A couple of sliding bolts on either end and bore a hole into the upright maybe. Or attach a small wooden block on the bottom of the supports to prevent the lean. Or replace one of the middle pickets with one six inches longer and dig a hole to accommodate it. Depends on how often you plan on changing/moving the jumps.
Small block on the front of the top rail should do it. I don't think burying a picket would work here, I think the jump needs to be able to fall down if the horse doesn't jump high enough, a buried picket might cause injury.
It’s tipped forward because the centre of gravity is further forward than your mounting points, because your mounting point is centred on the horizontal rails behind the vertical pickets.
I’d add extra boards to double the thickness of the 2 end mounting points so that the centre of gravity is somewhere within that double thickness, then balance it on 2 upwards pointed nails to find where the balance point/centre of gravity is and mark that line where the nails are.
Finally plane the double thickness parts down to the curved shape if the cup with your marked line at the centre of that curve
Can you clamp a long board to the very bottom on the backside and see if that will add weight to help it hang straight? If it works then glue, screw, and paint.
The fence is intended to be suspended by the top rail? And the problem is that it doesn’t hang vertically? Because the face with the pickets is heavier than the face without the pickets? The same way a person hanging in chin-up position doesn’t hang vertically?
This is a knock-down obstacle, like a runner’s hurdle? So you can’t simply fix it vertically in place with stakes?
You could….
- balance it by moving alternate pickets to the opposite face. But it would be more work, and you might not like the look.
- add pickets to the opposite side. But you might not like the expense, and maybe the fence would be too heavy.
- add weights to the other side, which might be less visible, but might still be too heavy.
- extend the bottom rail, into another set of supports, perhaps flat so they don’t resist knockdown. Knockdown performance would probably change.
Just add horizontal rods at the bottom corners? Inside eyebolts staked into the ground? So the fence falls, swinging on the rods?
Do you build heavy, to survive getting kicked by horses? Or do you build light, to minimize chance of injury? Does the whole fence have to drag away if the horse snags on it? Can you anchor the fence?
I try to build light enough so that it falls when hit and avoids injury, but heavy enough that when it gets hit hard enough to come out of the jump cups that it'll fall quickly to the ground (which also helps avoid injury by not getting caught up in a horse's legs).
Staking into the ground would be tricky, because the footing the jumps are on is pretty well-fluffed dirt, so there's not a lot of grab, and it needs to be able to be adjusted taller or shorter (the jump cups can be moved up and down the jump standards).
I like the idea of adding some weight to the bottom rail. At the moment, the fence is relatively light, so I'm not too worried about it becoming too heavy, as long as it hangs straight.
Hopefully between adding some weight to the bottom and doubling up the ends of the top rail so it's wider, it'll hang better.
Notch the tow end pickets at the top rail, and attach new suspending pieces in line with the pickets. You'' probably need to cut the current ones slightly shorter (or taper them toward the face) but still should have enough material for the new pieces to be well attached by 4 to 6 screws. It may still not hang perfectly vertical but will be much much closer as the new ones will be in line with the bulk of material and weight.
A couple of sliding bolts on either end and bore a hole into the upright maybe. Or attach a small wooden block on the bottom of the supports to prevent the lean. Or replace one of the middle pickets with one six inches longer and dig a hole to accommodate it. Depends on how often you plan on changing/moving the jumps.
Small block on the front of the top rail should do it. I don't think burying a picket would work here, I think the jump needs to be able to fall down if the horse doesn't jump high enough, a buried picket might cause injury.
Makes sense! Didn’t think about it that way.
It’s tipped forward because the centre of gravity is further forward than your mounting points, because your mounting point is centred on the horizontal rails behind the vertical pickets. I’d add extra boards to double the thickness of the 2 end mounting points so that the centre of gravity is somewhere within that double thickness, then balance it on 2 upwards pointed nails to find where the balance point/centre of gravity is and mark that line where the nails are. Finally plane the double thickness parts down to the curved shape if the cup with your marked line at the centre of that curve
Can you attach a picture of the cups?
https://preview.redd.it/f5okv8hmoqmc1.jpeg?width=1210&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b35b7e58293ca113e3a66605d3c72bc9f99af7af They’re these ones.
What about modifying the way the fence sits in the cup? Something that clips on the backside of the cup to stop it from rolling forward?
Can you clamp a long board to the very bottom on the backside and see if that will add weight to help it hang straight? If it works then glue, screw, and paint.
The fence is intended to be suspended by the top rail? And the problem is that it doesn’t hang vertically? Because the face with the pickets is heavier than the face without the pickets? The same way a person hanging in chin-up position doesn’t hang vertically? This is a knock-down obstacle, like a runner’s hurdle? So you can’t simply fix it vertically in place with stakes? You could…. - balance it by moving alternate pickets to the opposite face. But it would be more work, and you might not like the look. - add pickets to the opposite side. But you might not like the expense, and maybe the fence would be too heavy. - add weights to the other side, which might be less visible, but might still be too heavy. - extend the bottom rail, into another set of supports, perhaps flat so they don’t resist knockdown. Knockdown performance would probably change. Just add horizontal rods at the bottom corners? Inside eyebolts staked into the ground? So the fence falls, swinging on the rods? Do you build heavy, to survive getting kicked by horses? Or do you build light, to minimize chance of injury? Does the whole fence have to drag away if the horse snags on it? Can you anchor the fence?
I try to build light enough so that it falls when hit and avoids injury, but heavy enough that when it gets hit hard enough to come out of the jump cups that it'll fall quickly to the ground (which also helps avoid injury by not getting caught up in a horse's legs). Staking into the ground would be tricky, because the footing the jumps are on is pretty well-fluffed dirt, so there's not a lot of grab, and it needs to be able to be adjusted taller or shorter (the jump cups can be moved up and down the jump standards). I like the idea of adding some weight to the bottom rail. At the moment, the fence is relatively light, so I'm not too worried about it becoming too heavy, as long as it hangs straight. Hopefully between adding some weight to the bottom and doubling up the ends of the top rail so it's wider, it'll hang better.
Notch the tow end pickets at the top rail, and attach new suspending pieces in line with the pickets. You'' probably need to cut the current ones slightly shorter (or taper them toward the face) but still should have enough material for the new pieces to be well attached by 4 to 6 screws. It may still not hang perfectly vertical but will be much much closer as the new ones will be in line with the bulk of material and weight.