Thank you all!! Such great ideas! Crazy4aOTTB, I LOVE the painting party…we will have to do that one!! 
The barn I work at has recently taken this same idea and ran with it. The goal is to have the barn feel more like a community. Now our barn caters mostly to very young students, so your barn may have a different atmosphere. We just had a “barn day” Girls (and parents) came to paint jumps and “beautify” the farm. This event was quite an expense for the barn, but we got a lot of needed tasks done and the families started to mingle. When you have one kid who only comes one day a week they never meet another who comes a different day!
We are planning “movie nights.” Our students are now encouraged to come after school watch lessons even when they don’t rider, and even do homework while they hang out at the barn. The girls learn more horsemanship helping do barn chores, and as their interest grows we profit teaching more lessons!
We don’t have a close tack shop so have made several trips as a group to Dover Saddlery in Atlanta.
I hate to give away all my best secrets, but every year we do a calendar. The theme changes every year, and the rider and horse must dress up to represent that theme. The more outrageous, the better. It then is our calendar for that upcoming year (which I actually use for everyday life!)
We’ve done:
Represent your month (My horse was a tree with working Christmas lights, I was a present, my daughter was an angel)
Movies (one pony was Darth vader, the other Princess Leia…yep, she wore the cinnabon wig)
Through the Ages (Mare & I were flappers)
Sport horses (I did Synchronized Swimming Here is a link to my public FB album of my insanity. Please ignore the farmer’s tan)
Perfect Pairs (Same grey pony was an oreo and I was a carton of milk, which was super well received as I took my daughter around trick or treating later that month).
It’s always fun.
Don’t know if we’re talking kids or adults or both…
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Bonfire/Campfire/s’mores
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Host a viewing party for a movie- I recommend the Horsepower DVD
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Tie-Dye party or some other art project
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Do a totally non-barn related outing (you’d have to know the specific group you’re dealing with to know which ones will appeal), ie: Painting with a Twist, SkyZone, Bounce-U
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Jump building/painting party
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Volunteer work or charity events as a group
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Stall decorating contests
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Photo shoots with the horses- you can get a little silly with younger kids and have them do costume or dress- up clothes
