GAMES in a riding lesson

ibot

ibot

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i am teaching tomorrow the girls who work the yard but i am going to give them a fun lesson as you know what the kids are like on the yard and at the moe it is a very bitchy place to be.
so i have a few ideas for games but was looking for more.
So if you have any ideas that would be great
i have a jump race and a weaving race in mind with teams but my stupid head is on a go slow and i want them to totally enjoy it.
thanks in advance
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what about higher and higher, where you start the jumps low, and they get higher and higher, if someone knocks a pole off or the horse refuses then they are out.
 
If you want something that always gets a huge laugh and is (relatively) non-competitive ask them to cross their reins over and work as a ride with frequent changes of leader!
 
If you can get out for a hack you can do a treasure hunt. That's what we're doing on sunday (weather permitting), the kids are really excited...
 
We have a few games, one where everyone is riding around and there are mounting blocks in the middle, when the music goes off everyone has to get off and run to a block whoever is last doesn't get off last time.

You can also do the game above the opposite way, but do ring a ring a roses with eyes closed then when music goes off get on the horse.

Also there is the classic egg and spoon race which we do with potatoes.
 
How about Cowboys and Indians? We used to (and still do) love it!! We used bits of grooming kit scattered around the arena balanced on wing stands and things which one team had to try and collect while the other team tried to stop them, once you were tagged you had to go to 'jail' until another member of your team rode past to let you out. To make it a bit more interesting we had to clear a little fence to get let out of 'jail' as well.
 
Relay races are always good fun. We do ones were you have to race to one end of the school, touch the wall, race back, jump off horse, do the same thing on foot then jump back on horse before next person can go off. Someone always falls flat on their face
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If you have horses that wont boot each other, tig is really good fun... Get a tennis ball and wrap an old tea towel round it held with an elastic band so it has a long tail (if that makes any sense!!)
Basically, you put the ball on a cone/barrell in the middle of the school, shout go and everyone has to go and attempt to grab it - once got, the rider puts the ball under their arm with the tail bit (tea-towel) hanging down and others have to attempt to grab it before the time runs out (do in about 3 minute stints before the ball gets put back in the middle and whoever ends up with it at the end of each 3 minutes gets a point).
You could also do it in teams, passing the ball amongst the teams without others getting it and teams have to score goals by throwing through hoops or in buckets.

We also played musical cones similar to how Jess said although we used cones and each cone had a different score - so when the music stopped everyone had to get to a cone (scored between 0 and 50 - would just need to make paper signs) and scores would be added up. Everyone has to get to a cone so no-one is 'out' but one person would get a cone with 0 score so effectively lost that round.

The barrel jump (we called it 7 barrels - or you can do 7 buckets) is always fun, tests their riding skill!! Or Chase-me-Charlie.

Or barrel racing, and you time who can get round fastest (as in Western style barrel racing).
 
British Bulldog is good too. If dangerous. And you probably can't call it that any more.
But anyway in case you don't know one person is it, in the middle, and everyone else has to hurtle from one end of the ring to the other without getting tagged. If you get tagged, you are in the middle with 'it' .
So basically, there are increasing numbers of people trying to tag decreasing numbers of people.
It's a bit death or glory though.
 
Flag races, riding and leading with the leading bit being walking on upside down flower pots in a line, sack races, a cup on a post and to be carried to the end of the school and put on another post. Race to the end of the school, pour a cup of water out of a jug on a barrel and then carry the full cup back, all while mounted, first team to fill the second jug wins.
 
Cushion polo! I used to love it but my pony got too serious and started bitting others. SHE wanted than CUSHION!

To play you need and oil drum or similar at each end of the school and 2 in each team. The oil drum opposite is their goal. To get a goal you just slam the cushion on the drum. You can do a toss up at the start. My pone was ace at this. She'd header it backwards to me.....mmmm....I think tomorrow I'm digging out an old cushion...yay!
 
Oooh, I just remembered we mused to play a modified version of horseball as kids as well (before we got banned because we took it too seriously and got a bit violent!!) We used a big bit of spong tied up with bailing twine for the ball (nice and soft and the bailing twine made it easier to grab) and had to ride through wings at each end to score. Depending on how safe the ponies were we had a go at doing that thing where they hang round the side to grab the ball off the floor as well.

All lots of fun, I wish I was 14 again, for some reason my RI thinks we're too old for those sorts of games now!!
 
Depends on age of kids but at my daughters riding school they played granny goes shopping. Basically the instructor says granny went shopping to buy apples, and the kids race to the letter a, then bananas, carrots etc and the kids are flying round the school towards the letters. A good way for them to learn where the letters are, but the ponies have to be pretty good to play this.
 
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