FUN IDEAS FOR PONY CARE

  1. Divide children into teams. Write down all the points of the pony beginning with the letters S, C & F. Can they point them out on the pony or write on sticky labels and stick them on a pony?
  2. Practice bandaging on each others’ legs – then have a three legged bandaging race – do the bandages stay on?
  3. Team ‘tack assembly’ race. Undo bridles, put in buckets, each team member races to get a named piece (help the younger ones) and races back with it, then next one goes until all pieces are collected. (You could even include a tack cleaning session at this stage – good way to make tack cleaning fun at Camp). Winning team is first team to put bridle back together correctly.
  4. Design and draw the most dangerous field – explain the dangers. Use farm playset for younger members.
  5. Blindfold game. Identify grooming kit / bridle parts / bits etc. by feel. Once identified each member has to explain their use.
  6. Treating a wound. Use tomato ketchup and a grey pony and show the correct method of dealing with a wound. Then have wound treatment competition to see who is the best Vet.
  7. Put out different pieces of unusual equipment / feed samples etc. and divide children into teams and see if they can recognise everything and explain its use. You could also do this with the non-equine achievement badges eg. photos of wild animals / working dogs / birds.
  8. Charades. Children mime something eg. picking out feet, putting on NZ rug etc. – rest of children guess. You can make up some cards with photos from magazines eg. dandy brush / studs etc and they can mime the objects in teams. These are always useful for a rainy day.
  9. Guess what I am. Divide into teams and give each child an object eg. Farrier tool and they have to explain to their team members what they do.! You may need a copy of The Manual to hand and allow some learning time beforehand. Or you could also use playdoh and get teams to make the object.
  10. Question time. Get each child to ask the next one a question on what they learnt in your pony care session to check the learning. You can also do this with your riding sessions.

Hilary Wakefield