Budding Blue Peter Badge winners! I need your helpful suggestions.

M

millreef

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 December 2010
Messages
1,689
Location
Morocco - Casablanca
Visit site
I run a lot of riding events at school for my students (I'm a regular teacher and not a riding instructor) - competitions, afterschool riding and RDA etc. One of my older students wants to run a stable management course at school and I said I would help. This is where I need your ideas. For example, we want to teach the kiddies how to plait but without horses it's a bit tricky (we'll be in a school and horses are very far away). I thought about getting false toupees and somehow sticking them on a piece of wood (see I told you I needed help)? We also need to teach about bandaging, feeding, tacking up and anything else you think would be useful BUT WITHOUT HORSES. I have unlimited access to art and craft materials as well as some specialist equipment in the Art, DT and photocopying rooms.
Any suggestions to run this for students with very basic knowledge and hardly any access to real living horses would be much appreciated. And by the way I ACTUALLY DO HAVE A BLUE PETER BADGE:o
 
My first bright idea and I am USELESS at anything crafty is to build a life size pony using all the skills across the art dept. You can then attach a mane and tail etc for plaiting. I used to plait up my Barbie ponies when I was little. You could use the model horse for bandaging, tacking up (if it's mouth opens), points of the horse etc
 
You could use knitting wool cut to length and glued on to a wood cut out to make a mane and tail. Lengths of drainpipe for legs with plastic juice bottles cut in half and placed on the ends for knees and fetlocks to do bandaging.
 
Could you use some cut off drain pipe to practice bandaging? Realise no knee or fetlock but could still do the gamgee + cannon bone bit, take in different boots to identify + put on leg, if older they could even try stitching exercise bandages on.( someone more artistic might think of a better way to make a leg lol) tack to take apart, identify, clean + put back together. For basic plaiting 3 leadropes clipped together, not sure how you'd manage braiding like a tail plait tho. Take in little tubs of different feeds to talk about. If older maybe some basic first aid stuff. A grooming kit to learn about. If a model horse is out of the question you could use a rocking horse for plaiting the mane, both normal & running plaits & even a lattice if mane long enough.
 
I got two blue peter badges when I was younger :D One for sending in a smoothie recipe and the second (silver) one for sending in a poem :p

Anyway, you could make your own plastic horse, or you could get a large board or bit of wood and paint a horse on it, and then drill holes or a slit to thread in a 'mane' made of string or wool. Could use it to teach points of the horse too.

For tack, show them how to tack clean and show how things are put together. Maybe you could video someone tacking up/untacking/bandaging etc a real horse and show them the video, then get a barrel or something if you can't get/make a plastic horse, and then at least they could learn how to put a saddle on/do the girth up etc.

Model horses are good too, Breyers are quite cheap (can get them for even cheaper on eBay) and if you got a few and then the kids could have one each or have one between two to work on. You can get decent model tack for them too - bridles, saddles, martingales as well as rugs and bandages and things. I collected them when I was younger and know loads of people that still do so if you want to go down the model horse route I'd be happy to point you in the direction of good/cheap websites and people to get in touch with :)

Mainly just involve them in things to keep them interested and make it fun and you'll be fine :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top