Who's ready for another Daisy Journey Series!!! This month we'll be venturing our way through the 3 Cheers for Animals Daisy Journey! I think fall is the perfect time to start this journey. We started our adventure with a visit to a local horse academy, followed by a visit to an animal shelter, and ended with a Yoga session that taught us about how we can take care of and respect our bodies! In between these super fun adventures we weaved in our regular Girl Scout meetings to take the time to discuss and share what we have learned and how we can use our Red Robin Project to make the world a better place!!
Our first session was kicked off with the horse riding and care lesson. If you are looking for a affordable riding club in the Chicago area, I would be happy to suggest a place. This riding club was small but so very wonderful!
Safety First!
Their program was specifically tailored to the Girl Scouts. Our session started off by learning about the safety rules of horses...
- Don't stand behind a horse
- Don't stand directly in front/under their face. Why, because of the way the horses eyes are set they can't see you in this position.
- Don't use loud noises like shouting (it startles them)
- Don't feed horses from your hands (they might mistake your hand as food)
Animal Care
Then our group split into two smaller groups and we got a lesson on horse care. The girls learned the different brushes you use to clean the horse and how to brush them. They realized fast that there is a lot of care in these large animals and it's not all fun and games. Brushing a horse takes some arm strength!
Animals need care, I need care, I can do both!
After the brushing the beautiful creatures, the girls got a quality horseback riding lesson. They learned how to get on a horse properly, how to hold the reigns, how to direct and steer the horse and even got them in a trotting lesson! I was impressed with the quality of instruction!
Animal Nutrition
Lastly, the girls got a lesson in horse nutrition. They made horse treats (with honey, oats and some other stuff) and baked them up in the oven. While we were waiting for them to cook, we got to see real horse teeth and learned about how horses need dentists, too. Did you know horse teeth don't stop growing? I didn't either! Horses also can't eat regular potatoes but they can eat sweet potatoes!
When they were finished they got to feed the horses from a bowl because we learned you don't feed from your hand or you risk getting chomped on.
It was such a great experience and the girls also got a fun patch (provided by the riding club)! The cost was $35 per girl which I think was so reasonable for the 2 hour program. We used our cookie money proceeds to fund this trip and it was money well spent. The girls keep asking to go back!
She preferred to eat the snack over feeding the horse.. lol She must have been really hungry!
Alternatives a riding lesson:
- Visit a farm
- Zoo trip (petting zoo would be perfect)
- Animal Shelter or hospital
- Bring in a small pet (guinea pig or hamster)