teaching people how to do things and make things which I have been consistently doing for my local 4H horse project for several years. So expect a few of these mini-tutorials in the interim between things being made for my shop. Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy!

You may notice it's getting cold outside...unless you live somewhere nice and warm right now...or are in the southern hemisphere...but for everyone else it's getting cold. And the snow will be here pretty soon... but in the house the only snow you have to worry about is the fake kind... oh and dust. Which is why some nice blankets are great for your herd, not only can they keep them nice and toasty they also protect from scratches and rubs. These blankets are simple enough that they can be done by hand or with a machine. I used plain fabric so I needed to hem the edges but if you use felt or fleece that won't be necessary. Actually in hindsight, felt or fleece would be better materials.

1) Take a 8 inch by 8 inch square and fold it in half.

2) Hem the corners if you want... It does make it look a little more put together. This step, as mentioned earlier, is not as necessary with felt or fleece.

3) Cut out the pattern above, checking its fit on your horse.

4) In the front sew the two flaps together to make a neck hole.

5) Tada... Its done... or is it?

Have some fun, add straps, borders, whatever you like!

The completed project with some fun fabrics...

Max doing some modeling!

And Valentine staying warm as well with her floral blanket!

Have Fun!