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.