New Jump Panels!

My friend Kim texted me last week to say she wanted to work on a new project for our trainer, Anne. I love doing anything artsy, so I was definitely in! We primed the wood last Wednesday, then on Thursday, Kim, our friend Alex, and I designed and painted four different designs. We made two panels but did a did a different design on each side.

The diamond panel was inspired by Kim's daughter Macy's cross country helmet cover. I love how bright the colors are and the diamonds turned out perfect!
The other side of the diamonds is a chevron pattern.

The green and white checkerboard pattern seemed like a simple idea. But it is really busy and much scarier than we expected. The first day the panels were up was a Pony Club lesson day. One of the ponies stopped at this side of the panel but went over all the others. Then yesterday in my lesson, I had my first run out EVER on Jack coming up to this jump!! He looked and was wiggly to all the other sides, and I never would have expected that from him. He usually jumps anything! I guess we did our job!

Here's Macy, Kim, and me with our masterpiece, the eventing panel. I traced images of cross country, dressage, and stadium onto the panel and then we filled in the lines with teeny tiny brushes. I love this panel!

It was funny when we were planning, we kept saying, "What will spook the horses?" With eventing, we want them to jump anything, so we wanted to do bright designs that they might see at a show. We definitely accomplished that with the stops and run outs they have already caused! It definitely made me ride more defensively after my stop, so I learned a good lesson to keep my leg on and ride straight to the jump in a more defensive position.

Our next project will be this summer when we refresh all the poles and standards. We will have the most beautiful jumps ever!