My own jump standards

I finally have my jump standards done! Eric helped me only a little bit, otherwise it was all me!

Materials

4 4x4 6ft treated wood posts

2 2x6 8ft treated wood planks

deck screws made for treated wood

drill

saw

sawhorses

sander

1 gallon flat white exterior paint

1 toddler 'helper'

I started by measuring and then cutting down the 2x6 boards into 1 foot increments. These would become the feet. Because my saw was lame, I had to make each cut twice in order to go fully through the board. 

Always use proper PPE!

Mock up of how the feet will become the base of the standard

My 1 ft pieces

I wanted to make sure the hand-me-down jump cups were going to work. This particular one does not require holes in the post. I planned to drill them anyway because I do have some jump cups that need a hole

Next I measured out where I wanted my holes for jump height. I decided to drill every 3 inches starting at 18 inches high and ending 18 inches before the top. I doubt I'll ever use the top holes, but maybe I'll need a massive x-rail, lol

Everything drilled through. I discovered after the first post that I needed to offset the holes to one side so that the pinned jump cups I had would be at the correct angle to support the poles. Dead center was too tight a fit.

I sanded down the rough edges from drilling.

My first finished standard with helper in the background.  I used 2 screws per base piece to attach it to the standard and put them on a diagonal so there would never be interference with another screw from a different side. 

All four finished!

I decided to paint them white, but since they're treated wood I could have left them alone. I like the look of the white though. Kaylee helped me paint them, which was hilarious. It took two coats to get the coverage I wanted and two sessions to get paint on the bottom. 

The truck was handy for moving the standards to the arena from the garage. 

I set up the jumps in the arena and had a handy model to photograph. 

This is how I left the arena and when I came back, one pole had been knocked over already.

Because I have a naughty pony who likes to push things over.