Activities for kids at an "Open Barn" event

In My Humble Opinion
1

So, the local dressage barn in your area is having an “Open Barn” event to raise money for a noncontroversial cause. Your daughter, Susie-Q, age 6, loves horses and wants to go. Your son, Little Jimmy, doesn’t much care about horses, but this is a family outing so he’s coming too. What sorts of activities would they enjoy? What would you be comfortable having them participate in? What would make you uncomfortable?

I ask because we are planning such an event at my barn. We plan to offer lead-line rides* on horses we know are patient and unflappable, but we don’t know what else children might safely enjoy doing around the barn. We have a big pasture next to the barn that we could set up an obstacle course in for the kids to play in. Would they enjoy that? We’ve thought about having “stations” where the kids could learn about horses, like how to properly approach a horse, how to brush them, etc., and then let them groom one, braid the tail and mane, etc… Would they enjoy that? Any other ideas greatly appreciated!

*Lead-line rides are when the child rides a well-behaved, saddled horse being led by an adult, probably in the enclosed arena to minimize the chance of distractions and spooks.

2

Is there a way to (safely) swing on a rope in to hay? Because that is hands-down the best activity for a kid to do in a barn :slight_smile:

3

Do you have hay bales? When they have corn maze things set up around town a few of them have set up miniature hedge mazes with hay bales. The kids usually run around along the top of the bales playing tag jumping between them. They seem to love it. If you don’t have enough for a maze even a hay bale hill is fun for them to climb.

4

Have a bonfire and let the kids do smores?

5

Definitely stack the hay in a big hill for the kids to climb. They will love that. If you have them, put picnic tables around that for the adults to sit on.

Sell donuts and apple cider

Susie-Q will love anything that lets her get near the horses. If you can safely let her groom a horse, she will certainly be happy. Ditto for actually riding one.

Maybe a photo station? Outfit kids in cowboy gear, let parents take a picture? Cowboy hat, scarf, chaps, maybe some oversized boots? Or maybe a photo op with a horse.

Hay rides

A couple times a day, have an exhibition of whatever your barn is known for. Show off your show horses, or jumping or barrel riding, or whatever. I assume you’ll want to use this opportunity to advertise for your barn, as well.

6

Can you do a hay ride? Put some bales of hay/straw into a trailer, hook it up to a tractor and go around the pasture once or twice. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a farm or apple orchard that didn’t offer that.

7

Water pump races like THIS or THIS

My kids love these when we visit farms with them for autumn festivals and such. Basically it’s two big metal animal troughs next to each other filled with water. Mounted on each trough are 4 or 5 hand pumps which pump water from the trough through rain gutters into the other trough. Add lots of rubber ducks for the kids to put in the gutters which get propelled into the other trough when you pump. Kids will play with these for… well if not hours at least many tens of minutes trying to get all the ducks from their trough into the other trough while kids on the other side are sending them back as fast as they can.

8

Make loads of copies of a line drawing of a horse (something like this), and put out a whole bunch o’ crayons for coloring. Maybe post that Sam Savitt* poster* nearby or pictures of the lesson horses with their names, to give them inspiration.
*Every barn has at least one Sam Savitt poster. fact. Usually this one

9

Friendly barn kitties

Pin the Tail On the Warmblood

Decorating horseshoes (paint, glitter, ribbons - probably more a girl thing, but who knows?)

A scaled-down dressage ring and stick horses. Give the kids a simple test to “ride” and participation ribbons. They could name the horses and you could make scorecards for the rides.

Both the pin-the-tail and the stick horses would also be funny for drunk adults.

StG

10

OP, I hope your quiet horses are VERY quiet. Even something simple like grooming a horse is fraught when parents and kids are unaware of horse behaviour. For example, if a horse yawns, shakes its head, steps to one side, and the people around it are surprised and shreik… Well, you know.

I taught horse classes to kids at the children’s zoo, and even with multiple trained adults supervising, and very quiet mini ponies, we had some injuries. How’s your insurance?

Sorry to be a downer, but I wouldn’t let inexperienced kids and parents, en masse, too close. Over the stable door, sure.

11

Tell them that their burger raced at Santa Anita just the week before. :wink:

StG

12

Bobbing for apples.
Pitching horse shoes.
Tossing a bean bag into a bucket from some distance.

13

Or

Bobbing for Horse shoes
Pitching Apples
Beanbag war

StG

14

Thanks all for the ideas. We can definitely do a hay maze or a short hay stack for the kids to play on. Maybe a hayride as well.

The horse we’d use for grooming is 28 y.o. schoolmaster, who often has a group of three or four litle girls fussing with him, so he’s an old hand at it.

I also like the idea of a line drawing of a horse and crayons. We’ll have a photographer on hand for photos of the kids with or on the horses.

Thanks again.

15

Love the idea of having educational stations to teach the kids about horses.

When I was volunteering at a horse rescue and we had open barns, we would rent a jump house, set up a little distance from the stable, for kids with less interest in the horses. Sold passes to it, and the thing paid for itself plus made profit.

If you can get people to donate items you could have a Chinese Auction, where people write down their bids. They are always popular and fun, and a nice fund raiser. Some of the items could be little cheap toys for kids to bid on.

Wish I could be there.

16

What about a barn dance? Super popular with the kids around here, though they’re usually not held in an actual barn.

17

I’ll add another vote for jumpies, hay bales, giant tractor tires for jumping and hiding. I know children would love to groom, pet, and feed horses and any animals.

You could charge a nice price for an all-day jumpy wrist band or activity punch card/tickets.

Face painting
Glitter tattoos – rubber stamps, cosmetic glue, glitter - cosmetic glitter if you are stamping faces
Crazy hair – colored hair spray
Pumpkin painting – mini pumpkins
Decorate bandanas, socks, t-shirts with fabric markers
Cake walk/auction if you can get donations
Sprinklers, water slide
Sell bottled water, snacks

There may be a high school or church group who need some community service hours who could help with activities.

18

Speaking of jumps, if you have time to organize it, offer a “horseless hunters” class. Set up 5 or 6 jumps, as low as they go and closer together than for a horse (cavaeletti work perfectly). The kids run around the ring, jumping the jumps. If budget allows, pick up a stack of Dollar store blue ribbons to hand out. Quite exhausting on the whippersnappers too. A happy puppy is a tired puppy. :stuck_out_tongue:

19

This is bringing back memories of the party days that used to be held at the barn where I learned to ride. When we were kids, we loved running the hunt course (with our legs, not on horses). It’s cracking me up how we used to BEG to do this – and we were kids who knew how to ride! We also mimicked the various gaits while doing the course. Bonus: hilarious to watch. If you teach the kids the gaits (well, a reasonable facsimile for two-legged children), you can also do Simon Says type games where you call out gait changes.

With a horse drawing like Hello Again posted, you could also pre-draw that outline on wood pieces, and have the kids glue stuff (dry pasta, dry beans, sunflower seeds, popcorn kernels, etc) to fill in the horses. Make up a few in advance to show how the different things can be used to make socks, stars, blazes, or pinto or appaloosas. (Have a poster that shows the different markings, too.)

The last time I was at Michael’s, they had horse shaped wooden cut-outs that were inexpensive, they’re about as big as your palm. Kids can paint them with poster paint. If you are feeling ambitious, drill a hole for a ribbon, or simply glue a ribbon to the back, to make Christmas tree ornaments.

Scavenger hunt? This might depend on if it is easy enough to designate safe zones where kids can be wandering around, and steer them clear of any riskier areas. Take pictures of some of the quirkier things at your barn and the surrounding area (all barns accumulate these, right?) and the kids search them out and check them off. (a single letter on a fancy sign, a rusty door hinge, a lantern, a trophy, etc)

If you have little little kids at your event, create an area (an empty stall?) with hay bales and horse blankets for seating, for a story time or sing-a-long (horse/farm themes). For bigger kids, ghost stories. Why do ghost stories go with barns? I do not know, but I remember doing this every year and it was a blast.