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.