Hi, all!
I'm throwing my birthday party at the barn next month and I'd really appreciate some ideas for horseback games we could do as a competition. Our background - we will be about 10 people with their horses, all intermediate and advanced riders. Two of the horses can be ridden at walk only, the rest are fit for a large workload and also jumping. We are all English riders, can do also NH groundwork and have an outside dressage arena, some jumps and huge trails, starting right by the barn, and, of course, pastures. I would like to combine games so that they can be done by all - at least by teaming together, so that a part of a game can be done by a "walk only" horse, but the other can be done by somebody more fit. In general, I need something that is easy and fun for all to do.
Games I have thought of myself -
* All participants enter the pasture with a treat bucket. The winner of the "Black Stallion Connection" competition is the one whose horse goes up to his owner first. Don't worry, our horses are well behaved and are safe around buckets in the pasture, as trained.
* A participant gets blindfolded and is lead up to two (or maybe three?) horses. The objective is to pet their muzzles and say, which of the two is their horse. This also goes under the "Black Stallion Connection" competition.
* A rider is blindfolded while on her horse and then they are lead up to a small ground pole maze. A teammate then describes the movements neccessary to go through the maze and the rider has to do all the riding, trusting completely on what the teammate says. This would be for "testing" how the rider pays attention to what a trainer has to say.
* Jumping three jumps for speed, also the objective is not to lose an oversized, silly hat, so speed and caution have to be combined.
* Some of us sometimes brag jokingly that their horse can canter so smooth and slow that you could drink a coffee out of a small cup without fearing of spilling it. We call that a "Coffee Canter". So there would be an objective to canter three full laps around the arena...with a cup, or maybe a pot of coffe in one hand. The winner is who has lost the least coffee.
* Two teams, two riders in each, compete on which team will get to the other side of the arena the fastest. The objective of a team is to go as follows - one is riding at a walk, the other, by her side - backwards, and they must keep one hand on the other horse's butt at all times. When done, they hop off their horses, grab a bucket of some treats each and run back to the start line, their horses in hand and moving as fast as possible. The winner team is the one whose horses cross the line and empty the buckets first.
* Covering a distance at the fastest walk possible, not breaking the gait, and then coming back at the slowest canter possible (maybe jumping off after the walk, tacking the horse up in all the possible anti-fly tack, leg wraps, etc., then hopping back up), not breaking the gait.
* While one of the teammates is off in the trails for a short trail speed event that would take her no longer than 20 minutes, the other has to...yes, what the other has to do? I have no ideas for this, but I intend to think of something that a "walk only" pair could do. Maybe something connected with braiding, grooming, tacking, groundwork?...
Anyhow, any ideas welcome.
I'm throwing my birthday party at the barn next month and I'd really appreciate some ideas for horseback games we could do as a competition. Our background - we will be about 10 people with their horses, all intermediate and advanced riders. Two of the horses can be ridden at walk only, the rest are fit for a large workload and also jumping. We are all English riders, can do also NH groundwork and have an outside dressage arena, some jumps and huge trails, starting right by the barn, and, of course, pastures. I would like to combine games so that they can be done by all - at least by teaming together, so that a part of a game can be done by a "walk only" horse, but the other can be done by somebody more fit. In general, I need something that is easy and fun for all to do.
Games I have thought of myself -
* All participants enter the pasture with a treat bucket. The winner of the "Black Stallion Connection" competition is the one whose horse goes up to his owner first. Don't worry, our horses are well behaved and are safe around buckets in the pasture, as trained.
* A participant gets blindfolded and is lead up to two (or maybe three?) horses. The objective is to pet their muzzles and say, which of the two is their horse. This also goes under the "Black Stallion Connection" competition.
* A rider is blindfolded while on her horse and then they are lead up to a small ground pole maze. A teammate then describes the movements neccessary to go through the maze and the rider has to do all the riding, trusting completely on what the teammate says. This would be for "testing" how the rider pays attention to what a trainer has to say.
* Jumping three jumps for speed, also the objective is not to lose an oversized, silly hat, so speed and caution have to be combined.
* Some of us sometimes brag jokingly that their horse can canter so smooth and slow that you could drink a coffee out of a small cup without fearing of spilling it. We call that a "Coffee Canter". So there would be an objective to canter three full laps around the arena...with a cup, or maybe a pot of coffe in one hand. The winner is who has lost the least coffee.
* Two teams, two riders in each, compete on which team will get to the other side of the arena the fastest. The objective of a team is to go as follows - one is riding at a walk, the other, by her side - backwards, and they must keep one hand on the other horse's butt at all times. When done, they hop off their horses, grab a bucket of some treats each and run back to the start line, their horses in hand and moving as fast as possible. The winner team is the one whose horses cross the line and empty the buckets first.
* Covering a distance at the fastest walk possible, not breaking the gait, and then coming back at the slowest canter possible (maybe jumping off after the walk, tacking the horse up in all the possible anti-fly tack, leg wraps, etc., then hopping back up), not breaking the gait.
* While one of the teammates is off in the trails for a short trail speed event that would take her no longer than 20 minutes, the other has to...yes, what the other has to do? I have no ideas for this, but I intend to think of something that a "walk only" pair could do. Maybe something connected with braiding, grooming, tacking, groundwork?...
Anyhow, any ideas welcome.