Do you have an instructional plan for this year?

Begin your year with a PLAN!  What does the club want to cover this coming year in the way of unmounted instruction?  This information can come in the manner of a clinic, monthly meetings, prior to mounted lessons; you can follow standards, interests, or someone else's plan...it really is determined by each club-BUT develop an instructional plan for the year!  For additional ideas, check the national pony club site and search under instruction.

I've include two templates I used many years ago so ignore the dates.  The first  was written for two groups of students, D's and C's for at this time we had a good number of each.  Pony Clubbers were encouraged to bring their manual to each unmounted meetings and we gave stickies and highlighters to mark their books.  We also identified one person to be responsible for each lesson; there were weaknesses in this; some felt they could do better or the lesson wasn't as strong as it could have been; be up front with expectations for lessons.

The second template identifies 4 fifteen minute lessons, called buckets, to be taught each meeting.  I haven't completed it- wondered if folks would like a discussion of how to plan further using regional resources?

Feel free to modify either to fit your needs.  But the important piece of this sharing of templates is just ... having a plan in place and getting commitments from pony clubbers, adults, and sponsors to teach what has been decided on for that given date.  With e-mails you can send reminders.  REMEMBER the DC is the organizer- the facilitator, the NAG.. BUT not the whole show!  Ask pony clubbers from other clubs to teach, ask past pony clubbers to visit and teach, ask experts to share their knowledge.

KEEP EACH LESSON SHORT AND SWEET- USE VISUALS, GET PONY CLUBBERS INVOLVED-HANDS ON- KEEP IT PRACTICAL FOR D'S.  THEY DON'T NEED A HANDOUT!

TEACHING A LESSON? (CHECK THE REGION'S INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES)

Links
Instructional Templates:
Example 1: A Year's Unmounted Instructional Plan
Example 2: Pony Club Horse Management topics for 2008

Unmounted Lessons:
#1. Unmounted lesson: Select a disease to fully discuss from cause to care and recovery.
#2. Unmounted lesson: How to measure for a blanket 
#3. Unmounted lesson: Does the blanket fit?