Lessons In TR

Hello, I’m still here! Kinda… If you’re from the midwest, it’s been a minute. If you’re from the west coast, it’s been a while. If you’re from the east coast, I don’t know how you say it. Either way, I’ve not posted in over a year because I had a big health regression. We caught a bunch of viruses and I pretty much felt nauseous and unwell and anxious all year. In hindsight, now that I’ve done genetic testing, my body doesn’t detox very well. But thanks to liver detoxes and treating H. Pylori and EMDR, I’m doing a lot better. What more, I still have little kids at home, my horse has injured her leg 5 times in the same spot the past 2 years, and I’ve not been able to instruct at all. It feels like a past life – and yet, I find myself inspired by random things to blog and share them with you. So here we go!

(First, a side note about the ads, I really need to update the site regarding ads and placements as the way things work the past few years has changed, I just haven’t had the time or bandwidth to figure it out. So if it’s annoying I’m sorry, but this site’s webhosting is pretty much funded by ads so I’m keeping them…)

Activity Ideas

First off, every time I go to Target and through the dollar section, which is right at the entrance, I’m inspired to make some game for an adapted riding lesson, especially seasonal ones! Let me walk you through some ideas from the last year, with the hope that it inspires you to find seasonal cheap things you can turn into a new activity.

These 3 Spring things are in Target right now! I would set up flowers around the arena and have the riders “water” them. Then I’d have the riders collect the flowers and put them in buckets. Maybe I’d put a ball in each bucket and have them collect the ball in the butterfly catcher and move it to another bucket. I wonder how I could have them “catch butterflies” with the catchers…

St. Patrick’s Day flags. Pick them out of a cone on a barrel and deliver them to another barrel. Use them for warm ups – hold them above your head, out to the side, etc. Scavenger hunt to find all the flags.

Spring weather station. This was just too cute, and involves lots of handwork and fine motor coordination. You could hide the puzzle pieces around the arena and when each one is found, put it in the right place, then discuss. What is the weather today? (What do you see or hear? Turn the dial to that weather.) What is the temperature? (Does it feel hot or cold?). How are you feeling today? (Happy like the cloud, sad like the raindrop, or something else?)

Fourth of July – Use the numbers (first pic) to mark out stations around the arena, ending with crossing under the finish line (second pic), including something with tossing rings on cones (third pic). Also, those foam letters and numbers are so great!

Fall – velcro ax throwing (is this a camping thing? it just seemed fun! Or don’t even throw them, just put them on the target). The little campfire was so cute, I thought the pieces came apart but they don’t – however, it made me imagine a game of breaking down a campfire into pieces (logs, fire, sticks, marshmallows) and creating an activity with those. The tree stump buckets are just cute, use them to collect the pieces of the campfire. And those little fall forest animals are so cute too. Find the animals, put them in your bucket, and bring them to the fall picnic.

If you feel like you use the same activities all the time, remember, kids like repetition, and you can make it new and exciting just by switching up the props.

Lastly under activity ideas, last spring my daughter’s tots gymnastics class had fake flowers you poke into cones. Imagine what you can do with cones on barrels and fake flowers for a spring activity!

They also had her use rings as steering wheels while walking on the beam. I thought this might be a good arms warm up for riding.

Lastly, if anyone has ever done gymnastics you will remember playing the blue mats are shark infested waters (don’t fall in)! If I found some sharks like this, or printed some off and laminated them, I would put them on the ground and have the riders steer to avoid them – for more advanced riders, practice keeping their head level but looking down with their eyes, or using “soft eyes”, to see the sharks.

A summer idea (no picture) is a “pool party” day, where you use pool toys for activities – like pool rings, pool batons, actually have a little pool with water to toss things into or fish out of… basically take a pool toy and come up with something. If you don’t have any, keep an eye out for sales at the end of summer at your local grocery or thrift store.

Obviously these are just the building blocks and not whole lesson plans. But I wanted to share some inspiration!

Camp Craft Idea

Here is a fun horse camp indoor craft idea: Franz Marc Blue Horse Inspired Hand Painting! Basically, do a blue handprint and make it into a horse. Even better, include some art literacy in there! My kids’ school has a great art program where they learn about an artist for a month and their famous pieces and techniques, then try to replicate their artwork and create their own in a similar style. It seems like something that could be incorporated into horse camp.

Resources

Check out this great resource for instructors, Teaching Aids for EAS! Visual aids and teaching tools, printables and purchase-ables, everything here looks so great. It’s been around a little while but I haven’t had the chance to share it or add it to my links page until now!

New Study

Ok it’s not so new because I wrote this a while ago, but did you see this Facebook Post by Stable Friendships Foundation? They looked at how different rider positions on a saddle and on a blanket affect the “body’s ability to maintain its position in space for stability.” The findings are helpful for decisions you make about your riders’ tack. Here’s MY takeaways:

• If you want more side-to-side movement for your rider, use a blanket (as in, blanket/surcingle combination). Hands can be on the handle, feet can be in stirrups, or neither support, as all positions provided greater side-to-side movement for the rider.
• If you want greater muscle activation in the lower limbs, use the blanket with feet in the stirrups.
• If you want higher trunk muscles activation, use hands on the handle and feet in the stirrups.

Ok that’s all I got for now. Happy Spring, may all your horses shed out quickly!

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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!