How to stripe your rails/poles

After watching clinicians and how to's for trail and putting the lessons to practice with the horses, I have seen first hand how striping trail logs aids the rider. It is easier for a rider to put the horse in the right place as far as spacing, and also the horses are more aware of the log and pick up their feet, minimizing the 'ticks' and therefore deductions on their trail score.

I painted my old logs from when 4H did trail years ago, and I went and bought some new landscape logs at Home Depot.  The finished product looks great.

Here is the "how to" to get your logs looking as good as these.  All costs together, each log equaled out costing $8.50 each.

First I went and bought 8 foot landscape logs at Home Depot for $3.50 each. Then we had a great idea to fill the little cracks with waterproof wood glue to try lengthening the life of the logs. I was glad we did it because it made the paint job look great.

Step 1 - Fill the small cracks in the log with waterproof wood glue. The glue cost $5 a bottle and was good to cover 4 logs easily.

Step 2 - Buy an exterior semi gloss paint in white and roll 2 coats on each log. I bought a whole gallon with plans of painting a lot more logs in the spring. The gallon cost close to $40  but I have only used 1/3 after painting 12 poles.  As I mentioned above I was working with some brand new logs and logs remaining from the last time trail rotated through. Both turned out great, the newer logs definatelly are more smooth looking though. See if you can spot the old ones  in the picture below.

Step 3 - Next is the measuring portion for the stripes. The outer white ends of the poles are supposed to be 1 foot, and then working towards the middle of the pole the striping of color and white are 2 feet each. Because the landscape poles are 8 feet long, the striping measurements were:

       White(1foot) - Color(2ft) - White(2ft) - Color(2ft) - White(1foot)

After measuring, I used tape to mark my lines and newspaper to protect the white portions from the color spray paint.

Step 4 - Time to spray the paint. Pick an enamel in any bright color. It only took 1 coat of the spray which I picked up at Walmart for $3, each can covered a little more than 3 logs.

Step 5 - After the color dries, remove the newspaper and tape. I then sprayed the white portions of the log with the clear gloss protective enamel spray paint. It protects the white primer coat and makes the white portions glossy to match the color.

Now you have the perfect looking trail logs. Don't limit yourself to red and blue though!