Hobby Horse Jumps: Heights by Class, What to Buy and How to Build Your Own

Show jumping is the main event in hobby horsing and the one discipline you cannot train without equipment. Two broom handles across a pair of buckets works for a fortnight. After that you want a fence that stands straight, adjusts in seconds and falls down cleanly when you catch it. This guide covers the heights each class actually uses, what separates a good jump set from a useless one, and how to build a working course at home for almost nothing.

What height should hobby horse jumps be?

Heights are set per class, and knowing them stops you buying a set that is obsolete in a season. They are the same ranges you will meet wherever you ride, from Finland to Michigan, and when you enter a championship. These are the ranges used at most shows across Finland, Germany, Sweden and the international circuit.

Class	Height	What it is for
Ground poles	On the floor	Rhythm and a straight approach; every session starts here
Intro	20–30 cm	First show. Nobody expects a clear round
Novice	40–60 cm	A few months of training
Club / intermediate	60–80 cm	Where most riders spend their time
Advanced	80–100 cm	Experienced, athletic riders
Championship	100–130 cm	National level; the rider's own jump is the limit

The practical conclusion: a set that tops out at 30 cm stops being useful within months. Buy something that adjusts, and train slightly above the class you intend to enter so competition day feels small. The full scoring rules are in our competition rules guide.

Pole length decides everything

This is the mistake almost everyone makes once, and it is worth understanding before you spend anything.

A 40 cm pole makes a fence too narrow to ride a proper approach through. It is fine for trot poles and for schooling a straight line, and genuinely frustrating as soon as you try to ride a course, because the rider has to aim at a gap rather than a fence. A pole around a metre gives you a real obstacle: wide enough to ride at, wide enough to drift on and still clear, wide enough to photograph.

If you already own a short cone-and-pole set, do not throw it away. Set two pairs of cones side by side and run a pole across each, and you have one full-width fence instead of two narrow ones.

How the height adjusts

Moulded cones have holes at two or three fixed levels. You get those heights and nothing between them. Cheap, light, nest together for storage, perfectly good for a first year.

Uprights with clips let you grip anywhere along the pole, so the height is genuinely free. Ground pole for a beginner, 20 cm for a first class, 65 cm next month, and on up as the rider grows. This is what you want once someone is training seriously.

Bases matter more than they look. On grass, a light base walks across the lawn every time a rider brushes it, and a fence that moves between attempts teaches bad distances. Weighted or water-fillable bases solve it. Indoors on a hard floor, light bases are fine, but keep poles in cups so they do not roll.

How many fences do you actually need?

Three. Three fences let you ride something that behaves like a course: approach, land, turn, approach again. Two is a grid. One is a schooling exercise. How the classes themselves are run is covered in competitions explained.

Count poles and bases rather than pieces, because listings inflate the number. A "12-piece set" of six cones and six poles builds three narrow fences, not twelve. A set of fifteen poles and ten bases builds a genuine course with spares.

You want to	Minimum kit
Learn a straight approach	One ground pole
Ride a grid	Two fences, four uprights
Ride a course at home	Three fences, six uprights, spare poles
Train for a championship class	Uprights that carry a pole at a metre, weighted bases

How to build hobby horse jumps at home

Half the courses in this sport are built from things that were already in the house. If you are starting out, build before you buy: you will learn what you actually need.

You need	Use instead	Watch out for
Poles	Broom handles, garden canes, pool noodles, cardboard tubes	Canes splinter; sand the ends or tape them
Uprights / wings	Buckets, plant pots, stacked books, dining chairs	Must tip over rather than stay put
Cups	Clothes pegs, bulldog clips, nails in a batten	Nothing that grips the pole tightly
Ground poles	Rolled towels, skipping ropes, tape on the floor	Nothing slippery underfoot
Arena markers	Cones, shoes, chalk, flower pots	Nothing with hard edges at ankle height

A wooden version lasts longer and is a good afternoon's work: two lengths of batten screwed into a cross-shaped foot gives you an upright, and a row of cup hooks up the face gives you adjustable heights. Two uprights and a dowel is one fence. Paint them and they look like the real thing.

Setting up a course

Mark out your working area first, then place fences so there are four or five strides between them and room to turn at each end. Beginners need more room than you think, because the turn is where a crooked approach starts.

Start every session over a ground pole, whatever the level. It sets the rhythm and it is where a drifting line shows up while it still costs nothing. Then raise one fence, ride it until the approach is reliable, and only then add the second.

Surfaces change the kit. Grass is forgiving to land on and terrible for stability, so weighted bases earn their money outdoors. A hard indoor floor is the opposite: light bases are fine, but poles roll and ceilings are lower than you remember when you set an upright at a metre.

Footwork is the part most riders skip and the one that fixes approaches fastest. A speed ladder and a handful of marker discs belong in the same bag as the poles, next to a crop for the classes that expect one; we cover the drills in training at home.

What about agility hurdles?

Dog and football agility hurdles turn up constantly in search results because they are cheap and look similar. They are useful for warm-up, footwork and pole work. They are usually fixed at a low height and noticeably narrower than a hobby horse fence, so check the stated height and width before assuming one will still be useful next season.