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How to build a gate for a horse jump

3,397 views · Published 25 April 2016 · 3:08 · Indexed 22 September 2026

Channel: The Budget Equestrian · 2016 · Howto & Style

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If you have ever thought about building horse jumps, or adding to your collection of jumping equipment, a gate is an excellent thing to build!

If you want to learn how to build all sorts of horse jump components and other horse related items, please subscribe to my channel. :)
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Building a gate for a horse jump is relatively simple, and you don't need a lot of wood. You can build a gate with 2- 2"x4" x 8' wood, and a few cedar fence pickets. You will also need some 1 5/8" decking screws, sand paper, pain, a drill and a circular saw.

To get started, measure off 8" on one of your 2x4's and cut off the 8" piece. This will be the bottom of your gate.

Then, mark off 4" on either side of the uncut 2x4. This will be the top of your gate. The 4" you marked will be where you will place a picket on either side. This will make the frame for your gate.

On this gate, all of the pickets are 12" long, so I cut the cedar fence pickets to be 12" long. You can make the pickets any length you want, just make sure they are all about the same length so it will produce a uniform appearance for your gate.

Before you attach any of the pickets, it is best to drill starter holes in the pickets before attaching them to the frame of the gate. By drilling starter holes, this will prevent your wood from splitting.

Once all of your pickets are attached, sand the gate smooth. This will give a professional and finished appearance to your gate, and it only takes about 5 minutes. So it is really worth it to sand all edges of your gate smooth, so it will look great once you are done.

After sanding, use a primer paint to paint all of the wood. The primer will seal the wood, and make it so your finishing paint goes on more evenly, and it will have a better finished appearance.

Once you have primed the gate and the paint has dried, now you can do your finish paint. I like to use Rustoleum paint. It is an oil based paint that stands up well in my outdoor riding area.

In this example, I painted the entire gate white, but if you wanted to, you could make the frame one solid color, and the pickets a different color. To do this you will just prime and paint your pickets separately before attaching them to the gate frame. It is an extra step, but it creates a really nice dramatic gate, and a very nicely finished jump once it is assembled.

Thanks for watching!

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