# Horse Camp help...



## Vidaloco

It looks like you have most of the indoor stuff covered. Its going to be tough finding more. Heres a site I found Horse Games and Activities - Games and Activities for Horse Play Days
with a few suggestions.


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## ThatNinjaHorse

How old are they? 
Too old for games like musical chairs and such?
If not theres musical chairs like i said above, egg and spoon races, sack races etc.
Gymkhana type games

When i was younger i loved watching the horsey videos at the riding school i went to, like the olympic dressage, jumping, etc that sort of thing..

You could teach them to present a horse for show. (not sure what type of riding you teach at your barn) Teach them to plait up etc, and if they're younger let em go wild with ribbons and such haha :lol:

Bandaging legs..

You could have a quiz at the end of each day covering what they have learnt, and a mini comp at the end of the camp perhaps..

As for crafts, decorating a horse shoe? Make it into a picture frame or something.. thats all i can think of im not very good with crafty stuff lol

umm.. How about a game to show them how much a horse really costs each year? Not sure how exactly to do it but its an idea anyway..


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## wannahorse22

I do camps all the time! One time we got to do "Paint Your Masterpiece" horse figurines, and paint them..thn take them home! We also went over what judges look for at shows.


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## palominolover

i still really love playing tag on horses =) tag is always a good fun game for all ages.


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## Deerly

I used to go to horse camp when i was much younger!

It depends on the age group, of course, but here are some things I remember!

Learning/labeling the parts of a horse, parts of the hoof and parts of different saddles. 

Musical chairs with horses and cones, egg races, learning pole weaving/barrels how to show in a "halter class."

Is there someone you know or at the stables who can do some impressive "showing off" of a sport or discipline? Dressage or barrels or jumping? Then they could talk to the kids about how they got started and what it takes to become as awesome as they are.

Coloring their "dream" horse in coloring books or model horses.

Learning how to braid manes/tails.

Edit: Oh! And anything with a competition / quiz / goal should award little fake show ribbons for them to take him! Aww!


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## PaintHorseMares

Around here there is a fun horse camp that teaches the kids (7+) how to rope goats.


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## FlitterBug

Here are some of the things that I do with my summer camp:

I make a binder that goes over colors, tack, grooming, safety, measuring, etc. We get little fun stickers cheap at wal-mart and they love decorating their binders and taking them home with them. I include word searches and cross words in the binder.

Put double sided tape on index cards and label the parts of the horse. Let the kids stick the cards to 'ole care less kinda horse.

Horse Jeopardy - BIG HIT - make a jeopardy board on a piece of poster board. Some of my topics include breeds, tack, colors, behavior, grooming, etc. I usually stick post it notes over the categories that have been guessed and come up with the questions as we go along. Put them in teams, they have a lot of fun with it.

Horse beauty contest - if you have the room to bathe several horses at once, let them have a little fun with it, braid them, glitter, etc, judge them at the end. They also tend to wash themselves as much as the horses so its good for a hot day.

Horse Costume contest - I usually do this on the last day of camp, must have very understanding horses. I had a pony dressed up as a paper indian one year and my mini gelding was a fairy with a purple tutu (sp?) ironically weeks after being gelded.....

Horse games - toilet paper race, egg and spoon race, relay race, water race. Put kids in teams and give each team a barrel, some games are timed, some games are races. Put speed limits on it as needed. I usually say trot only, more than 2 strides of canter is disqualified.

Simon says is a great, controllable mounted game. Around the world and Indian Dismount are a bit more challenging. Ride-a-buck is always a good one as well. Have each kid bring a dollar with them, winner gets all the dollars. If they don't want to use money, you can do it with a piece of paper.

The boot race is a fun game that doesn't involve horses. Have all the kids put one boot in the center of the arena, have kids by the rail and give a go signal, the first one to run in, get their boot and make it back to the rail wins. You do need quite a few kids to make this game fun though.

Body paints for horses is fun if you want to.

Invest in a slip and slide or small kid pool. Water baloons are fun if you don't mind the clean up.

Horse shoe picture frames are a fun craft, you can also pick up small ceramic horses in craft stores really cheap for painting.

I had a couple of teenagers with nothing to do one summer, so I gave them a camera and said have fun. The kids parents loved getting a CD of what they did at camp.

We also have had a lot of fun with line dancing lessons if you know someone that knows some easy dances.

"The Blind Horse Game" - sounds terrible, but a lot of fun. No horses involved. Blindfold one kid and have them put a headstall over their head and the bit in their hands. Have the other kid stand behind them with reins and set up a small obstacle course. This has worked wonders to help kids be more aware of the signals that they are sending and put a lot more thought into communication with the horse (and each other).

Of course, give rules to these games according to the level of your kids. I have often found that if "barn chores" are part of your daily routine, then taking one away can be a great reward. I usually do games on Fridays, the winning team still has to do all chores besides one of their choice (stalls, buckets, raking, etc.)

Hope this helps, have fun with camp!


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## barrelracer892

The stables I work at does horse camp during the day. It lasts a week, then they get a whole new set of campers the following week. In the mornings they meet up and discuss the activities for that day, then they go out to the barn and feed and groom the horses, saddle up for a lesson, come in and eat lunch, do a class lesson in the office, go swimming in the lake, come back for a trail ride, then clean stalls, feed the horses again, then turn them out and repeat the process again. 

How about going on a scavenger hunt on horseback, and the clues be horse related so it will teach them new things. One of my friends did this for her birthday party when we were little. On Fridays at the horse camp the stables have what they call a "watermelon ride" when the campers invite their parents out for a trail ride and alone the way they have a picnic with watermelon and receive awards. Maybe you could see if you could get other instructors out that teach barrel racing, jumping, whatever to teach them a little about a different discipline. Also, see if you can get a farrier out to show them a little about shoeing horses. You could have them paint horseshoes, have a photoshoot with the horses, and make picture frames to put them in. When I went to the state horse school one year when I was little we made crosses to put on our saddles. They punched them out of leather for us, gave us letter stamps so we could carve our names in them, and paint them. Maybe you could also learn how to make beaded browbands. I've seen those around and they look gorgeous! Not sure how long it would take to do one though, I'd say a while.

Hope it helps! :]


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## luvs2ride1979

The girls are 7-13 years old, though I advertise for girls up to 15. I haven't had any 14-15 yr olds sign up yet.

I appreciate all of the ideas everyone! Today we gave two of the horses a bath, with soap and conditioner, we scrubbed one big water tub after we discussed a horse's daily needs, and I paired the girls up for a "bareback" lesson. One girl worked on leading the horse while the other rode, and they switched off. They rode facing forward, facing backward, and laid down so their helmet was on the rump of the horse. They really seemed to like that.

Tomorrow we're going to learn about tack (with some worksheets), take bridles apart, and clean saddles and bridles. We'll probably give two of the other horses bathes as well.

Thursday we have my vet coming for a talk. After that, I'm not sure yet... I'll read through all of your suggestions and see what I can come up with ;-). Maybe we'll practice wrapping pillows and standings on one horse (to go with the vet talk), along with some "fun" time. 

I wish we had horse shoes to make a craft.... All of my horses except one are barefoot, so we never have extra shoes laying around.


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## liliafavor

You can choose between two different horseback trail rides, which are offered as optional activities.Activities will be tailored to the group, and may include a field trip to a local equestrian event or facility, a riding lesson or trail ride, demos of riding, driving, or training, and in season, for lucky campers, observation of breeding or foaling. 


Zylkene|Arden Grange Dog Food


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## Alwaysbehind

luvs2ride1979 said:


> I wish we had horse shoes to make a craft.... All of my horses except one are barefoot, so we never have extra shoes laying around.


Call your farrier, I am guessing they will have a stash.


You need to do something that gives them stuff to take home. Some crafty horse project.
Even if it is as simple of fabric paint on t-shirts.


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## ThatNinjaHorse

Are they assigned a horse each for the whole camp? If so you could take a photo of each with their horse and give them


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## luvs2ride1979

We can't give trail rides. My insurance won't cover it and we don't have many around where we're at. There are lots of loose dogs too, which can make the horse's jump a bit. I don't want to risk anyone falling off...


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## luvs2ride1979

Alwaysbehind said:


> Call your farrier, I am guessing they will have a stash.
> 
> 
> You need to do something that gives them stuff to take home. Some crafty horse project.
> Even if it is as simple of fabric paint on t-shirts.


Duh, I'll call the farrier, lol. I did make them "riding journals" that they get to decorate. I'll stop by Hobby Lobby and see if they have any horse-y craft things. That might be fun to do on Friday. It may rain...


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## luvs2ride1979

ThatNinjaHorse said:


> Are they assigned a horse each for the whole camp? If so you could take a photo of each with their horse and give them


No, I have three horses that the six girls are rotating on. My other two lesson horses are "advanced" and all of the camp girls are beginner to intermediate. My next camp I will have two advanced girls that will ride my other horses. I could do the photo project that week.


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## apachiedragon

Most of what I do has been covered, but one other thing my campers have always loved was "What IS That?" you send them one at a time into the tack room to pick out a piece of equipment that they have no idea what is or what it's for, then you let everyone take a guess. "Prize" to the one that gets the closest. (we used mini snickers or dumdums) Then you explain what it is, and even show them if you can. This is also great for rainy days, because it ties up time, and you don't have to plan anything special to do it.


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## Alwaysbehind

luvs2ride1979 said:


> No, I have three horses that the six girls are rotating on. My other two lesson horses are "advanced" and all of the camp girls are beginner to intermediate. My next camp I will have two advanced girls that will ride my other horses. I could do the photo project that week.


You can do the photo project even if they are not assigned a horse. Ask them which horse they want to have a photo with and take it. If you get horse shoes they can make frames using them and then they have some place to put their photo. Or buy way cheap frames at hobby lobby and some horse themed decorations and they can decorate their frames and then have their photo to go in it.


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## barrelracer892

apachiedragon said:


> Most of what I do has been covered, but one other thing my campers have always loved was "What IS That?" you send them one at a time into the tack room to pick out a piece of equipment that they have no idea what is or what it's for, then you let everyone take a guess. "Prize" to the one that gets the closest. (we used mini snickers or dumdums) Then you explain what it is, and even show them if you can. This is also great for rainy days, because it ties up time, and you don't have to plan anything special to do it.


 
That's a really good idea! I'll have to suggest that to my boss.


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## brushycreekranch

Where are you located in AR? I am near Little Rock and have some used horse shoes lying around.


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