Yokes of Glory

Game Concept:
One student crawls on all fours, like a horse, while another student rides him/her. Each pair does so and fights others like they are knights. In order to win, a knight must break the egg that is taped to the head of another knight’s horse with their sword.

Supplies needed:
-Eggs, lots and lots of eggs.
-Wide masking tape (colored painter’s tape is even better, one color for each team).
-cheap, thin poster board.
-Trash bags are optional, only if you want to keep your kids clean.

Directions:
Split your group into pairs, it is ideal to have one larger person paired with a fairly small person (i.e. High school student with a junior high student). After they are in pairs, place the pairs with other pairs to form two teams.
Have each pair choose who will be the horse and who will be the knight.

The knight will be in charge of rolling up the poster board and taping it into a sword. The looser the sword is rolled, the less it hurts, but the harder it is to break the egg. I always warn them not to roll it too tight, so no one gets hurt. I’m a fairly big and strong guy, so I have a policy that if I think someone made their sword too tight, I get to test it on their own head. Oddly enough, no one has ever rolled it so tight that I found it necessary to test.

The Horse’s job is a little more sacrificial. They not only need to crawl on all fours like a horse, they also need to tape an egg on their head and risk being very messy for the rest of the night. It is important to use masking or painter’s tape, any substitute has stronger adhesive and risks the participant of losing hair. Also, painter’s tape comes in multiple colors, which can help with distinguishing teams. The “horse” needs to tape the egg to the back of their head with multiple layers of tape. If the egg is taped to the front of their head, they can duck down and too easily hide the egg. The horse can also wear a trash bag over their shirt to get less messy, but honestly, they will get messy no matter what.

After the knight has a sword and the horse has their egg, escort the group outside to a grassy area that can be used as a battle field. Place each team on opposing sides and have the knight mount their horse, instruct each team to give their best pre-battle yell and then say, “go!” and let them go at it (hopefully, they will only fight those on other teams and not their own). When the horse’s egg is broken, both the knight and the horse are dead, the first team to annihilate the other team wins.