Black Stallion Literacy Program

Today we joined SLC for a trip to Arabian Nights as part of the Black Stallion Literacy Program, a wonderful curriculum that uses horses to inspire children to love reading. The kids had already made a visit to a horse farm to experience a ride and had read the first of two books for the first-grade program - Little Black, A Pony. Today, they rotated through four stations, each of which taught a different aspect of horse care.

• The first gave an overview of horse shoes and a demonstration (on Noah!) on how they are put on.

• Next, we learned about what horses eat, saw samples of the different types of hay and grains and learned about a few surprising treats they enjoy.

• The third station, which covered grooming, let the kids handle a variety of brushes and even a hoof pick (which Ava enjoyed trying on herself).

• Finally, we learned about the different types of tack used in riding and handling horses, and each of the kids got a turn in the saddle.

At each station, the kids had the opportunity to read a few passages from the book to the horse and handler; it was fun to see how this motivated some of the kids who would normally not have wanted to read in front of the group!

After the stations, we returned to the arena for lunch and a special visit with two of the book's characters, Little Black and Big Red.