How to organise a Playday...

Anyone can organise a Playday. All you need is some organisational skills.

First find an area for a few people with horses to play in. For L1 this is best done in a sand school/arena or small paddock. Make sure there is enough room for everyone with 12' ropes. Also, if the space is limited, limit the amount of people for safety reasons. L2 and L3 need much more space.

Then gather the people, offer them some dates to choose from and then set the date. It's often useful to have more than one date so that you can have more than one playday available. Make sure people know the full address of the play area, the price to pay (if it's a riding establishment), times and your phone number in case they need to ring you.

Often playdays can be informal where you challenge each other with inventive and imaginative tasks. Then you can have themed playdays like, Cowboy Races, Informal Dressage day or a general Pony Games one. Always remember this is not a competition and people should only be asked to challenge themselves and their horses, then everyone wins. Some days can be used to help video friends for assessment. Anything can be a reason for a playday. What I know is that it's a lot of fun to get together with like minded friends with our horses for a full day of play.

Morning is usually a great time for everyone and their horses to be online, gaining confidence in maybe a new place. Afternoons can be dedicated to learning something new or ridden things. Always make sure everyone is comfortable about riding, some people prefer to stay online to sort out some wrinkles in their savvy.

For insurance purposes you may want to write a list of people attending, their insurance policy/numbers and contact address/phone numbers too. I usually 'invite' people for a fun day together rather than have an 'organised event' as such. If it is a formal organised event you may have to look into Public Liablity or Yard insurance!

Make sure also that people know if there's any facilities on offer ie. toilets, coffee & tea facilities and somewhere to put a horse if necessary.