10 activities on….Horses

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1.      What colour is that horse? Find out the names of the colour of horses. For example, what colour is appaloosa, bay or piebald? Then, if possible, go for a walk/drive/train/bike/bus ride and go looking for some horses – record what colours you find?

2.      Identify the different parts of a horse. Whereabouts are the hocks, fetlocks and withers?

3.      Design your own show jumps or cross country jumps. You could make them from paper straws or wooden dowls. When I was 13, I made some wooden show jumps for my guinea pigs. Turns out they were surprisingly agile creatures and seemed to really enjoy scampering along my course!! Alternatively set up your own jumping course in the garden or park and see if you can make it round all clear.

4.      Horses are measured in ‘hands’; see how tall you would be if you were a horse – how many hands high are you?. A hand is 4 inches so to see how many ‘hands high’ (hh) you are, take your height (in inches) and divide by 4.

The height of a horse is measured from the ground up to their withers. So a horse measuring 16hh would be 64inches tall. A hand can be divided into 4 parts, each part being 1inch. So a horse that is 67inches tall would be 16.3hh.

5.      Learn how to draw a horse. Draw 50 horses is a great book that gives you a step by step breakdown making it easier to draw some brilliant horses.

6.      Have you noticed that riders often wear a colourful silk on their riding hat. Design and draw your own colourful silk in your favourite colours.

7.      Watch a video on how horses have their shoes put on.

8.      Look up how many breeds of horses there are and how different types are used all over the world for example Irish draughts, Andalusian, Marwari and Arabian horses.

9.      Watch a dressage routine on YouTube and then choreograph your own routine to do whilst pretending to ride a horse.

10.   When horses are competing in show jumping or eventing they often have their manes plaited. Take a long piece of carboard, punch holes along one edge and tie a piece of string to each hole. Learn to plait either lots of little plaits or one long continuous plait. Your Horse magazine has a tutorial on plaiting manes here.