Acorn and Squirrels RDA return after christmas break.

We have been back for a couple of riding sessions after the Christmas break at Acorn and squirrels RDA. This week I was again working on getting the riders to steer and stop their ponies on their own off the lead rein.
Last week being the first week back I just got the riders back into riding by doing simple exercises, stopping and starting, walking through cones. A couple of my riders, suffer from tight muscle tone, so not having been riding for several weeks, means they often get tired and their muscle hurt so very often they can't manage riding for the whole time, when this happens they tell us and we get them off the ponies. This week they managed the whole ride.

Sue, my fellow instructor at the group, who normally takes the first session, had been sorting out over Christmas and had found some apples which where fake, they had been used for one of the obstacles in the countryside challenge, this is an RDA competition. They had a loop of string attached so they could be hung on hooks, they look very realistic as shown by the teeth marks in them. I think they were florist  accessories ,they were I think quite expensive.

We placed them on poles that had hooks on, the riders had to remove the apples,this exercise was good in helping the riders with their fine motor skills.

key to picture.
Green triangles are cones.
3 sided squares are buckets.
The T shapes are the poles with rings on the top.


 

For a change today I set the arena out as shown in the picture, I got the riders working on going diagonally across the arena,on one diagonal they had to stop and remove a ring from the top of the pole and place it on the next pole, on the other diagonal they had to stop by a pole and remove an apple and then stop by a bucket and place the apple into it.

Once the riders had got use to doing this, I got the leaders to remove the lead reins so the riders did this exercise on their own, I also had a row of cones down one side so the riders could practice weaving through them. To finnish the session, the riders lined up at one end and had a couple of races, one was to put a ring in a bucket at the other end and another race we did was to drop one of the apples in the bucket.

The Feely Game.



I have been clearing out my filing cabinet today and came across a clipping from an old RDA magazine from several years ago.
It is an article that an RDA Instructor had written about a game that she uses in her RDA sessions. So I thought I would share it here.

It is called The Feely Game. It helps to reinforces the knowledge needed for the proficiency tests.


Use a number of coloured buckets and in each put a different everyday object(s), e.g. slices of bread, pegs,feathers, water (always good for a squeal !). The buckets are spread out around the arena. The idea of the game is that the children ride up to a bucket with their eyes closed, their helper lifts up the bucket and the rider puts in a hand and feels (hence the name) what's in the bucket,(they can smell) and decide what's in the bucket.  That's the easy part done.
 They then have to think of a part of a pony, and/or a part of the tack, and/or marking of a pony, and /or colour of a pony, and /or a piece of grooming kit beginning with the same letter.

Some idea's are.

water      w      withers              waist.
bread       b      back                   bit                bay          blaze          body brush.
feathers   f   forelock, fetlock    flap.
pegs        p      poll                    pommel        piebald.
tissues     t       tail                     throat lash.
pine cones  c     crest                  cheek piece  chestnut.
straw       s       shoulder            stirrup skirt    skewbald    snip star.
hay          h       hock  hoof         headpiece.
grass        g                                 girth               grey.


The idea of using coloured buckets is that the riders can easily pick the next bucket they want to go to before closing their eyes again. Above are ideas for 8 buckets.
This game can be ridden in open order, this is one way of making the horse care part of RDA a little more fun.

Taking Chard RDA Monday evening sessions.

I was asked if it was possible that I could cover  the Chard RDA rides on a Monday evening for the last few sessions before they finished for the winter, as their normal Instructor had had an accident and wasn't going to be able to do these sessions.

This gave me the opportunity to work with Jackie,the trainee Instructor with that ride.

I started the riding sessions and then Jackie took over, I was then able to point out different things to watch out for during the riding sessions and also covered various scenarios that could happen and possible solutions that could be done.
 

I then got Jackie to think about what could be done to get the riders progressing. It was quite good as I have taught these riders when they were younger at Forde Abbey so I know their disabilities and what riding they have done.
 

With the first week we got the riders doing steering through blocks, stopping at buckets, placing items in them. We also laid out poles,making a zig zag road so the riders had to steer through them.
At the end of this session Jackie and I discussed what we could do next session, we thought that with a couple of the riders we could get them riding off the lead rein. I agreed that I would show Jackie the progression of getting riders off the lead rein.
 

At the second session a couple of weeks later, once the session started and the riders had settled into their riding, I explained to Jackie how we get riders gradually off the lead rein, I then showed her how the leaders should hold on to the lead rein through the various stages, until the lead rein is removed from the head collar. This not only showed Jackie what she would need to tell leaders, but helped to remind the leaders themselves.

 

We had set the school up in a similar pattern to the previous session,( as pictured above, the squares are the blocks to bend through, the circles are the buckets and the lines are the poles to walk through.) Jackie thought it was better to keep it simple for the riders. We got the riders going through the various obstacles once they were happy going through them, the leaders gradually let the riders ride more independently, until we were happy that they would manage to control the ponies off the lead rein.

       Then the big moment came for them to come off the lead rein, the leaders took the lead reins off and walked beside them so they could take over if the need arose the riders then did the obstacles which they managed to do without any major mishaps.

The expressions on their faces, knowing that they were riding on their own said it all.

As it was their last ride before Christmas it was nice that they could feel that they had achieved something.

We had got all the riders off the ponies and were just clearing away the equipment when I felt a tap on my side and turning around to see who it was,found it to be Ella,one of the riders,standing there with a small box of chocolates in her hand, she wished me a happy Christmas with a big smile on her face, I said that I didn't know if I should really be having these chocolates as I had only been instructing them for a couple of weeks, she replied that if I hadn't of come,she wouldn't have been able to ride so I did deserve them. So I smiled and said 'thank you' to her.

Grading riders for their Grade One Certificates.

I was asked just before Christmas to go to Taunton in Somerset to an  RDA group there to assess some riders for their RDA grade one proficiency tests, there was several riders to assess, some were hoping to do their horse care for the grade one,so I was there for most of the day.

The school had been set out in shapes using cones,poles. There was also a row of uprights for bending through down one side. There were four shapes, a circle,square,triangle and a rectangle.

 

The riders were asked to do various things using this layout.
 

1. They were asked to chose a shape and then go and stand in the shape.

2. They were asked to go to one shape and the go to the next shape and so go until they had been to all of them and also weaves through the uprights.

3. They were asked to walk around the outside of the shapes as close as they could without going over the poles.

4. When they stood in the shape they where asked a horse care question.

5. A bucket was placed in each shape and the riders were given an item to be placed in the bucket of the shape they were told to go to.

6. If the shapes were made using cones only, the riders could bend their horses through them.( The circle was made of cones.)

If there was pictures of different items,these could be put in the buckets and when the riders stop by the buckets in the shapes they could pick one out and say what it is.( This would be a good way of the riders showing that they know their horse care.)

All these helped show the riders were up to standard to pass the riding grade one.

Which was to sit happily and maintain a balanced position in walk,changes of direction and halting. They also need to be able to show a exercise that they knew.

Some of the riders were able to answer the horse care questions for grade one, those that I asked all knew the answers, there seemed to be a competition between some of them to see who could answer the questions the quickest.

All the riders passed their grade one and those taking their horse care also passed it.
 

All the riders received certificates and badges, their parents and carers were proud. There were lots of photo's taken with riders standing by their ponies.
 

I went the following week to grade the riders that were unable to be there this week.

Relief Teaching.

I was asked to cover some RDA  sessions  at an RDA group that I don't normally teach at, for a couple of weeks because their usual Instructor was unable to take the sessions.
The last time I covered these sessions was at the beginning of the summer,so it was really nice to go back and see how the riders were doing and meet a couple of new riders that had started to ride there.

I set the arena out using poles and cones and some barrels and rings and toys.
Down one side I placed cones and two poles so  the riders could bend through the cones and walk between the poles.
  I used 6 other poles to make a square so the riders had to walk between the two poles, going around the square shape at the same time. I got them to stop between the poles and count to 5 before walking on to the next set of poles, this also involved the helpers encouraging the riders to count by holding up their fingers to help the riders count.
  Because the poles came across the middle of the arena, the riders were able to turn and come down the centre of the school and walk over the poles, this was ideal for some of the riders because of the severity of their disabilities, they need to do sensory work, they were able to feel the different movement of the horse as it picked up its feet to walk over the poles, this was shown by the change of expression on the face of these riders.

Down the other side of the arena I placed a barrel at either end, so riders had to stop and collect a ring or soft toy and walk to the other barrel and stop their horse and place the ring/toy on it.

To finish each session, the riders did an obstacle course, starting by bending through the cones, stopping through the poles ,counting to 5 before continuing through the cones, then turning down the middle and walking over the poles and then turning to walk and collecting a ring/toy and then walking to place it on the other barrel.

It was really nice at the end of the sessions one of the helpers came up and said he had
thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and how stimulating they had been for both riders and helpers alike.
This was really nice to hear as tending to focus on what the rider needs, sometimes making the helpers feel that they are doing a very important job can be overlooked.

 

Above is a sketch of the lay out that I did, the Triangles were the cones, the lines are poles and the circles are the barrels.