Two Fun Obstacle Ideas

The Backyard Horse Blog

Looking for fun obstacle ideas to try at home? Check these out.

While my horse, Shiloh, still had his stitches, I attended a clinic hosted by a riding club. Originally I was signed up to take Shiloh to ride in the clinic, but I canceled when I realized he wouldn’t have his stitches out by the clinic date. Instead, I offered to arrive a little bit early and help set up the obstacles. I was disappointed to not ride in the clinic, but I still got to see all the obstacle ideas and watch how the horses/riders navigate them, something I find fascinating. If you have never hosted an obstacle clinic, you may not appreciate how much effort is involved in selecting the obstacles (including buying, making or borrowing), transporting them to the clinic location, setting them up, tearing them down and then storing the obstacles until the next clinic and/or returning everything to their various owners. Extra hands are generally appreciated come clinic day!

The obstacle above was so clever and yet so simple. I took this photo early before a little divot was made in the tarp (made possible by the soft sand footing underneath) and water added on top. Many of the horses initially balked at the obstacle, making it one of the more challenging of the day. I actually thought that the blow-up dragon would cause the most spooks, but I was surprised at how many horses took one look at it and walked right up and put their noses on it.

I have not tried making the “water obstacle” at home yet, but it looks like something that is very “doable”. I really like the dragon too, but I probably won’t be spending the money on one anytime soon. Post-Halloween sale maybe?

Published by The Backyard Horse Blog

3 thoughts on “Two Fun Obstacle Ideas”

  1. WOW Biasini would have a fit about the dragon but only if it was in the arena or anywhere else that it had never been seen before. If he went out to a clinic there could be a parade of elephants and he would just assume they were part of the scenery in the place. I have done work with him over tarps but not ones with water. That could be something new to try.

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    1. It is amazing how aware horses are of their environment in ways we are not like immediatley focusing on something that “shouldn’t” be in a certain spot because it normally doesn’t “live” there. Adding a water obstacle to your cross-training with Biasini sounds like fun. Maybe you could combine his jumping cross-training with the water obstacle by asking him to jump over a make-shift liverpool-type jump eventually? Anything combining horses and water sounds good to me about now- it has been so terribly hot recently. 🙂

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