Party ideas for 7 year old - horse themed???

[andyrobo237]

DD has decided that she would like a party at home for her birthday in Feb - we are thinking of a horse theme - so horse cake, invitations, party bags, etc, but we need some ideas for games / things to do!

The party is for 6 people and or 2 hours at home (I mus tbe mad!!). We can think of the usual pin the tail on a horse, we can hire a horse outfit from the fancy dress shop, etc

Anyone got any good ideas, please

Does she ride? When mine was younger her stables did birthday parties, like a private lesson for her and guests, lots of games. But all of her friends were riders and probably a couple of years old and as you say, she wants the party at home.

A type of assult course, with jumps? leading each other? carrying oats?
Something arty, decorate the pony etc
Just adapt normal party games, so musical bumps becomes musical-fall-off-your-horse-with-a-bump, or is that a bit scary for 7 year olds!

She would love a stable party, but does not ride, and neither do any of the friends (as mean mum wont let her with all the other activities!!)

I thought of getting some horse outlines and letting them colour / decorate them! Messy but good!

Depending on your location, the weather, your garden and your budget, there are animal parties where a real pony is brought along for a couple of hours with an assortment of other farm animals, allowing the children to have a plod around and cuddle/feed the rest of the menagerie.

My friend used www.animalmagicponyparties.co.uk/ for her daughter's birthdays in the past and they were excellent, very professional.

Plasticine? Give them all a tray with a lump of plasticine and give a prize to the one who can make the best model horse in say, 10 mins. I know someone who did this (not horses specifically though) as a way of getting 10 mins peace and a cup of tea amid the chaos .

Do you have a decent-sized garden? Set up a course of jumps with bamboo canes etc and do races on spacehoppers. Or just 'gymkhana ' type games like flag races. (My friend and I used to do this when we were ponymad kids and got in trouble for ruining her dad's newly seeded lawn .) Does rather depend on it not tipping down with rain though unfortunately. My daughter also has a Feb birthday so I know what it's like.

If it's wet you could do a hunt the thimble sort of thing, hunt the horseshoe?

Horseshoe tossing? Very traditional! There are plastic ones on Amazon which should be quite safe .

What about a pinata in the shape of a horse? I can't paste links but if you go to pinatas.com and have a look at the galloping horse. Essentially it's a paper structure filled with sweets etc that you hang from a tree, then blindfold your kids in turn and ask them to hit at it(with a stick/riding crop?), the ojective being to break it and release the sweets. It's loads of fun, I worked at an American Summer Camp way back when and this always went down a storm for their birthdays. If you can't purchase in the uk it may be worth a go making one or getting the kids to try and make one before the party, apologies if this is de rigeur for british kids parties now but I've never seen them here yet.

pony party

strangely I have posted that link twice in last week...

Anyway, lots of ideas hopefully.

try
www.sleepovercompany.com/products/parties/essentials/index_1383.html
or alternatively you'll find if you keep the number of kids down that at 10.00 for half an hour etc you'll get a lesson for a few kids. By the time you've got them home, fed them pizza and given them this cake from waitrose....
www.waitrosedeliver.com/wdeliver/app/shop?op=productPage&siteCode=BI&open_cate gory=184596&page=Homepage&opencat=yes
You'll actually have a reasonable priced party. Last year my aspergic dd1 who turned 8 and is completely nuts about horses took her 4 friends riding then had dinner for about 46 quid. Admitedly the whole thing took 3 hours and was knackering but what the heck - she loved it!

Got loads more ideas including a list 6 pages long of horse themed games that my dd1 (now approaching nine(March) and planning her next party since last March) has found. Also can give loads of links to invites and even cake decoration ideas so contact me if you want more.

Wow, loads of ideas now, thanks everyone!

When I told DD I was putting a request out for ideas on MN, she said t"thats great - they always have good ideas"!! I think she thinks I spend far too long on here!!

I saw a pink unicorn pinata in ASDA today if that's any help.

horse pinada? not sure how one would go about making such a thing though. sorry not very helpful, I just liked the idea!