Book Review: Making Your Own Jumps

9:36 AM
By Beka Burke
6 Comments

This is a little book. Almost a freaking pamphlet.

It's 24 pages long and has a ton of hand-drawn illustrations. Published in 1988, I don't think that much has changed in fence construction, save the frangible pin stuff. And if you're using those, you probably don't need a 24-page book to give you pointers.

Fran and I probably could have been friends.

Pretty hefty contents page.. for all 24 pages.

Good intro!

So, the book is basically into two categories (to me). Show jumping and cross country. I think it pretty much assumes that you've got basic show jumping stuff, so it affirms how those things should be set up. What point should be the highest, how many poles should be used in the back portion of an oxer, et cetera. While not rocket science, it did make me think.

One of their things is to not have excessive poles on the back portion of an oxer - something I've never even thought about.

Sproing.

The "dangerous jumps" was probably my favorite section.

YOU GONNA DIE.

Not really. But it makes a lot of sense! And I see this crap all the time!

Alright, picture directly above the bath tub. Single pole. That is one of my biggest, biggest pet peeves. I was taught to give a ground pole, at least directly below the single pole. Ideally, you would have two ground poles on either side of the base of the fence for jumping from both directions. At least, that is how I was taught.

I want to jump tires into water.

So. Um. I've included a shit ton of the book, actually. There is a whole section on constructing cross country fences, how to build proper supports, what type of wood to use, and some measurements. That part is pretty informative, but I didn't include it because that would be it. No one would need to look at the book for themselves. It's really that tiny.

And what's my take away from this tiny book? I think I can follow some of its instructions and build a brush box. It's pretty specific on how much space to leave between plants and stuff. It reminded me of a lot of basic jump-setting-up concepts that being on my own have made me a little lax about. At the first barn, in Augusta, they were pretty die-hard about everything being proper. If anything, we had too many ground poles, but everything was pretty visually friendly. Second barn, just me. And this barn? It's now just me, so it's my responsibility to make my lazy ass set everything up correctly.

*This was a library rental. You can buy this book used for roughly $5. Thanks for all of those who told me titles and stuff to look for, because that's how I found this little guy.

#books

#JUMPING

#review

6 comments

CarlyMay 21, 2014 at 12:09 PM
It's funny about the jump with no ground pole because Jimmy Wofford is a HUGE proponent of jumping with no ground poles. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

I jump a lot without ground poles because I lack a lot of poles to use. It doesn't affect my eye any (it's either going to suck that day or it isn't), and I've yet to jump a horse that reacts one way or another.
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Boss Mare EventingMay 21, 2014 at 12:15 PM
I have all these series of books, I actually got a job with the woman who wrote them in England. They are meant for Pony Club kids...but that doesn't mean they aren't good...they are still very useful. Love them.
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L.WilliamsMay 21, 2014 at 12:50 PM
Love the illustrations!
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Wilbur, Ellie, and EmilyMay 21, 2014 at 1:41 PM
Baha- "Jumping is fun." Great!
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SheMovedtoTexasMay 21, 2014 at 1:54 PM
You won't have groundlines in jumpers, however usually there is more than 1 pole to a jump so the 'single pole' being a bad jump still holds true.
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