Small Animal Care Week Seven: Group Photos

Small Animal Care week seven has kicked off to a great start here at Hoofbeat! On day one, the campers have all been given the opportunity to meet some chickens, snuggle a couple goats, make animal masks in Arts & Crafts, get to know each other in Sports, learned all about horse safety and grooming, and (of course) ridden a horse. To help give you a visual of all our amazing campers this week and the various small animals they get to care for, we have compiled some photos for your enjoyment. For more photos (including all the silly faces we could muster), please go to www.facebook.com/Hoofbeat.

The chickens and goats were the small animal lesson for the day and both seemed delighted to meet their new friends 

The Morgans all took their group photo during Sports

The Arabians convinced the goats to share in their group photo

The Quarter Horses all showed off their animal faces from Arts & Crafts for their group photo

The Pintos all gathered together after Sports for their group photo

The Shetlands decided to take their group photo amongst the flowers in the chicken pen

The Fallabellas thought the willow tree was the place to be for their group photo

Stay tuned as their will be another blog update posted regarding our week's activities this Friday. In the meantime, please visit www.facebook.com/Hoobeat for more awesome photos of all the Day Campers and their activities. 

Adopt a Horse Week Six: Continued

We were blessed for Adopt a Horse week six with lots of gorgeous weather throughout the week. Unfortunately, the rain decided to try and dampen our mood this Friday, but we decided to soak up what sun was available and enjoy lots of Hawaiian themed activities. The groups spent the morning doing their normal activities in abbreviated formats, and the afternoon was jam packed with all sorts of lessons such as learning a little Hawaiian, practicing the Hula, and get faces painted. The big hit for the afternoon was our limbo competition that both students and staff took part in. As usual, we tried to capture as many moments from the week on camera, so see below for a visual glance at our week at Day Camp. For individual pictures with their adopted horses, please visit our facebook page at www.facebook.com/Hoofbeat.

Group Photo outside the Day Camp barn

 

Downhill activities like Sports wouldn't be complete without a brief visit with the camp goats

The gorgeous weather made for some wonderful riding here at camp

For our Fun in the Sun day, all the campers showed off their best Hawaiian attire

The kids loved stopping by Trading Post to get their "pocket sized ponies" to help them remember camp

Face painting was a huge hit Friday afternoon

The best part of the day was the Limbo competition grand finale

Both staff and campers alike seemed to thoroughly enjoy our theme day

Mahalo for an excellent week Day Campers and we look forward to seeing your lovely faces once more sometime soon! For more pictures, please visit www.facebook.com/Hoofbeat.

A hui hou!

Adopt a Horse Week Six: Group Photos!

Adopt a Horse has jump started with some beautiful weather. The groups spent the day getting to know their adopted horses by practicing their leading skills in Horse Fun, got creative in Arts & Crafts making horse collages, enjoyed some name games in Sports, tested their smarts in Nature on a scavenger hunt, and tested their knowledge of horse safety in Horse Science. Here are some lovely photos from our eventful day. For individual pictures, please visit our facebook page at www.facebook.com/Hoofbeat.

Keep watching our blog and facebook for more pictures as there will be another posting this Friday.

Horse Lover's Week Five: Continued

 Horse Lover's (week five) has been one amazing ride! Even with the hot, humid and downright uncomfortable temperatures we still managed to jam pack a whole lot of fun into one week. We are very thankful that the campers (and the parents) were all very understanding when we were forced to do three half-days of normal rotations in a row on account of the heat. Those days made all the difference in keeping our campers, staff, and horses safe and healthy throughout this trying week.   We kicked off our first Adopt-a-Horse week of the summer and it was a huge success.

The upside to all those half-days, were the awesome afternoon activities that followed. Wednesday afternoon all of Day Camp headed to the pool to soak up the sun in comfort. Thursday was a whole new adventure when Resident Camp and Day Camp combined afternoon activities to enjoy each other's company- and the Air Conditioning! Friday was the most fun of all because all our campers got to show off their best cowgirl attire, play some super fun Minute to Win It games, and even get their faces painted. We want to thank everyone again for making this week such an amazing experience here on the Ridge and for helping us enjoy the summer- regardless of the temperatures. Here are some more images showcasing our wonderful Day Campers and their activities! For more, please visit www.facebook.com/Hoofbeat.

Dream Horse creations in Lower Longbranch

Our afternoon at the Mazo pool wouldn't have been complete without a few rounds on the slide

 During Shenanigans, the girls came up with their own version of a line dance on Wild West Day

Water games on the Lower Activity field were a blast and the ladies loved showing off their best swimming poses for the camera

Wild West Day for Friday Theme Day was a huge success 

 

During Arts & Crafts, our campers even got to design their best old west mustaches, wanted signs and sheriff badges

Face Paint on Friday was also a lovely addition to the day

Minute to Win It games were held in the Lodge and put on by our very own riding instructors. Their big booming voices made the perfect announcers as the girls tried their hand at each game.

Thanks again for such a wonderful and inspiring week everyone! Don't forget to check out our facebook page at www.facebook.com/Hoofbeat. We hope to see you again soon here on the Ridge!

Horse Lover's Week Five: Group Photos!

It has been a delightful, if not warm, first day of camp here at Day Camp. During their downhill activities, the campers all had a blast in their working on their horse masks during Arts & Crafts, group games were a huge hit during Sports, and the 5 minute hike out to the cabin for Nature was a great chance to get some shade. For our uphill, or horse oriented time, the campers got to practice grooming during Horse Fun and learned all about rider safety, barn rules and proper posture during Horse Science. Even with the heat, all the campers still got their full amount of riding time and all seemed to have a great time in the ring- whether it was their first ride or their fiftieth.  

To illustrate all the fun to be had today, we went around camp and got a few lovely group photos of the campers with all their new friends. Enjoy!

Maggie and the Morgans taking a break during Sports for a picture

The Quarter Horses showing off their new horse masks at the end of Arts & Crafts

Sam and the Pintos struck their most awesome poses while relaxing in the shade

Laura and the Fallabellas took their group photo in the Day Camp barn

The Arabians decided to take their group shot outside the riding arena, helmets and all

The Shetlands took a breather from Sports to take their group photo

We hope you enjoyed this brief glimpse of how our first day went. There will be another blog update posted regarding the week's activities this Friday. In the meantime though, go check out our facebook page for more awesome pictures: www.facebook.com/Hoofbeat

Adopt a Horse Week Four: Continued

It's been another stupendous week up on the Ridge. We kicked off our first Adopt-a-Horse week of the summer and it was a huge success. The campers all had a blast doing their usual activities like Arts & Crafts, Sports and Nature, not to mention all their unmounted horse activities like Horse Fun and Horse Science. Best of all though was when they got to spend time with their group's adopted horse practicing everything from saddling to leading during their unmounted lessons. 

All of camp showed marked improvement on their riding skills as the week progressed and we were very happy with how participatory everyone was. Although we did have a minor set-back on Tuesday due to poor weather that caused us to cancel our usual Friday parent-visit, we still managed to squeeze in all our other super exciting activities. Below are a few images from this week of the campers living the dream here on the Ridge. Enjoy!

We were gifted another gorgeous day 

Funny faces were all the rage throughout camp, but of course Arts & Crafts really brought out their wild sides

Some of our campers practicing their half circle and reverse during an afternoon lesson

Some of our talented horses getting a little novice schooling from our devoted campers

The Morgans having a great time making pine cone bird feeders in Nature

The Arabians having a great time learning all about tie dye

Thursday was trail and bareback day, so we braved the bugs with our layers of bug block and sunscreen and enjoyed a leisurely trail ride across Cowskull trail

Zeke held up the caboose position for most of the trail rides

While half the riders were on trail for part of each lesson, the other half of the group spent their time improving their bareback skills in Roadside arena

Once the first half of the lesson was up, the group switched so everyone got a chance to try bareback and trail

Our instructors did a great job explaining bareback/trail day, and since the campers were all such well behaved and skilled riders, they got to choose their horses most of the time

The Fallabellas had some downtime before Horse Science, so we took a few silly pictures in the Upper Barn Lounge. On the left is their best Taco the Mule impressions, and on the right they all decided to just rock out a silly pose

Thanks for a great week at camp everyone and we hope you all had as much fun as we did this marvelous week! For more pictures, including individual shots with their adopted horses, please go to and "like" our facebook page! Hope to see you all again soon and have a splendid summer!