The Equine Impact

What You Need:
Cones/Barrels
Towels/Toys/Blankets

This is a fun game to play with clients that the parents and caregivers will love. I call it “clean up your room” because the goal is to put toys back where they belong. It’s a fun way to encourage clients to clean up their messes and take responsibility for their belongings.

There’s several ways the arena can be arranged to play this game but I’ll keep it super simple for this example. Place one cone on either end of the arena and a barrel off to the side to hold your toys. I like to use towels, balls, or rings for this game because they easily fit on the cones. Below is a little example of how I might set up the ring. The smiley faces and scroll represent our toys for this game.

Have riders pick up toys from the barrel and bring it to the cones. Towels are one of my favorite toys to use here because it is easy for riders to carry, requires a strong hand to hold the towel and requires minimal hand-eye coordination to get the towel on to the cone. It is also a very big toy that can be seen from around the arena so the rider will know if the towel has been returned or not. You can make up fun names for the cones and barrel too, like the barrel is the “toy bin” and the cones are the “playroom” and the “kitchen.”

Once riders carry the towel over to the “playroom” and another toy or towel to the “kitchen,” ask riders to clean up their room and return the toys! I have a lot of fun with this game, especially if I have younger riders. We talk about bringing toys into the playroom, then playing a game with them (this can take any form you want), then needing to clean up after playing. Sometimes toys get spread out all over the house, like the playroom AND the kitchen then we really need to go clean up! That’s when we bring all the toys back to the barrel (aka the “playroom”).

Try this in your next lesson and let me know your thoughts! I hope this helps stimulate some creative ideas for your lessons.