Lindsay from Houston, Texas emailed in and asked me, “What are some fun games to play on and off your horse, with your horse?” I thought this too neat of a question to simply reply only to her so I’m blogging about it to share with everyone. I was a young girl in 4-H near Houston, Texas myself and my 4-H group would play lots of fun games at the end of our horse shows. My two favorites were egg and spoon and ride-a-buck.
The egg and spoon just requires spoons, eggs, yourself and your horse. We rode it like a simple Western Pleasure class with an announcer asking the riders to walk, jog and lope our horses in both directions. You get on your horse, someone hands you the spoon and you put an egg on it. From there you neck rein your horse with one hand and hold your spoon with the egg on it in the other and start the class walking, jogging and loping around the arena as the announcer calls it. The top 6 people left with the egg still on their spoon go into the finals round and 1st through 6th place are awarded to these riders in which more difficult tasks are added such a backing up, roll backs at the walk, small circles, etc. This one is quite fun, a bit messy but really enjoyable for the participants and audience alike.
Another huge crowd pleaser and a game where you see some really creative riding is the ride-a-buck. Ride-a-buck, each person gets on their horse (usually bareback) and they sit on a dollar bill. Again this is judged as a Western Pleasure class and riders are asked to walk, jog and lope in both directions and later on backing up, circles and such. The funniest version of this event was when a friend of mine was literally laying on her horses back to keep the dollar bill attached as when the bill falls out you’re out of the competition. The last person left with the dollar under them wins and usually they receive the pot of all the $1 from the other riders.
They are both great fun and work really well with smooth gated AQHA horses which are popular in 4-H! Thanks for the question Lindsay and thanks for watching the HorseGirlTV® series!
Here’s me and my horse “Honey” with my childhood BFF Brent and “Sugar” and his brother Dan and “Cre Cre” at our local riding ring practicing for our 4-H events. We couldn’t afford polo wraps and I loved that look so I would take vet wrap and put it in my horses legs in blue and white and by the end of our ride the would be down around her pasterns every time. The silly things we did as kids! 😉
