For Riding Instructors- good games to add into your lesson plans

Games
1. Simon says. Can be done on the lunge line or while riding with one hand.
2. Eye Spy
3. Dressage letter game, rider has to swivel and point to the letter called out. Can do another version of this, by having the student name something horse related that begins with that letter.
4. Alphabet game, class goes through the alphabet and has to name an equine term that begins with that letter, sometimes I have to allow an animal word like for K and Z.
5. How many can we name game- pick a topic like breeds of horse, colors of horses, markings of horses, etc and each student in the class guesses how many the group will be able to name, then go around from student to student and have them name what they can.
6. Hangman -- We have a white board in the arena and you put the gallows and the dashes for however many letters are in the word you choose. Then they have to earn the right to guess a letter. For very green riders, you may have them walk around the ring without cutting corners and come back to the white board to make their guess. For more advanced in may be trot to A and then do a turn of the forehand and trot back (maneuver has to be done correctly to earn a letter guess).
7. Terms or Trivia game- Each lesson I have my students remember 1 or 2 terms for the next lesson, this way they build their equine vocabulary.
Then when we play the game, for beginners, I just ask them some easy terms maybe 3 or 4, then we move on to something else.
More seasoned students I will ask them 2 or 3 terms and they will ask me 2 or 3 terms. I tell them that I might not answer correctly and they have to give the correct answer. The students get a kick out of when I answer with a silly wrong answer.
Make sure the students keep a nice walk on the horse while playing these games if they are unable to do both, to not ruin your horses walk ,play these game from a stand still.

[@lesliemoiseauthor]

I'm always happy to see your posts🎉