Activites at Acorns and squirrels.



                 We have been back a couple of weeks now at Acorn and squirrels RDA since half term, we were not able to ride just before half term because of the rain, winds and flooding around here, as not many helpers or riders could get to the stables.

                 We have had two new riders join us Rebecca and James, they have ridden before at a riding school and wanted to continue with their riding. One of their disabilities is that they are deaf, the carers that bring them to the sessions sign for them during the sessions so as to know what is going on and can participate in the riding session.

                 It has been quite a while since I had riders with hearing difficulties, so I need to work at remembering the signs to be able communicate with them, we have struck an agreement, I teach them riding and they teach me sign language.

                  I have been getting the riders to start to be more accurate in their halting and walking and turning, first while they are being led and then when they ride off the lead rein.

                  I have been setting out the school with buckets at the letters A,C,E and B, to start with I got the riders to stop at each bucket making sure that their leg and foot was above the bucket, then once they were happy with that they were given an item to place in the bucket when they stopped.

                I placed a pole with a tray on the top in a cone, I placed some items on each of the trays. The riders stopped by the pole collected an item and the placed it in the bucket.

                The riders were then asked to walk to a bucket of their choice as each of the buckets were a different colour, once they had done this and were happy about coming off the lead rein, they did. The riders did this in both directions.

                 I also got them to stop between the bucket and pole, take  an item off the tray and place it in the bucket on the opposite side.
                 This meant they had to put the reins into one hand ,then transfer the reins to the other hand so as to be able to place the item in the bucket.

This is good practice for organising the reins and using the fine motor skills.

 




There are  several different sign languages that are available, the ones that I have used for my riders are mainly Makaton  and Somerset total communication.