4-H and Kids

I am a horse leader for the local 4-H, and I'm looking for some fun things to do during our meetings... I know it's so hard for young people to concentrate on the boring stuff (heels down, sit up straight, balance, round in circles, ect), I'm just trying to find ways to "Spice Things Up". Thanks much in advance, I look forward to any responses!

Ok.. its been a long time since I was in 4h :roll: But I loved playing fluffy bunny. Where you see how many marshmallows you can stick in your mouth and still say fluffy bunny.

Not sure if this helps. Heck, I still like playing that!

I've never been in 4-H, so please excuse me if I'm waaaay off the bat here.

"Dry Land" (unmounted):
- Proper plaiting/braiding
- Nutrition
- Making a rope halter or bridle (this would be so much fun for a long meet!) - crafts like this are great for kids; you could get some plain wooden dandy brushes and have the kids paint them while lecturing on grooming, or something like that

Mounted:
- Obstacle courses - great for both horse and rider
- Doing balance things, like taking hands off the reins and stretch them up high, do ar circles, touch toes, etc
- Jumping without reins/stirrups/both
- Mounted games ( http://www.mounted-games.org/games/games.htm )



Hope I helped! Maybe? I'll post more later

Good advice :)

Thanks so much for the ideas! I usually end up losing the meeting halfway through (talking, talking, more talking), so maybe I can get their minds on something fun!

Our group meets for study/education and for ride days.

On ride days it has been popular to:

- make trail/western riding patterns and pretend to be doing an actual class like at a show (leaders judge and give verbal feedback)..the kids really liked it.

-run a western/english pleasure or equitation class, and have pairs of students practice judging the class and giving reasons (works better for the older kids to judge). Leaders can join in the class :)

-we will be doing some trail riding this summer

At our non-horse meetings we:

-made reins
-are going to make jump standards
-made mounting blocks
-played bridle in a bag (we took apart bridles, put them in a back, and then timed the girls putting them back together)
-made board games to study nutrition, care, etc.

Before I took my daughter out of 4-h ridding lessons and started working her here on our farm, they we're doing opsiscal courses, mail box, opening rope gates, crossing over bridges. She did have a few people come in to talk about horse related thing's. Although my daughter has learn't a lot more at home, there where to many young kids (who were not in the group running around and making it dangerus) I complained and nothing was done.

Well, being one leader against 13-20 kids is tough to begin with, so I encourage parents to come and participate (and help!) to keep the kids in line. Sometimes it doesn't work, and you will always have someone who gets too close to the "kicker", or is too busy chatting to pay attention and their horse spooks and off they go... But your going to have that anywhere you go - shows, playdays, ect. So, I guess it's just personal preference and whether or not your child is interested in 4-H. You do learn a lot in 4-H (usually, but there are some bad leaders out there I guess), but I have never pushed anyone to be in the group if they don't want to be

Oops !! Don't get me wrong !!! She had a lot of fun...it wasn't about the horses or the kids ridding them!! It's the parents who bring jonny to ride his horse then leave jonny's 3 little brothers there for us to watch while they go off shopping...this is going to be my daughter 3rd year in 4-h and having 3 kids, (my daughter is the only one in 4-h) it's either mom or dad's turn for a 4-h class, but never with the younger kids.

Oh, I totally understand! I can deal with the members (they always seem to be fairly responsible), but it is the siblings - excuse me, i'm not a babysitter! Sometimes I swear volunteers just get to have all the fun!

Thanks for the input... I have a meeting on both Sat and Sun, so I'm going to apply some of these ideas and see if I can keep them focused for more than 1/2 an hour I'll let you guys know, and wish me luck!