Fun Horse Activities

Fall festival fun

When fall arrives the air gets crisp and visions of pumpkins, apples, and hayrides replace those of bathing suits and beaches. Here is a list of festivals in New England featuring tractor pulls and Ferris wheels, farm animals and petting zoos, traditional crafts and contemporary music, plus wine, oysters, garlic, cream puffs, beer, cider, and more. Don’t think of it as the end of summer, think of it as the beginning of the harvest season.

The Big E Cream Puff and the Craz-E Burger are only two reasons to visit The Big E, the largest fall festival in the region. This 17-day extravaganza features carnival rides, a circus under the big top, Mardi Gras parade, reconstructed 19th-century New England village, shopping, crafts, live entertainment (Reba McEntire tops this year’s roster), and foods from around the world like shepherd’s pie, corn cake pulled pork muffins, and deep-fried bacon-wrapped hotdogs. Rooted in an agricultural tradition, the festival also offers all you would expect at an enormous country fair, including competitions for prize-winning animals, and the largest livestock show in the East. Demonstrations of spinning, weaving, and milking help connect the dots between animals and commerce. Equine lovers will enjoy the Eastern States Exposition horse show.

The pastoral landscape is the perfect backdrop for this 33d annual festival. Located on a 1,400-acre working farm, it celebrates autumn’s abundance and features horse-drawn hayrides, music, dancing, storytelling, and lots of tasty food from local producers. Children enjoy the farm animals, antique farm machinery, birds of prey, and the hands-on activities tent. Some exhibits focus on alternative energy, a topic dear to this organization’s heart. Local craftsmen and women will demonstrate cheesemaking, weaving, gardening, rug hooking, and woodworking. The Hay Bale Maze, a crowd favorite, returns bigger and better than ever.

Horse Preschool Lesson Plan | Suite101.com

There are over 350 breeds of ponies and horses. Horses walk, trot, canter and gallop. Horses live in pastures and stables Looking at a horse’s teeth will reveal its age. Horses are herbivores; their diet consists mostly of grass and hay. A horse can drink about 10 gallons of hours a day. Horses communicate through their facial expressions. Horses display changes in mood through their ears, eyes and nostrils. Horse Stable Field Trip

Take children on field trip to a farm, horse stable, petting zoo, or equestrian club to observe horses. Children can pet, feed, clean, ride, and examine different types of horses. After the field trip, discuss observations in detail. What do horses eat and drink? Describe the horse’s gait. What colors or marks did the children see? How did the horses communicate? In what type of environment did the horse live?

Horse Trail Mix: This clever treat contains items that represent the foods horses eat.

Ingredients: Mini shredded wheat, dried apples, corn nuts, and cheerios

Instructions Mix a cup of each ingredient into a bowl. The mini shredded wheat represents hay, the dried apples represent apple treats, the cheerios represent oats, and the corn nuts are the corn. Dish out a small amount to each child and have a discussion about the foods that horses eat.

Teach the children the song “If I Were a Horse”*:

“ If I were a horse, I'd neigh, of course,

I'd run and jump and leap, I'd have so much fun,

I'd never be done, if I were a horse, of course.

If I were a horse I'd stay, all day in the meadow so lovely and green,

I'd eat and eat and still stay lean, If I were a horse, of course”.