fun gymkana games ideas please

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purple

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Aug 6, 2005
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Hi all,

I'm going to put on a fun show at my local RS for both adults and kids and I thought it would be a giggle to include some gymkana games. Its been a long time since I was in the pony club and I cant remember what the games are (with the execption of the bending race and apple bobbing!) Can any of you folks come up with some ideas and discriptions please?

Much thanks,
Purple
 
Chase Me Charlie! Best gymkhana game ever! Best to have a little one for kiddies and a bigger one for teenagers and adults!
 
erm flag race

evryone starts with a flag- goes in and out of a lline of poles- puts the flag in a cone and goes back in and out of the cones to finish!

walk, trot canter( walk trot runb for the little ones)

got to go to the stables now ill thik of some more whn i come back
 
We did ones where you'd have to say trot to the end with an egg/spoon, dismount, get back on, then do a round the world or something similar, and get your butt back! :p

Would need very quiet ponies though :)
 
How bombproof are your ponies?

You could do the ballon race - Canter/trot/walk/whatever up weaving in between cones carrying a pointy stick, get to the end, pop a ballon and gallop back :p
 
Sack race, trot down arena, rider dismounts and jumps into a sack then leads horse back whilst hopping in the sack!
 
Ride and lead - ride from A to B, jump off and run back, leading the pony (you can do this with two riders too - one rides, the other leads).

Handy pony, with whatever scarey obstacles you can think of.

Musical chairs - When the music stops, riders either have to jump off and sit on a cushion, or ride to a pole and hold it. Either way, there's always one less than there are riders, and the person who doesn't get one is out.
 
Now, i made one up for my sports Leaders qualification - but i've never actually tested it out so you may want to test drive it with some mates first :eek:!

Race for two teams. There's two lines of poles (not flat on floor ones, the standy-uppy jobby :D) or you could use cones, which one member from each team trots in and out of. There is a big bucket of apples at the other end and they have to dismount, pick up an apple, get back on their pony and trot back through the poles, and put their apple in their team's bucket. Then the next member goes, etc. Carry on for 5 minutes (or longer or shorter, whatever works for you), and at the end the team with the most apples in their bucket wins. Half the fun would be stopping the ponies from eating the apples! You can invent your own penalty for a nibbled apple, someone carrying two apples at once, etc etc :p.

It could be something that never works, though, and i know both ponies and riders that may not cope with the steering aspect, i just had to think it up in half an hour to please my PE teacher :D!
 
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After you've done the apple bobbing have an icing sugar race, where you hide sweets in icing sugar and have to find them with your teeth, and of course, cause everyone's faces from the apple bobbing are wet everyone gets covered in the stuff :p

Do some bareback races if they're all reasonably sane, can be quite a giggle:D

ETA - Oh and we used to play 'Pirate's coming' Or something where you all trot/canter around until the leader shouts stop and then you have to stop, dismount and run with your pony to a square of poles in the centre, last one there gets eaten by the Pirates :p Can be a good test of breaks :D

ETAA- Reminded by the gretna green suggestion, the relay race, ride up as fast as you can, dismount, your team mate at the other end mounts and rides back as fast as they can, they dismount and the next rider mounts and so forth. :)
 
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Walk up arena, trot back down, canter back up, then rider gets off & has to walk along a pole placed on floor..if they lose their balance and fall off they have to walk the pole again.
Then run to the finish line.

Hope that helps :)


SL x
 
Also, do human showjumping!

You have say 90 seconds to jump as many as possible (the harder the jump, the more points you get and you can only jump each jump twice) but then a buzzer goes, you have to get back to a starting point ASAP, dismount, then you have a further two minutes to jump the jumps...by yourself! Mighty funny ;)
 
How about good old `Gretna Green`. Riders start go as fast as possible to the end of the cones, collect partner on the back, and return to the start - hence the name! Great fun for all
 
i remeber one funny game i once played with some friends, you had to spin around like 5 times, run to the other end of the school with pole in the way grab your horse at the other end ride back up the school and see who won:D it was hilarious, if you want to make to make it less difficult for lil kids then you either get rid of the spinning or the poles, and if you want to make it a bit harder than ad a jump at the end:)
 
It's not a gymkana game as such, but we used to have great fun playing cowboys and indians (until H&S put a stop to it :()

Basically, two teams, one 'cowboys', one 'indians'. You set things out around the school, like sponges or bits of grooming kit, one team has to try and collect as many as possible and drop them into a bucket whilst the other team tries to stop them by tagging them. Once you're tagged you have to go to 'jail' (an area set out by poles in one corner) and wait there until a member of your team rides through the jail area to release you (it's also possible to make the released rider jump a small fence to get out once they;ve been relased as well). At the end og the round you all swap round and who ever has the most items in their bucket at the end wins!

We used to play it as kids just trotting but did it as adults cantering (which was probably why we got banned!!:o)
 
for little ones:

tyre race
sack race
flag race
bending
musical sacks
stepping stones
walk and trot

medium riders

as above, off lead rein of course!
walk trot canter as well

I'll dig out all my gymkhana schedules tomorrow if I remember and see what I've forgotton


all the above are from RC and PC local gymkanas in the last 12m
 
you could do the 'bridge' (make a bridge out of poles and when the music stops if you're on the bridge you're out) and the doughnut game, 2 cones at one end of the arena with string between them with a couple of small doughnuts on, start at other end, canter down, dismount, eat a doughnut, finish it before you get back on and canter back up, good to do in teams :)
 
LindaAd said:
Musical chairs - When the music stops, riders either have to jump off and sit on a cushion, or ride to a pole and hold it. Either way, there's always one less than there are riders, and the person who doesn't get one is out.
Click to expand...

Ive done this in years gone by... upturned buckets that you have to sit on work well as the "chairs". great fun!

(might have been mentioned already) Also a bean bag relay or something slimilar... i.e teams of 3 or something each has a bean bag and has to walk/trot/canter (depends on ability of riders) to other end where they must throw the bean bag or similar into a bucket/hoop on floor/circle in the dirt etc! get back to team mates ASAP and "tag" the next rider who takes and throw their bean bag... fastest team with most bean bags in target wins...
 
Wow, thanks for all your replies. All your suggestions are great, now I have to have a good think about which ones to use. (if there were enough hours in the day I'd include them all!)

Much Thanks and happy riding :D;)

Purple
 
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