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Fun ideas for group lessons for children

I’ve gone back to teaching, and I’ve been offered 2 days a week at a riding school. The owner is lovely, the horses are fantastic and so are the students. However, I primarily teach dressage and adults. I only have 2 children in my private clientele; both are competitive jumping riders who are getting flatwork to improve their jumping. I treat them like I do my adults.

I feel a little stuck for the little ones in my lesson program. All are under 10. The majority of them walk/trot with the occasional one who will canter. The owner, who also instructs, is adamant about the kids being safe and having fun. She’s not into endless laps of the arena drilling position and nothing else. And neither am I. Even with my other students, I like to keep things fresh and fun.

I’ve got jumps, bending poles, plenty of barrels and poles at my disposal. All students ride for 45 minutes.

Does anyone have some fun games? Especially that we can do as a group so kids aren’t standing around getting bored.

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Cavaletti poles/ pole courses are a great way to teach balance and steering. I grew up playing games like red light green light, doing bending and flag races, egg and spoon etc.

You can also do drill team type stuff-- practice riding side by side matching pace, staying exactly the same distance behind the horse in front etc.

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Broom polo, riding or leading your horse.

There are tons of games you can play with your barrels and poles and maybe a few common items like cups or bottles. Get some ideas here: https://www.ponyclub.org/ContentDocs/Activities/Rulebooks/2022/2022%20Games%20Rulebook.pdf

You can easily do bending, mug shuffle, three mug, bottle, housewife’s scurry, pyramid, carton, Canadian. You can modify the rules to adapt to what you have on hand. You can also make most of the equipment for all the games pretty cheaply and easily (or give it as a project to the kids or their parents). If you can make two lanes, you can split the kids into two teams.

Aside from Pony Club games, you could do red light/green light and simon says, or make up your own obstacle course using the poles, barrels, ground poles & cavalletti.

When I was a kid we had this really interesting clinician come to our farm. This is going to sound weird, but hear me out.

She made human “bits” out of…I dunno…maybe clothes hangers? The reins were just yarn. (LOL this really does sound weird as a type it).

She put the kids into pairs. One was the “horse,” the other was the “rider.” The rider had to cue the horse to do different things by standing behind, using the reins/bit, clucking, etc. No talking whatsoever. The point was learning how aids can be effective/ineffective/clear/unclear…and how confusing it can be for a horse.

That lesson really stayed with me for some reason. And no horses were used up in the process :).

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I have created endless versions of “Resue Ralph”. The premise is that Ralph, the teddy bear needs to rescued from one barrel and placed on another.
Variations:

  1. as a team relay race (although has some students standing)
  2. Everyone else needs to ride in 2 point until the designated rider rides down, picks up Ralph and brings him back to the “home” barrel. The next round (new designated rider) everyone has to post with one hand on their helmet until Ralph is rescued…and so on.
  3. Team obstacle race: rider one picks up Ralph and rides over poles, sets him on barrel 2. Rider 2 picks up Ralph and weaves in and out of poles, sets him on barrel 3. Rider 3 picks up Ralph, opens and closes a gate, sets him on barrel 4…and so on. (has some students standing, but they can cheer their teammates on)

Also, what about a mini trail ride once a month? Even if you don’t have trails I have taken kids out in the larger pastures (if unoccupied and ponies are ahem trustworthy). You can practice control in the open, maybe even up and down some hills, and teach that it isn’t always about riding in the ring, horse shows, etc.

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In addition to ride a buck, egg and spoon, relay races with whatever (can be done at a jog), etc. For dismal weather days or off saddle games, pony club does have a bazillion ideas that get kids learning about tack, horse conformation, riding etiquette and riding safety. These used to be treated as “horse bowl” much like trivia games but also, we broke up into teams to compete as well for ‘fun prizes’ and of course honor badges. Horsemanship ‘lessons’ and games are often a welcome topic for kids. My two participated in a summer horse camp for successive years and loved the off-horse learning along with the riding lessons.

This is also my suggestion. It’s good flat work challenge and also requires social interaction and cooperation.

@Displaced_Yankee, Rescue Ralph sounds like so much fun!

Another fun idea is letting the kids come up with something for them all to do. That kid has to explain the rules to their game/idea and help the other kids understand.

I love all these games! I wanna play, lol.

My son’s lesson group was big, so they put up most of the horses and did relay race teams of 3 or 4 kids and all shared one horse for the games. It was quite funny because the horses were trying so hard for the kids. If a newer rider went first and confused the horse, they tended to stay confused. The kids learned to put their best rider first so the horse knew what was expected. Any deviation was entirely the rider after that.

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Games! It helps with balance, coordination, steering, and confidence!

Ideas:
http://www.usmga.us/USMGA/mobile/main.php

Many of the games require simple things like cones, balls, something to pass off (even a bottle or brush)

This totally!
Things like dismounting can be scary but add it to a game and then it becomes fun.

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Ride-a-Buck (bareback)
Verstility challenge elements (e.g. 4 hooves have to touch the bottom of a kiddie pool)
“Trail” riding, include 2 mailboxes. take it out of #1, deliver to #2.
Egg and Spoon.
Down and back - ride horse to a line, get off, eat somehing, put a rainjacket on,etc. run back leading your horse.
Down and back - run to the line, do whatever, person holding your horse helps you mount and run back.
Musical chairs (older riders)

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Games are very fun, but can quickly turn into chaos with the youngest riders and they may not get much out of them for a while.
When my daughter was that age we did trivia while riding. You have to keep posting, jumping position or whatever while competing to answer questions. Makes them learn to think and ride at the same time :slight_smile:
Also Simon says with things like “raise your hand if you are on the correct diagonal”.
Practice being the line leader and then doing a circle to get to the back of the line, then next one does it an so on. The front person gets to choose the exercise and everyone else has to copy.
Holding a folded dollar in your hands (or legs if they are better). If you can keep your fingers closed and still have your dollar at the end of the lesson you can keep it.
Occasional mini awards (verbal, no need to make it complicated), shiniest boots, best picked out feet, cleanest pony legs, all the keepers done up etc.
Have kids watch others rounds instead of just standing there. Each person gives something the rider did well. Instructor notes what to work on for next time.

Rescue Ralph was a big hit!

Thank you for the suggestions everyone. All of my students are having a blaster. Three of them even had their first canters the other day which was fantastic.

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