Horse Crafts we do at our Riding School
Whether it's a pony group, a holiday program or a camp, you'll likely see us running horsey crafts at some point! It's a great way to build teamwork, motor skills, and communication, all while quietly teaching kids about horses!
Why we love crafts
Craft time gives kids a different kind of engagement, keeping hands busy, ability to focus on something, and space to talk to each other while they work.
It does more than just fill time. Working and planning with others builds teamwork. Cutting, painting and gluing builds fine motor skills. And almost every craft ends up sparking a question that leads somewhere educational. A kid gluing a picture of a saddle onto their collage asks where the pommel is and they end up learning all the saddle parts. A kid painting a popsicle stable door wants to know how big a real stable needs to be. A kid mixing horse treats wants to know why the recipe doesn't have any sugar in it.
We run all of the crafts below across our holiday programs, our themed camps, and our regular pony club group sessions, adjusting the group size and level of independence depending on the setting.
Painting coasters and rocks
What we need:
Plain wooden coasters, or smooth flat rocks collected from around the property
Non toxic paint
Thin and medium paintbrushes
Glitter (bonus: googly eyes)
Table cloth, towel
How we do it:
Set up the table. Table cloth you don't mind getting dirty, them put out the paints, glitter and paintbrushes.
We open all paints and put the lids next to them for the paint brushes to sit on. Spread out paint and glitter so everyone can reach at least a couple from where they will sit.
Either decide on a theme (fav pony, paddock, horse shoe) or let the kids go wild with their own choices.
We make the rule that once a brush is used for a colour it stays in the colour. So kids place it on that colours lid and grab a different brush for their next colour.
Let them paint and then have somewhere for them to put it for it to dry!
This is one of our easiest, most flexible crafts and works for almost any age. It's a regular pick for the craft rotation in our holiday programs because it needs very little setup and every kid finishes with something.
Popsicle stick stable doors
What we need:
A bundle of popsicle sticks per child (roughly 15ish for a full door)
hot glue gun (work under supervision)
Paint and markers
A demo door to show
How we do it:
Lay 10 sticks down next to each other.
Lay one popsicle stick diagonally across and glue, then glue one straight across the top so they keep the 10 other sticks together.
Glue another three to form a square at the top of the stable to create the open part of the stable door.
Let everything dry fully before painting!
We make sure to show a demo stable door first and with young kids we do the hot gluing instead. Kids can then paint, add a pony names to the front, add a photo to make it a photo frame or any number of creative things.
Paper and card rosettes
What we need:
Coloured card in several colours
Scissors
A compass, circle template, or just a cup to trace around
Glue
A fine marker for writing placings or names
How we do it:
Cut out 6 long strips of paper in 1 colour (1.5cm by 20cm)
Cut out 6 slightly shorter strips of paper in another colour (1.5cm by 16cm)
cut a circle from card for the rosette base, plus a slightly smaller circle for the centre disc. (We used a lid of roughly 4cm to trace)
Fold (gently so it creats a loose bend) each end of one of the strips of paper you cut to the center of it and glue.
Repeat until you have four of each colour that are folded and glued.
Glue the four long pieces on top of each other in the middle, alternating so they create a circle.
Repeat with the shorter ones ontop.
Glue the large circle base to the back and the smaller circle to the front.
Glue one of the left over short strips to the top of a left over long strip, angled slightly to create one side of the tail. Repeat with the other 2 left over pieces.
Glue them behind the base so they hang below the rosette as a tail.
let each kid write their own placing, category, or pony's name on the front.
Rosettes are a favorite after a mini games day or a gymkhana-style activity in camp, since kids can make their own to hand out to each other at the end. It's straightforward scissor and glue work, but it opens up a good conversation about competitions, placings, and what the different ribbon colours actually mean at real shows.
Collages from magazines
What we need:
A stack of old horse magazines
Scissors
Glue sticks
A large sheet of card or paper as the base
How we do it:
We either create a goal collage or get them to find photos that match objects from a list.
They cut out the chosen images, and glue them to their paper.
Label if wanted.
This is one of the best crafts for sparking questions naturally, because kids are constantly identifying what they're looking at as they cut: a saddle, a specific breed, a piece of tack they haven't seen a name for yet. It's often the first time a younger kid learns the word for something they've seen around the yard but doesn't had a name for, and it works well in a group session as a quieter, seated activity between mounted time.
Horse treats
What we need:
Rolled oats
Grated carrot or apple
A small amount of molasses
Water
Other horse safe foods
How we do it:
Before anything goes in a bowl, we talk through what's actually safe for horses to eat and why, since this is the part that matters most.
Find a recipe you like or get the kids to make their own using the horse safe ingredients. If you have multiple groups you can make it a competition on who can make the tastiest and best looking horse treats.
Shape into small balls, or use cookie cutters.
Leave to firm up or bake depending on your ingredients, then head out to feed them to the ponies!
Kids come away with a treat that they then get to feed the ponies. their pony genuinely gets excited about, and a sticky-fingered understanding of what does and doesn't belong in a horse's diet.
We love a good craft. Kids get to have hands on learning, do something relaxing and learn all at the same time!
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