Nothing Cuter than Kids and Curlies !

This past week in our area was mid winter break for the schools. Here in Springfield there is an out of school time program called LEAP, which stands for Learning Enrichment After-school Program. This program collaborated with Dream On Curls Riding Center to offer a horseback riding experience for children from kindergarten through fifth grade. They came in two groups~ one in the morning, one in the afternoon with 4 participants at a time. Many of the children had never been around a horse only having seen one from car window or maybe when someone rode by their house. Never before having been around a horse they learned all the steps in proper horsemanship-grooming, leading, and of course a chance to ride.

Many of the children come from unstable home environments or suffer from learning disabilities so having the opportunity to participate in something outdoors, active, fun, educational and rewarding is important and the memories will last a lifetime. When each group arrived, they received their ground rules for the time spent. Then they began learning the steps to grooming a horse. This gave them a chance to not only get a great upper body work out but also become familiar with their mounts. For each group we had 2 horses at a time. Curious as children can be, they asked a lot of questions and began learning some of the body language a horse uses to communicate. The kids, especially the older bunch, began to realize that much of the non verbal communication is the same as theirs.

After a thorough brushing it was time to learn about leading a horse. While this may seem like a simple task for horse owners, this really requires the person to think about body space, personal space and planning ahead for turns. When leading, you not only have yourself to think about but also a large animal that may not be able to turn as sharply as you can. The kids learned all the proper etiquette for leading such as keeping the head at your shoulder, not allowing the horse to fall behind or get ahead. The participants needed to take the horse through small obstacle courses around the arena to encourage them to work with the horse and think ahead in their task.

After the leading practice, time to mount and ride ! First all the riders were fitted with helmets. Two participants rode at a time, while the other two waited patiently for their turn. Each group was respectful in taking turns without any complaining about waiting. For anyone who has worked with kids this in itself was impressive. Some were initially nervous on horse back, which is alright since it is such as big animal and they are up so high. After once or twice around the ring all were ready to try their hands at steering a horse. Some were even able to go on their own without the lead-line attached. The kids navigated through a “trail” course or had games such as dropping something into a hoop. This gave them a goal or something to think about which took away from any nerves they may have had. It also began teaching them some of the basics about horse back riding such as steering, planning ahead, looking ahead, and working together towards a common goal.

At the end it was time to un-tack and brush their mounts as a thank you. This time was spent talking about how much fun they had and that they were ready to come back again. Through the rewarding opportunity many budding horse people were born. Seeing the smiles and hearing the laughter helped to take away any winter blues we had left ! We were able to snap plenty of great photo's. You can see lots of those here on you tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CecK-W3GuMA It might be a little long- but we didn't want to leave any rider out ! They all did so great ~ and the Curlies again showed themselves to be patient, steady and dependable. Because of the audio choice on the video, it is blocked in some countries but available for all the US viewers. By the way- if you download the iGive toolbar for your internet searches, iGIve will donate one penny for every search toward our scholarship fund 2 cents during the month of February ! It mounts up quickly.

Enjoy your day ~