Help with jump designs for themed course!

My barn is attempting to make some nice jumps for a medium size course.

It's a privately owned barn, and whatever gets done comes out of the owners pocket - or from me and the other rider who are working on this.

So with that being said, this needs to be cost efficient. We have some scrap materials we can use to make jumps around, and we could attempt to find some freebie give aways. I believe the other rider helping is getting the paint.

We were thinking of doing a medieval theme. We had an awesome idea for some castle tower standards. We are looking to make around 8 jumps.

I'm running out of ideas. I think I have 5 things down and no clue what to do on the next 3. We do want these to be interesting and nice looking because there's a possibility of some schooling shows being hosted at the barn.

These also need to be pretty easily adjustable jumps. Probably able to go down to 18". There's a wide range of jumping levels at the barn. I'm doing 18" with my green mare, and there's some girls doing 3'. Most are doing 2'-2'6".

My ideas thus far:

1) Castle jump. Standards are castle towers with flags in the barn colors on top. Possibly a very low "castle wall" shaped wall under and barn-color themed pole to go over that.

2) Dragon jump. This needs work! I'm not sure what to do with the standards. I do know there will be a plywood cut-out of a dragon underneath with a pole over the top.

3) Suit of armor/knight jump. This one is iffy. I don't know where we could get ahold of some cheap suits of mock-armor. So it might go out the door, but I think it would be awesome to have them facing out on either sides of the standards. Thinking of making "lances" to use as an xrail, and an optional pole over the top.

4) Crown jump. This one is the most do-able. Crowns would hang on the tops of the standards and we have a couple of wooden palates we cut in half and I was thinking we could get some of those fake decorating jewels and glue them to the slats. Optional pole over the top.

5) Merlin jump. This one would be EPIC. Wizard hats for the standards. We could get some shiny stars and moons garland to wrap around the top pole. Maybe make a couple of poles to look like magic wands and use them as and option for an xrail.

Now I'm hoping to pick you guys' brains for ideas and modifications to my current ideas!

We DO have a set of chainmail armor at the barn. The BO said it's really just sitting around, she found it in the back of her sister's car. ROFL!

Oh man I am excited to see these jumps when you are done!

Princess hats like the wizard hats?
Rapunzel towers for standards?
A moat? Like a liverpool. Hahahahaa
Normal wing standards could be painted like coat of arms
Another way to do a dragon would be to go for a xc-style tire jump, and make a dragon head and tail to keep the tires in place. The tires would be the dragon body....

No new ideas from me (I am not that creative), but your ideas sound like so much fun. I hope you are going to post photos when you get them all made.

Like wren said, the moat would be awesome! You could have a liverpool with maybe a castle in the middle of it ^.^ and you wouldn't need decorations for all the standards

I say the standards for the dragon could be like trees or something. The one with the armor their "lances" or swords could be the actual poles. (paint lances on the poles!) I also like the liverpool idea! Hmmm the coat of arms sounds pretty cool too. Your barn can design a coat of arms and then make the poles match those colors(probably using your barn colors)
You could do jousting horses rearing for the standards, and have the jousting poles as the poles for you guys to jump.
Unicorns charging each other as the standards and their horns(right before they hit) as the pole.

That's all I got for now lol

Home depot often has mistinted paint for a fraction of the price.

Just as a question....why are you making themed jumps? Although really creative and a great idea, I think it limits the jumps. It would make them hard to change up and be "new" again. Not many farms can afford several full sets of jumps for a specific theme.

What if you made some plain jane jumps, but got accessories or had a few add ons to put as a decoration WITH the jump so that it a theme that you want?

IE...You want to put on a show at Easter, July 4th, Halloween and Christmas.

--Easter could be bright splashy flowers, an egg jump/line, bunny jump.

--July 4th have everything red, white and blue. Put bunting on the jumps, hang flags on some standards.

--Halloween you can have a skeleton jump, pumpkin jump, spider web jumps...or go with harvest type stuff of leaves, straw bales, corn stalks tied together and pumpkins.

--Christmas you could hang wreaths and large red bows off the standards, wrap garland around some of the poles, put lights up.


I truely love the idea of having the medieval jumps and its super clever. I am not against it at all....but I just think it makes what you do a lot more limited then things that are a little bit plainer.

You can still use the medieval theme, but maybe apply it to cutout stuffs that you can put on the standards, with a few special poles that you keep for it...?