Class Activities

Class activ­i­ties are designed to chal­lenge and ben­e­fit our rid­ers in phys­i­cal, cog­ni­tive and social ways, and are a com­bi­na­tion of rid­ing skills and cre­ative edu­ca­tional games. The basic rid­ing skills we teach and develop include: walk, halt, trot, 2-point, turn­ing, bar­rel courses, cav­aletti poles and more. In addi­tion, we strengthen these skills through games such as bas­ket­ball, bean­bag toss, mem­ory, match­ing and more. For added ben­e­fit, we take rid­ers through our Sensory Trail — an inter­ac­tive learn­ing trail ride within the wooded acres of Misty Meadow Farm.

Despite the under­ly­ing goals of cog­ni­tive, phys­i­cal and social devel­op­ment, the activ­i­ties are FUN and encour­age inde­pen­dence and friend­ship as well. Below is a list of some of the activ­i­ties we do with the rid­ers. Each activ­ity focuses on spe­cific ther­a­peu­tic ben­e­fits, which are then built upon each con­sec­u­tive week through­out the season.

WARM-UP EXERCISES
All classes begin with a series of exer­cises to warm-up the rid­ers’ mus­cles and cre­ate an aware­ness of balance.

BUILD-A-BUNNY
Build-A-Bunny is a fun, cre­ative activ­ity in which rid­ers earn indi­vid­ual pieces of a bunny (i.e. nose, tail, ears) by com­plet­ing spe­cific rid­ing tasks. At the end of the exer­cise, the rider has all the pieces nec­es­sary to cre­ate a paper bunny to take home with him/her! This activ­ity is designed to work on recog­ni­tion, eye-hand coor­di­na­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills, as well as improve basic rid­ing skills.

DRILL TEAM
Drill Team activ­i­ties encour­age rid­ers to work on mem­ory skills, team-building, com­mu­ni­ca­tion and pat­terns. Partnered with other rid­ers, the class designs a drill pat­tern which all com­plete together, devel­op­ing a sense of accom­plish­ment and com­ple­tion of a big, col­lab­o­ra­tive task.

RINGS & THINGS
Through proper rein­ing tasks (left, right, halt), this activ­ity is designed to work on eye-hand coor­di­na­tion by plac­ing rings on poles. Trunk flex­i­bil­ity is improved by cross­ing the mid­line with rings, and accom­plish­ment is mea­sured through the accu­rate rein­ing of the horse into position.

MATCHING GAME
By steer­ing through a course of bar­rels, rid­ers earn visual cards that they match with other images. This activ­ity is designed to increase mem­ory reten­tion skills, mus­cle tone and con­trol and social inter­ac­tion. Focus is placed on eye-hand coor­di­na­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills.

BOWLING FOR POINTS
By rid­ing through an imag­i­nary bowl­ing “lane”, rid­ers develop mus­cle con­trol through the release of the ball towards the pins. This activ­ity is designed to rein­force basic math skills and proper rein­ing. Each rider is chal­lenged with a vari­ety of skills such as eye-hand coor­di­na­tion, cog­ni­tive bal­ance, mus­cle con­trol and spa­tial orientation.

BUCKET OF BALLS
Riders select a col­ored ball from the start­ing line, and ride through the pat­tern until they can match the ball color to a col­ored bucket. This activ­ity is designed to ben­e­fit spa­tial ori­en­ta­tion, depth per­cep­tion and eye-hand coor­di­na­tion. Balance, mus­cle tone, and mus­cle con­trol are stim­u­lated through head and/or trunk rota­tion. Cognitive motor plan­ning and tim­ing are exer­cised through dis­tance, speed and direc­tion of activ­ity. Various shapes, sizes and tex­tures are used to pro­vide dif­fer­ent tac­tile experiences.

BEADS & BOWS
Through cre­ative and inter­ac­tive exer­cises, rid­ers play “dress up” with their horses. Using a vari­ety of beads, bows, and other items, rid­ers place the ele­ments on their horses, fol­lowed by com­plet­ing a riding-specific task. This activ­ity is designed to increase atten­tion span while also improv­ing self-esteem. Eye-hand coor­di­na­tion, fine motor skills and gross motor skills are also uti­lized in this game.

OBSTACLE COURSE
Riders com­plete a course of obsta­cles which chal­lenge their minds and bod­ies. This activ­ity is designed to rein­force direc­tional skills (rein­ing) while engag­ing large and small mus­cle groups, build­ing sta­mina, increas­ing atten­tion span (cog­ni­tive) and self-esteem (success).

ONE, TWO, THREE
Riders steer their horses through a course of color-coded ground poles, each rep­re­sent­ing a spe­cific task (speed up, walk, 2-point over pole, halt, etc.). This activ­ity is designed to chal­lenge the rider both phys­i­cally and mentally.

OBSTACLE COURSE TIMES TWO
This activ­ity is designed to keep the rider fully engaged for max­i­mum suc­cess. Emphasis is placed on main­tain­ing con­trol while stay­ing focused on the task at hand from begin­ning to end.

DISCOVERY
This activ­ity explores the con­cept of “cause and effect.” Riders can dis­cover the impact they have on con­trol­ling and direct­ing their horse by proper use of the reins, posi­tion of their body and voice commands.

SQUEAKY CLEAN
Riders spend time groom­ing their horses, learn­ing the value of step-by-step processes and per­sonal hygiene. Emphasis is placed on the con­cept of “hard” and “soft” brushes, as well as over­all care for another. This activ­ity is good for mus­cle con­trol, eye-hand coor­di­na­tion and mem­ory recall.

MIXED BAG OF TRICKS
This activ­ity uses a vari­ety of props to encour­age rider involve­ment. Muscle con­trol, mus­cle tone and com­mu­ni­ca­tion are a few of the objec­tives
for this lesson.

To learn more, or share an idea for a new activ­ity, please click here to con­tact us.