Stable Days

A DAY IN THE LIFE ... HORSE CAMP FUN!

Hi Araya and Avery
I wanted to share that I am going on the best possible holiday in October!
A horse riding camp! My mum is long time friends with the lady that owns it
and was the first person to go on the camp! I can't wait!
At this camp you own the horse for a week and a half and you have to feed it
and groom it and everything else! And best of all... We can ride whenever we want!
It's going to be so fun and i'll tell you more about it soon!
Your horse pal;
Meg ♥

HUGE T-SHIRT SALE AT THE STABLE DAYS STORE

Hi Horse Pals ~

With Spring here, we're having an awesome t-shirt sale at our store.  Pick up your "It's All About Horses"  tee at the lowest price ever!!  We have super soft tees and stylish tank tops that are perfect for riding or just hanging out!  And they make cool gifts, too!

To go to our store, simply click on the beautiful horse that says "Store" on the top right column of the blog!

Happy Shopping!  Your Horse Pal, @raya

P.S.  Whenever you buy anything from our store, you are also helping animals because a portion of all sales goes to animal rescue!  We also have really cute peace t-shirts, too so check them out!

CHECK OUT OUR NEW STABLE DAYS STORE FOR AWESOME HORSE GIFTS!

Hi Horse Pals ~

Avery and I are so excited to launch our own Stable Days Store!  Click on the store button located on the right column at the top of our blog to check it out.

We have created a "Live Your Passion" line of products that go with our motto of 'playing hard and living free'.  We helped design these t-shirts and tote bags and hope you all like them. 

 

You will also find our Stable Days DVD for sale in our store.

The cool thing about buying any products in our store is that you are also helping animals because we donate a portion of all of our sales to animal rescue.

Our t-shirts and tote bags make great gifts for all your family and friends.

Happy shopping, @raya and @very

P.S.  We are in the process of designing a dog tee so check back soon!!

  

I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE!

Hi Horse Pals,

We have been updating our blog a lot lately!  There are a lot of new animal treasures and goodies we have unearthed and we're very excited to share with you! See if you can find them all on the sidebars:)

I will tell you more about them in my next post, so stay tuned!  

Your Horse Pal, @raya

AVERY'S BIRTHDAY BARN BASH!

This week we celebrated Avery's 8th birthday at the barn and had a blast!!  The barn has become our favorite location for a party ... we love celebrating with our friends and horses and dogs there, and especially LOVE games on horseback!!

We started the day with a jumping lesson and Avery jumped OB and I jumped Dandy ... it was a fun start to a day of partying!

Our Horse Pal, Elizabeth just asked about mounted games so here are some super fun ones that we played at Avery's party!!  If you're looking for horse games, also check out an earlier post in August when we also played horse games at my birthday party.

DOLLAR BILL OR LEAF (OR ANYTHING FLAT!) GAME:  This is a fun game you can do either bareback or in the saddle where your leg strength is tested!!  We placed a large leaf against our knee and had to keep it on while doing numerous exercises.  Basically someone calls out positions (i.e. posting trot, 2 point canter, etc.) and the last person with the leaf still on, wins! This is one of our favorites and we can never play it enough (we played it 3 times at Avery's party!)

AUSTRALIAN TROT:  This was a new game for us and our Horse Pals, Samuel and Gretchen taught us.  This is a really great game and we all loved it!  In this game, you all spread out on the rail in the arena and attempt to pass the other players at the trot.  If you walk or canter, you are out and if you are passed, you are out.  Everyone must stay on the rail except when attempting to pass.  We played 2 times and I won both on speedy Jimmy.   

ROUND UP: This game is played in teams (we had 2 teams of 3 riders) and the goal is to find as many plastic animals as you can that are hidden and placed around the arena and then drop them in your team's bucket in the middle of the arena.  Everyone rode at the same time and the game was over when every animal was found and in a bucket.  You can only pick up one animal at a time and drop it in the bucket before finding another animal.  With all of the teams are riding at the same time, you had to dodge and steer your way around the other riders.  Our trainer, Lisa played and she galloped all around the arena!  He He!  It was SO much fun we played it twice!!  Lisa, Samuel and I won both times!  

ANIMAL TOSS:  This is a game we played on the ground and was a lot of fun!  We put a bucket out and then stood back and threw plastic horses into it.  We used a sweat scraper as our mark to stand at and moved it each game different distances from the bucket.  We played this one 3 times and Avery's team won.  This is a game that can be played in teams or as individuals and a fun addition to any horse party!

A party at the barn would not be complete without pizza and Avery baked delicious chocolate and peanut butter and chocolate brownies that everyone devoured!  

We had an awesome time celebrating and it was a very special day for Avery.  Happy, happy birthday, Avery!

Your Horse Pal,

@raya

BIRTHDAY FUN AT THE BARN

Hi Horse Pals ~

Today we had a barn birthday party for our friends, Samuel and Kelliann.  We had a balloon toss with super big balloons and Avery and Isabelle were the water balloon champions.  Samuel's sister, Gretchen made the most adorable horse cupcakes with a horse head and tail .... not only were they cute, they were delicious.  Birthdays at the barn are always so much fun!

I had a great ride today with Dandy ... we did serpentines and circles changing our gaits from trot to canter throughout the figures.  She felt great!

Avery had an excellent ride today, too - she worked on the canter with no stirrups and only one hand which really worked her balance.  She did a lot of work with no stirrups, including posting trot.  She had a great workout!

Have a great week around the barn!

@raya 

Thanks for the yummy cupcakes, Gretchen!

A WONDERFUL GIFT!

I have had the pleasure of making an incredible horse friend at my barn named Diane.  She was in her 70's and had so much information to share about horses and riding.  My sister and I often spent hours listening to her horse stories and she taught us SO much about riding and life.  We formed a special bond and friendship over the years.  Very sadly, she has passed away but the memory of our friendship will always be with us.  Much to our complete surprise, Diane left us an amazing gift, one of her horses, a beautiful Arabian named Shaman (which means one who knows).  My sister and I are honored to be able to care for and love Diane's horse as we know they were like children to her.

Shaman is a show horse well trained in dressage who comes from a champion bloodline.  His show name is Silver Shaman.  We are so excited that he is a new member of our family.

We love you, Diane and we will always remember you!

ARAYA'S BIRTHDAY BARN BASH ~ FUN GAMES ON HORSEBACK

I just celebrated my birthday with a super fun party at the barn!  Check out the photos in the photo album!  What made this party perfect was spending the entire day on horseback!! Here are some of the games we played that I definitely recommend for a fabulous horse birthday party:

ROUND UP ~ This game is played in teams (we had 3 teams of 2 riders) and the goal is to find as many plastic animals as you can that are hidden and placed around the arena and then drop them in your team's bucket in the middle of the arena.  Each rider is given 4 minutes to find and drop in the bucket as many as they can before the next player on their team goes.  You can only pick up one animal at a time and drop it in the bucket before finding another animal.  We added water balloons to the mix and each team had to have at least one balloon (unpopped) in the bucket at the end of the game - it added a great challenge as the balloons could pop on the animals and/or the drop into the bucket.  All of the teams are riding at the same time so you have to dodge and steer your way around the other riders.  It was SO much fun we played it twice!!

TACK UP AND GO!  ~ This is another game played in teams and is really fun!!  You start at one end of the arena where you place all of your tack and get ready to tack up and ride.  It takes a lot of teamwork because you have to tack up together and decide who is doing what quickly. After you are tacked up, each rider has to ride across the arena as fast as they can and come back to the tack up spot for the other team member(s) to do the same.  This is a blast because you can ride as fast as you want!  After all of the riders have ridden, everyone has to untack as quickly as they can and whoever completes it first, wins.

SYNCHRONICITY GAME ~ This is a really tricky but super fun game.  It is all about riding in synch with your partner.  Before the game officially starts, teams of two get a chance to ride next to each other and match each other's pace at different gaits to get in synch.  Some teams held hands, others put a crop between them, basically you could practice however you wanted to get the riders and horses in sync.  After a ten minute practice, each team was given a piece of crepe paper to hold between them and the object of the game is to hold the crepe paper without ripping it throughout the game while changing gaits, positions (i.e. 2 point, posting) and riding around the arena.  It was hard to stay in sync but there was the additional challenge of steering in sync and not running into any other riders and horses!

THE EGG & SPOON BALANCE ~ This is a really fun balance game where each player has an egg on a spoon and they need to hold it while riding around the arena and changing gaits and positions.  It's super hard but what was great was sometimes when the egg dropped, it didn't crack so you could try again.  We each ended up going through 2 eggs and had so much fun!

WATER BALLOON TOSS AND FIGHT ~ We also did a water balloon toss in the arena on foot and that was fun.  After the toss, we had a balloon fight in the arena with our trainer and it was a blast!  It was perfect because it was a hot day and we had been riding all day.

This was definitely my favorite birthday party ever!!  I'd love to hear about your horse parties!!

See ya around the barn,

@raya