✕ Close Setup
Before you start
  • Check the space and the kit.
  • Get your child's attention first.
  • Show it from two sides.
  • Say one thing only.
  • End on one that works.

Put the phone down where you can see it. Tap Next with your thumb, or use the arrow keys.

Setup · 1 minute

Is the space marked?

A hobby horse or a broom; shoes or cones as arena letters on a rectangle; low poles on shoes.

Warm up · 3 minutes

Three minutes to get warm.

Easy jogging on the spot, then arms and legs. How to warm up well is explained at workonfitness.com.

3:00
Show it · 1 minute
  1. Walk round the rectangle with the hobby horse: a steady stride. Trot: a light, bouncy jog. Canter: a skipping rhythm.
  2. Ride a circle the same size all round, then cross the arena corner to corner to change direction.
  3. Ride a serpentine: three loops across the arena.
  4. Come straight to a pole and cross it in the middle.

Show it once from the front and once from the side, slowly. Then let your child try.

The skill · 10 minutes
  1. Ride each gait round the rectangle.
  2. Draw a figure card (a circle, a change of rein across the diagonal, a serpentine) and ride it while the others watch the line.
  3. Ride over the low poles in the middle.

How much: 3 figures and 1 pole round

Aim for the middle

10:00
The game · 5 minutes

Pole round

The rules

Choose the line, cross each pole in the middle, no knock-downs, show-jumping style.

  1. Lay 5 low poles round the arena, numbered with paper
  2. Walk the course first to choose the line
  3. Trot or canter the course in order
  4. You count faults

Fair play: A grown-up must canter the whole course.

Points
Each rider starts with 20 points and loses 4 for each pole knocked down, 4 for a stop in front of a pole and 2 for a pole crossed near the end instead of the middle.
Fouls
The round ends: jumping the poles out of order; walking in a trot or canter round; three stops in one round
Win
The highest score left after one round each; ties ride again.
Child
0
Grown-up
0
  1. 10
  2. 16
  3. 20

5:00
Finish · 2 minutes

3 figures ridden in a row without leaving the line.

0/3

End on one that works. If it was hard today, finish with the easier version.

Finished

Well played.

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