Attention All Cowboys And Cowgirls: It's Time To Saddle Up Your Horses And Celebrate With A Horseback Riding Party!

Organize a horseback riding party for some fun for your little cowboy or girl's birthday this year! With this guide you will know what to expect, what to serve and what activities to have ready. 

Although a horseback riding party is always in season, late summer and early fall is the perfect time of year for this kind of party.

Horseback Riding Party Itinerary: Plan To Bring On The Excitement With Your Western Activities

The actual horseback riding may take a long time and only involve a few of your guests at a time. That being said, it is a great idea to have the activities going simultaneously with the horseback riding. Each session in the itinerary marks a new group of children's turn to ride. An itinerary following this system looks something like this:

• 10:00: Guests arrive
• 10:30: Short instruction and safety tips from equine manager, first group of kids get on horses. 
• 10:30: 12 noon--Activities and games
• 11:00: First Session
• 11:30: Second Session
• 12 noon: Lunch
• 1:00-2:30: Activities and games
• 1:00: Third Session
• 1:30: Fourth Session
• 2:00: Fifth Session
• 2:30: Dessert and opening presents (if the occasion is a birthday party)
• 3:30: Guests depart

Serve The Usual Cowboy Chow At Your Horseback Riding Party. That's Right: Beans And Sourdough

Keep the food with a cowboy feel and serve a beef brisket, baked beans and cole slaw.

Since this party is mainly focused on the horseback riding, don't focus too much on making the food perfect.

Of course, it is always fun to try to keep a theme with the food, but that should not be your main focus.

For dessert, cappuccino cupcakes are delicious with whipped cream. It also makes little mess and less sticky kids. Win, win!

Decorate Your Horseback Riding Party With Everything Horse Related. Don't Forget A Birthday Banner!

Decorate your party with browns, oranges, reds, and whites. Also, anything horsey is great! Make a bunting with horse fabrics and these colors to hang in the eating area. Horse stuffed animals can be placed on the eating tables.

Make a "Happy Birthday" banner with little horse silhouettes on each end. This is easily made with construction paper and curling ribbon. Just cut out 15 squares of either brown or red construction paper. Hole punch the two top corners.

Write out "Happy Birthday", one letter each on 13 squares of plain white printer paper cut to be a little smaller than the construction paper. Draw a horse silhouette on two more white paper squares or print off horse silhouette clip art if you are not much of a hand at drawing. Glue the white paper to the construction paper.

Thread the curling ribbon through the holes in the construction paper. Tie this banner up in the eating area.

Remember, once again, that the focus is on the horseback riding. This means that the decorations really don't have to be too elaborate. Just a little something that keeps with the theme is perfect. 

Don't Risk Boring Your Other Guests While They Wait For Their Mounts At Your Horseback Riding Party

Talk to an equine manager in advance to discuss the date, location, what you are expecting and pricing. Let him know if your guests are mainly beginners or experienced and talk through what you are wanting. This is your main party event, so if you have this, you practically have your party.

Use activities to keep your guests busy while groups of other kids ride. The equine manager will probably have something between two or four horses, so not everyone will be able to ride at the same time. 

Your guests could play a variety of old fashioned western games such as pin the tail to the donkey, tin can toss, or corn hole.  Blind man's bluff, red rover, the minister's cat, and of course one of our favorites, quick, draw, shoot are other games that guarantee hours of fun!

If you still want to have a fun western party but don't want all the hassle of arranging to have horses at the party, you could always throw a western theme backyard party instead of a horseback riding party!

We came up with this idea when we were working on Grisly Grisell, and went to an equine manager's property for the shoot day. We really enjoy working with horses in our first three films: Outlaws of Ravenhurst, Max & Carlota, and Grisly Grisell.