What an incredible Play Day we had on Sunday November 22nd. My friend Birgit and I were the pit crew of the day and we set up two areas for horses/humans to play in.
The first area was a “Focus Camp” where either you could decompress yourself (after the obstacle course), or work with the pedestal, ball, barrels – while the nearby spectators tried to mentally distract you by chatting, or distract you with physical objects such as a carrot stick and flag waving about.
The second area was the timed obstacle course. This was the main area of play and play we did! There were 7 stations set up:
1) Queue: Line up and await your turn for the course. Purpose? Practice your art of standing still for 5 minutes (or more).
2) Log: A nice big log in the arena to play the 7 games with. With most obstacles, use your imagination and play the 7 games.
3) Pedestal: Fantastic pedestal, with compliments from Birgit. Tall, wide – can you get those feet up there? For my shortie Fjordie, it was a big streeeeeeeeeeetch!
4) Teeter Totter Bridge: Can you say Handywoman Birgit? WOW! She made this obstacle in 1 ½ days and it was the belle of the ball! What FUN we had with this one.
5) Pool Noodle Gate/Car Wash: I wasn’t sure what to call it – but it was a lot of fun making it and watching humans play the Friendly game as many horses were not too sure of this weird looking, colourful contraption. In the end, all could be proud of how they used their savvy and friendly game to ensure their horse went confidently through the spongy gate.
6) Think-Box: A square made out of poles, the intention was to put your horse inside it and let go – then walk around the box, ensuring your horse stayed within the boundaries. Well? Humans let go and thought “outside the box” and became a Think-Box with some crafty savvy games being played with it.
7) Squeeze: A line of cones along the arena wall. Humans were challenged to get their equine partners between the cones and the wall. Again, imaginations were let loose and it turned from squeeze to yo-yo’s to weaves to sideways – oh my! Great stuff!
Each person had 5 minutes to work at each station and then had to move on to the next. If you didn’t get it the first time, you could always re-work the course.
I had such a fun time with Henry. We did the course on-line and then at Liberty and then Freestyle. What a great, challenging, fun day.
Heather