Any horse riding games i could teach to a kind of confident 10 year old?

i am curantly, teaching a (family member) girl to ride, age 10 she is rather confident, however all she wants to do is canter! she has not fallen off yet, and at the moment is doing little jumps, i am running out of ideas to do in games so she gets bored and decides she wants to canter! is their any games i could play with her to help her be more confident or just for her to enjoy!??Any horse riding games i could teach to a kind of confident 10 year old?
If she enjoys cantering - get her to count out the number of strides along one side of the school or between 2 poles. See if she can adjust the length of the ponies stride and get more or less strides in the distance. If she is really competitive she will be really keen to get a bit difference. 20 metre long is about 7-8 pony length in canter. See if she can get 8, 9 or even 10 strides in, this can also be done in trot. Gets them to start thinking about collected and extended paces. Helps balance, control and position
You could do some egg and spoon exercises for balance, or a water dipper 'race'. For egg and spoon just have her put an egg on a spoon and try to carry it while she's riding and not let it drop or crack. Water dipper race just put a bucket full of water on one end of the arena or field and an empty bucket at the other end, give her a long handled dipper (like a big soup ladle thing) and try to transfer as much water from one bucket to the other as she can (it's hard to do without spilling a lot!). You could also try a dollar bill game, which is especially good when riding bareback. Have her put a dollar bill under her thigh and try to keep it there as she's riding. If it stays, maybe she gets to keep the dollar? :D



You could also try Simon Says on horseback, or red light green light, stuff like that is fun.



Have fun!Any horse riding games i could teach to a kind of confident 10 year old?
You could try chase me charlie. It's a great game where you jump over a small jump, and hten it gets bigger and bigger each time, until you bang into a pole fall of, or anything like that. Its usually played with a lot of people but ones ok. She could try beating her personal recprd, or you could challenge her? It will help improve her jumping and move her onto bigger jumps. You could also do some gymkana games, u know egg n spoon race, sack race. Mabye you could try vaulting? She'd love that!!!Any horse riding games i could teach to a kind of confident 10 year old?
Lucky you, both my granddaughters are nervous nellies which is very frustrating. Try setting up some of the old-fashioned gymkhana games. One good one is set a row of stepping stones in a line about a foot apart in the middle of the field. Use anything that will hold her weight or folded feed sacks are ok. Put a pole at each end of the field. She must ride from the first pole to the 'stones' jump off, run across the stone without missing any and without losing her pony, get back on, ride to the other pole go around it and repeat the stones on the way back.

Also try puting up several poles in a line about eight or ten feet apart, with a washing up bottle, lid off, on the first pole. She must ride up, take the bottle off the first post and put it on the next one. ride back around the first pole and up to the second, again remove the bottle and put it on the third pole, back around the first and repeat until the last pole. Enjoy yourselves

Pat
Teach her the pony Club games, they are really fun. Even teach her how to vault, that is very fun :] or you could do gymkhana with her.



Ponyclub is very safety oriented and if the games are done correctly are safe and fun to do. first id have her try each game at a walk, then trot, and if possibly a canter. Ive been in Ponyclub for a long time and games is so much fun.

You don't have to join Ponyclub to learn the games though.

She could even join MGAA, which is like Ponyclub, but only the gaming part.
1- you could make her do an around the world...(a 360 degree turn in the saddle, first start at a halt, then a walk, and maybe then all the way to a jog! it's really fun, and it helps improve balance.



2- if you have another student in the same lesson, you could make them do relay races.



3- egg on a spoon



4- go bareback for 1 or 2 lessons to help improve balance (but only if the horse is ok with that)



hope i helped
as you havn't put what you've already tried its not easy to say but try things like doing gymkhana type things with her. if there is no one for her to compete against time her and get her to try to beat her time.

all you need for lots of different things are a few poles you can look at a schedule for a local show to get new idea's. other then that why not let her canter but make her practice controle at the same time. get her schooling then let her do whatever excercise she was doing in canter. then if she can't (if she can make the excercises harder) make her go back to a trot or walk and practice for abit. that way she has to work hard and keep trying with other stuff to get to canter.
If you live in the UK let her join the PC (pony club)

http://www.pcuk.org/

you learn all sorts of games and its very fun for confident riders... most children go up intil they are 13... but after then you can go onto doing camps and jumping, and dressage... its a small fee every year and its so much fun!!

Children learn to work with their ponies... like the children vault onto their ponies while they are cantering... and they lean out of the saddle to put potatoes in buckets... its good it they want to go at fast speeds and do different things



They also make friends with girls/boys their own age who have ponies !!
try gymkhana games ! That's what my mam done for me as all i ever wanted to do its canter across the open fields. Galloped a few times and mam was always frightened of e falling ! I enjoyed doing gymkhana games then when the shows came round i loved the gymkhana games as my horse and me were so used to doing them !!!
gymkhana games are always fun... unless any of her friends ride, you will have to do them "against the clock" rather that as races...

egg %26amp; spoon

potatoes in bucket

obstacle course

bending race

or give her an easy kind of dressage test,make her learn it off by heart than show it to other family members. set up a course of jumps and time her. take her out for hacks? hope these ideas have helped! x have fun x
tell her to stop being a pain in the ***. ughh i hate bratty kids like that and it seems to me like her confidence is through the roof so why try to make her cocky? do red light green light or actual serious riding. riding is not all fun n games and she has to learn dicipline.
set up a white elephant game? give her list of items she needs to find in the area on horseback
idk i agree with the first answer
Simon says. Simon says touch your pony拧 left ear. So she does.

Touch the pony拧 right ear and she should not.



You could try putting her on the lunge and doing different exercises - trotting with two mugs (suggest plastic ones with handles) which will help her improve her hand position. Ie opening and closing elbows in rising trot to prevent water spillage, whip across thumbs etc, round the world in walk, stretching and bending etc.



All these exercises will improve her balance, coordination and position without it seeming like there is a purpose.



Off the lunge try and see how many changes of rein she can do in the school without repeating them, ie diagonal, down centre line, half circles, half circles and diagonals in one move four loop serpentine etc.



Get her to do various exercises with eyes close and guess the position of horse拧 legs - ie is he on correct diagonal.



Teach her turn on the forehand, though not too often as pony will go on forehand. Riding with one hand, steering with legs only.



Tell her that the pony cannot be expected to canter all the time because he will get stitch (like she does when she runs around in the playground) and he needs to get his breath back.



Jumping down a line of low fences with and without stirrups and reins in different combinations, touching ears, tails etc will all help improve balance and independent seat and position without too much strain on the horse. How many fingers am I holding up as she goes down the line of jumps - getting her to look forward and up rather than down at the fences.



Think of something that she does which needs warming up to explain the reason for flat work and why we cannot just get on a pony and gallop and jump.
We have a youth group for our kids, and we all ride Saddle Seat, but I definitely know what you mean! I have found out that the kids with the most confidence need more challenges while riding and on the ground.



So play games with her like Equitation games if you will. Have to jump over this and that in order, then come in to a halt, walk a few steps, trot around the ring, canter one wall, and so on. If she can do this she can canter a bit more, but make her work for it.



If she is really good and stable you can let her trot around without stirrups or lunge lessons, which are always good exercise anyway. Something to keep her mind and muscles working.



Also while not riding make her do the same "equitation" things as above. At our youth group meetings we play Horse Shows, Equitation Games, Tack Cleaning Contests, Grooming Points, and other such challenges.



I hope that helps! You can also google some games to play while on horse back or make up little obstacle courses for her. Reward her with cantering too.



Good luck :).



~Amanda
play simon says, she does circles around you and you say " simon says trot for 7 strides" continue like this, but occasionally drop in commands with out saying "simon says". If she does them, then she has lost. See how many commands you can do without her losing or doing something that "simon hasn't said to do"



set up 7 or 8 bending poles or witches hats about 2.5 metres apart. When you say go, she has to weave in and out of the poles, turn around and weave back to the finish line. You can also vary this by when she gets to the end of the poles, she races back to the finish along the side of the poles, not weaving. You time her during the bending exercise and see if she can beat her previous time.



If you have another horse that you can ride, practise riding in pairs. Get the horses as close as you can and make sure one isn't further in front than the other. Then you can try it trotting and cantering if you're feeling confident, even going over little jumps (as long as they are really wide jumps, so there is room for 2 horses to jump at the same time).



If the horse that she rides is educated in being lunged, you can lunge him around and have her practise riding with out stirrups, then get her to take her hands off the reins. Ask her to touch her right hand to her left toe, while the horse is moving forward. Try this in walk, trot and if you think she is up to it, canter.



I hope this has helped, good luck!!!