A mounted activity where the rider tosses a ball to a sidewalker, instructor, or target while remaining seated on the horse. The movement of tossing - reaching, rotating, and releasing - works naturally with the horse's movement to challenge the rider's balance and body awareness in a therapeutic context.

No label Blowing Bubbles & Variations

The rider blows bubbles while mounted, using a bubble wand and solution either held independently or assisted by a sidewalker. The act of blowing requires the rider to form a controlled, sustained breath - working oral muscles and breath regulation in a motivating, visually engaging way. Watching the bubbles float and drift naturally draws the rider's gaze upward and outward, encouraging visual tracking and sustained attention.

No label Guided Breathing Exercises & Variations

Guided breathing exercises performed while mounted, using the horse's rhythmic movement and warmth as a natural support for breath awareness. The rider is guided through intentional inhale and exhale patterns while seated on the horse. Because horses are highly sensitive to the energy and tension carried in a rider's body, deliberate breathing can create a genuine two-way experience - as the rider softens and breathes deeply, the horse often responds by relaxing as well, giving the rider immediate, tangible feedback that their breath is making a difference.

No label Carrying Flags & Variations

The rider carries one or more flags while mounted, navigating with the flag(s) in hand or transferring flags between hands, placing them in designated spots, or following color-based instruction. The activity challenges the rider to manage an object in one or both hands independently while maintaining their position on the horse - requiring the right and left hands to work separately and purposefully rather than together as a unit.

No label Counting with Dice & Variations

A large soft or foam dice is rolled either by the rider or the instructor, and the number shown determines how many times the rider will perform a designated activity - breathing out, counting aloud, raising their arms, or any other mounted task. The dice roll creates anticipation before the activity begins, gives the rider a clear, countable endpoint to work toward, and wraps a breathing or movement task inside a simple, motivating game structure.

No label Finding and Fetching Stuffed Animals & Variations

Stuffed animals are placed around the arena at varying heights and locations - on top of cones, tucked into fence rails, sitting in buckets, or held by sidewalkers. The rider navigates toward each stuffed animal, reaches to retrieve it, carries it, and either returns it to a designated spot or hands it off to a sidewalker. The reaching and retrieving demands trunk rotation, stretching, and core engagement while the navigation and identification of each animal works motor planning, color recognition, and verbal connection to the activity.

No label Follow the Leader & Variations

The rider follows a designated leader - typically the instructor either mounted or on foot and mirroring their path, pace, and movements through the arena. The leader makes choices about where to go, how to move, and what to do, and the rider's task is to observe, process, and follow. The activity is inherently social, requiring sustained attention to another person, acceptance of directions the rider did not choose, and the ongoing problem solving of figuring out how to replicate what the leader is doing from their own position on the horse.

No label Basic Footfalls to Intricate Movements (Advanced)

A progressive mounted activity where the rider works toward producing turn on the forehand and turn on the haunches repeatedly down the arena wall. The activity begins with foundational awareness of the horse's footfalls and the rider's own position and seat, building toward the application of those body awareness skills in two distinct lateral maneuvers. The wall of the arena provides a natural boundary and visual guide that helps the rider understand direction and containment while working through the movement sequence.

No label Pony Express & Variations

The arena becomes a mail route. Laminated letters - marked with colors, shapes, letters, or words depending on the rider's level - are available for pickup at designated mailbox stations. The rider steers the horse to a pickup point, retrieves a letter and places it in the saddlebag, then navigates to the correct delivery barrel and posts the letter through the slit. The full sequence - reading the mail, steering to retrieve it, carrying it, navigating to the correct destination, and delivering it - builds a rich chain of skills inside a motivating, purposeful game structure.

No label Hit the Target & Variations

A target is set up in the arena and the rider uses rubber hatchets and rubber bow and arrows to hit it from horseback. Each session can vary the number of throws, the distance from the target, or the specific implement used, creating built-in progression and variety across sessions. The rider must stay calm, organized, and intentional through each throw - managing their own body, the implement in their hands, and their position on the horse simultaneously. Staying focused, waiting for the right moment, and releasing with purpose rather than impulse are at the therapeutic core of this activity.

No label Five Flags Game & Variations

Two road cones are set in a line at a distance from one another. All five flags begin in one cone. The rider rides to the cone holding the flags, picks up one flag, rides to the empty cone at the opposite end, and places the flag into it. The rider repeats this sequence until all five flags have been transferred from the starting cone to the finishing cone. Simple in structure, rich in therapeutic demand - each repetition of the pick up, carry, and place sequence builds coordination, focus, and balance while the full five-flag sequence develops the sustained attention and instruction-following needed to complete the task from start to finish.

No label Jousting & Variations

Poles are set up around the arena, each with a ring resting on top. The rider carries a flexible sword or jousting stick and navigates the horse toward each pole, extending the sword to collect the ring off the top of the pole onto the sword tip. One ring is collected per pole visit. The rider works through all four poles collecting one ring at a time, building a relay-style sequence that demands precise aim, steady balance, and focused navigation from one pole to the next. The sword extension required to spear each ring places the rider's arm, core, and balance in a genuinely challenging position while the horse continues to move beneath them.

No label Rhyming Words & Variations

Word cards are placed around the arena at accessible locations - posted on the wall, sitting on top of cones, tucked into buckets, or slotted into mailbox stations. The rider navigates to a card, picks it up or reads it in place, says the word aloud, and then produces a rhyming word in response. The mounted context wraps a foundational literacy and phonics task inside active navigation and purposeful movement, giving the language work a physical and spatial dimension that ground-based reading activities cannot provide.

No label Cup it & Variations

Four bending poles are set in a row. A cup sits over the top of one pole. The rider navigates the horse alongside the poles, lifts the cup off its current pole, carries it, and places it over the top of a different pole as directed by the instructor. The cup moves from pole to pole across the row at the instructor's direction, requiring the rider to listen for the instruction, identify the correct destination pole, navigate accurately alongside it, and execute a clean placement over the pole tip. Simple equipment, immediate feedback - either the cup stays on the pole or it does not and a satisfying physical precision to every successful placement.

No label Figure-8 Barrel Turns & Variations

Two barrels are placed in a straight line at an appropriate distance apart. The rider navigates the horse in a figure eight pattern around both barrels - turning around one barrel, crossing through the center, and turning around the other barrel in the opposite direction. The pattern uses both left and right hand turning in equal measure, requiring the rider to apply directional aids on both sides and feel the difference between a left turn and a right turn as the horse bends around each barrel. Learning to communicate turning intentions clearly to the horse through the reins, weight, and leg is the heart of this activity.

No label Egg and Spoon & Variations

A plastic egg is balanced on a plastic spoon and held by the rider with one hand while mounted. The rider's task is to keep the egg on the spoon throughout the horse's movement - at halt, walk, or more advanced gaits - without gripping, bracing, or stiffening the hand and arm. Because any tension in the hand, wrist, or arm will cause the spoon to tip and the egg to roll off, the activity provides the rider with immediate, honest feedback about the quality of their hand softness in a way that no verbal instruction alone can replicate. The reward inside the egg - candy or a small surprise - gives the activity a built-in motivational endpoint that most riders find genuinely compelling.

No label Square Pole Game & Variations

Four ground poles are arranged on the arena floor in a square formation creating an open box. The rider navigates the horse into the square by stepping over one pole on entry, halts inside the box, executes a turn of a designated degree - 90, 180, 270, or 360 - and then exits the square by stepping over a pole on the way out. The square's boundaries make precision immediately visible - either the horse steps cleanly into and out of the box or a pole is touched, rolled, or displaced. The degree-based turn instruction introduces directional and mathematical concepts inside a fully mounted, physically engaged context.

No label Broom Polo & Variations

Two hula hoops are placed on the arena floor at a distance from one another. The exercise ball begins inside one hoop. The rider carries a corn broom and uses it to push the exercise ball across the arena from the starting hoop to the destination hoop, guiding the ball's path while simultaneously managing the horse's direction and pace. Pushing a large rolling ball with a broom from horseback requires the rider to coordinate the broom arm, the rein hand, and the horse's movement simultaneously - genuine multi-tasking inside a game structure that feels more like play than therapy.

No label Bandana Collecting Game & Variations

Five bandanas in five different colors are tied at accessible locations around the arena. Each rider receives a game card - a laminated file card showing five colored dots in a numbered sequence. The rider's task is to collect the bandanas in the exact color order shown on their card, tying each newly collected bandana to the previous one as the chain grows. The card determines the sequence, the arena holds the bandanas, and the rider must navigate, reach, untie, and tie their way through the full sequence from number one to number five.

Unmounted Activities

No label Four Activities for Fine Motor Skills

Several off the horse activities to help strengthen fine motor skills

Therapy Lessons

About "Therapy Lessons"

Therapy Lessons

Horse Riding Lesson Plans & Summer Camp Curriculum

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