A reader named Twuana of Loving Thunder Therapeutic Riding Inc. has sent in a brilliant game her program plays every Superbowl week. I love incorporating current festivities into the arena, and hope you enjoy it too!
Horse Football
Setup:
- Make a football field in your arena. “We borrow a sports chalk striper from the local parks and rec dept and paint a football field on our arena.”
- 2 sets of laminated cardboard footballs. “Each football has something written on it. 5, 10, 15, 20 yards, touchdown, field goal, punt, fumble. This is all offense, no defense.”
- 2 small footballs, preferably Nerf/soft
Activity
- Organize the riders into two teams (they usually use 2 teams of 2)
- Both teams start at the 50 yard line. Each team gets a bag of laminated cardboard footballs and a soft football.
- Do a coin toss to determine who goes first.
- The teams alternate drawing footballs from the bag and moving the appropriate amount of yardage. They are given the soft footballs to carry as they move.
- Let the points accumulate. When they reach the end, the rider turns around and goes to the other end. “We may end up with pretty high scores, but just whoever has the highest points when time is up, wins. Then we keep a count of how many games were won by each team, and that is our prediction.”*
- If you have soft footballs such as Nerf, you can practice tossing the ball back and forth to each rider.
*Twuana adds, “We have always pretended to predict the winner of the SuperBowl and the last 6 out of 7 years we were predicting correctly. This year we even tied the last game, hmmmm. But our players predicted the Falcons not the Patriots. Oh well it is still a fun game and the kids and volunteers have a great time. … FYI, sometimes we end up going the same directions, but who cares. It’s all fun anyway.”
I love it! Thank you so much for sharing, Twuana!
Does anyone else play a football game to celebrate Superbowl? Or any other sports game in season?
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Note: This is not professional advice, this is a blog. I am not liable for what you do with or how you use this information. The activities explained in this blog may not be fit for every rider, riding instructor, or riding center depending on their current condition and resources. Use your best personal judgement! If you would like to contribute an activity or article, please contact me here, I would love to hear from you!