Ranch Adventures

An active outdoor adventure for both a guardian and child to do together with their pony.
Recommended age 4 – 7 yrs old.

This is a eight week series this spring teaching children (along with a guardian) all about horses, ranch life and nature!  So moms, dads and/or grandparents bring your hiking boots and sunscreen and be prepared to learn how to wrangle ponies too!

We will spend the first class getting to know our ponies, grooming and teaching the primary handler (the child’s guardian) basic horsemanship skills. Once everyone is comfortable we’ll leave the home paddock with the kids on horseback to head out on various ranch adventures and hikes.  Each adventure is 1.5 hours long.

These Mini Ranchers will learn how to take care of horses, check cows, open and close gates, go over and through all kinds of obstacles all while exploring the ranch and helping to do a few ranch chores.   During our walks through various alley-ways and pastures, we’ll look for cows & calves, seasonal flowers and grasses, splash through creeks, climb hills, spy on ‘Sally’ the hawk, hunt for foxes, watch muskrats and even visit some old cow bones.  For the older kids that really show confidence on their pony or horse, we will give basic riding advice as we go along and could even have them riding solo before the last class!!

 Click here for Adventure selection 

This is a great way to give your child the confidence and balance needed to ride a horse in a fun, natural learning environment and makes the transition into solo riding lessons easy!

Other information:

• Child must wear their own helmet, wear long pants, either rubber boots or cowboy boots and appropriate layers for the weather.
• Bring  a water bottle that can be tied to the saddle.
• The bunkhouse has a baby changing station, kitchenette and lounge.
• Please don’t feed the ponies treats without permission.

HorsePlay is based out of Big Rock Farms, a 120 year old family run ranch just SW of Okotoks.
For more information on location go to the Venue page.