First Jump

Yesterday I started building my first cross country jump. I had an idea in my head for a simple verticle. It would have two eight foot 2 X 4's, one on top and one on bottom, with big dowels in between. When my husband and I were at the lumber store the other day we couldn't find the dowels but we did find eight foot 2 X 2's. They were probably cheaper than dowels anyway so I got them.

I was going to drill holes through the 2 X 4's. The dowels, or 2 X 2's would go in those holes and be held on with a strip of leftover plywood which I had cut from making Dakota's shed. The hole saw was taking me forever so I ran to the hardware store and got a very expensive "self clearing" aggressive hole saw. It worked a little better. I think that 2 X 4 was very hard. Wil came in then and helped me drill the final four holes on the first 2 X 4. I decided to change the plan a little and just attached the rails with screws through the main cross board (as you can see).

I'll probably set it on a couple of bricks and attach the fence to tree stakes driven into the ground to hold it up. I'll post another picture when that happens so you understand what I'm talking about. Right now the jump is about 26" tall, so when it is set up it will still be less than 30", a very good height for "beginner novice" level, which goes up to 2'11".