Games

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Transcript of Games

Page 1: Games

The Guide to

Games to Play with your Friends

These are games you can play with your friends away from the yard. They're great for time when the weather is bad or maybe during school lunch breaks.

As well as being fun to play, each game helps teach you skills that will help you get better at working with your pony.

Page 2: Games

Game 1 - The YES-NO game

How do our ponies know what they want us to do? Well, they usually do what they think is right, then we say 'yes' or 'no' using things like our body language, or pressure and release. The pony can then remember next time what he did in that situation.

Lots of people are very good at saying 'no' but sometimes we need reminding that hearing 'yes' is important too. Here's a game to help you see how important it is.

You'll need:- a group of friends - any number will do. That's it!

One of you goes out of the room if you're inside, or goes far enough away they can't hear you. The rest of you then decide an action that other person has to do. Keep it simple, something like 'sit on that chair', or 'touch the tap'.

The other person then comes back and has to work out what to do. You don't tell her anything other than 'no' when she gets it wrong. So she could get a 'no' for walking in the wrong direction, for looking at the wrong thing, or even for just standing doing nothing!

See how long it takes for them to work out what to do - it could be ages! Think how much quicker it would have been if you'd shown her at least some of what she had to do, and said 'yes' when she was doing something right.

You can change this game to say just 'yes' when they're getting it right. It's not as hard, but still not easy.

The learning point of this game is that we need to show our ponies what we want them to do, correct when the get it wrong but make sure we say 'YES' when they get it right!

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Game 2 - The Pulling Game

You will need - a lead line or rope- a friend

You can also practice leading your 'pony', and see how it feels when you walk in front, behind or next to each other; see how it feels if you have a tight line or a slack one; and see how it feels if the leader is confident or worried.

When playing with this game, be careful not to pull too hard or too quickly and pull your friend over. Even when playing games like this, always keep safe!

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Game 3 - Longlining

The IH Kids Guide to Longlining tells you about how to get started with your pony, but the best place of all to start with longlining is practicing on another person.

You can practice stopping, starting and turning, as shown in our longlining guide. You can even practice doing things like circles or changing rein, even obstacles!

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Game 4 - The Timing Game

Good timing means giving your pony his 'yes' or 'no' as close as possible to his action. For example, if you ask him to take a step back, you need to say 'yes' as he's doing it and not wait until he's stopped, otherwise you'll end up saying 'yes' to the stopping. If we get our timing wrong, our pony can get very confused or learn the wrong thing.

Timing sounds easy but it takes a lot of practice to get it right. Here's a game that can help you towards perfect timing.

You'll need:

- a small ball, such as a tennis ball;- a friend;- a training clicker if you have one.

Don't worry if you haven't got a clicker, you can make a click noise with your tongue.

You ask your friend to bounce the ball on the ground. You have to click the very second the ball touches the ground. Sounds easy? Try it and see! You can also ask your friend to throw the ball into the air - this time you click as it gets as high as it goes before falling down again.

When you're good at that, you can practice clicking things you can't predict so well, such as when someone blinks, when your pony swishes its tail, or when the car in front of yours brakes as you're driving home from school. You might need to click in your mind rather than out loud sometimes, otherwise you'll end up driving your friends and family mad!