It sure has been hot and humid this week! Campers, staff, and horses have been hanging in there and making the best of it, but it has definitely been a challenge to stay cool. Some of our riding classes had to be cut a bit short today due to the extreme heat in the best interest of the health of campers, horses, and staff. Tomorrow is supposed to be about the same as today was, so Day Camp will most likely be heading to the pool unless it rains.

The activities we ran today were planned to best maximize our time in the shade. In sports we played water games, consisting of relays and Drip, Drip, Drop (which is like Duck, Duck, Goose, only played with water). In Nature we made Dream Catchers using sticks and yarn. Arts and Crafts was tie-dye day, and by the end of the afternoon there were 60 tie-dyed articles waving in the warm breeze outside the Day Camp barn.

That's a lot of tie-dye!

Resident camp left in the afternoon to go to the pool, so we got to watch the horses from our main herd run out on to their grass pasture before the bus came. It's always neat to watch the horses interacting with each other and enjoying the extra room to run.

Campers and staff watch as the horses come down through the gate.

A horse of almost every possible color.

This week at Day Camp our theme is Adopt a Horse. Each group will be adopting one of our horses for the week, and will be learning how to care for it. We will hopefully get pictures of the groups with their adopted horses by the end of the week, so keep checking back!

Yesterday was a little overcast, but hot, humid, and buggy. We all made sure to drink lots of water and slather on the sunscreen! Despite the weather, we still enjoyed getting to know each other and the horses. In riding we covered the basics; how to stop, steer, and go.

The Falabella group grooming Zippy.

A momentary break in the clouds.

The Shetlands group riding.

The Quarter Horse group finishing an Around-the-World race.

This afternoon Day Camp visited Peck's food market and animal park, which is located just outside Arena, WI. It was a perfect summer day! Everyone had a great time going on wagon and train rides, seeing the exotic animals, and feeding the goats. Here are some pictures of the things we saw and did on our trip!

Wagon rides pulled by a team of Belgian Draft horses.

Molly and Dolly, Belgian Draft horses.


The Morgan group feeding the goats.


Kids were given cups of feed that could be poured into containers and wheeled up platforms for the goats to eat.

A goat eating on the middle platform.

One of the baby goats tries to eat the sign, while a llama looks on.

Here's a llama.

A swan in the pond.

The Quarter Horses in the bouncy house.

The train preparing to depart for a tour of the Peck's grounds.

The alligator was happy sunbathing.

Petting the potbellied pig.

Close up shot of the Emu.

Riding instructor Holly and the Pinto group posing with the large pumpkin.

Sully the guinea pig has been a special guest at all three Horse and Small Animal theme weeks we have run over the past two years. He loves cuddling with the kids! Sully belongs to Leah, the counselor in charge of the Arabian group this week.

Sully the guinea pig.

Sully loves attention!

Bridget, the counselor who leads the small animal activities.

On Wednesday, our small animal special guest was an unnamed 2 month old kitten who was brought in by Jenna, one of our riding staff. The campers played with her (she loves chasing markers and jumping on the fly swatter) and learned about how to care for cats, and also got to suggest names for her. At the end of the day, the two names that tied with the most votes were...

................................ (drumroll please!)...............................

... Midnight and Boots! Jenna will decide the winner tonight. By the end of the day the kitten was so exhausted from playing that she couldn't keep her eyes open. Aww!

Boots/Midnight meeting the Quarter Horse group.

Mmm, tasty markers!

Todays visitor for Small Animal Week was Huey the hedgehog! Huey is nearly full-grown, and likes to investigate things. When he is scared, he curls up into a ball, which causes his quills to stick out. He is a little pokey to handle when this happens, so wearing gloves while holding him is recommended. To calm him down if he is scared, all you need to do is blow gently in his face, and he settles down.

When he is scared, Huey curls up into a ball.

Huey visits the campers in the Morgan group while they sit in a circle on the floor.

Huey coming out of his house.

Small Animal Week August 2-6

The day camp staff are thrilled to welcome a new group of campers, and some special animal friends this week! Everyday there will be a new animal guests for the kids to meet and learn about. Today, Quarter Horse group leader Nina brought her two Boston Terriers, Ivy and Gertie, to camp.

Bridget, the Small Animal Activity Leader, letting Ivy and Gertie explore. The two dogs are mother and daughter.

Ivy loves the attention!

Here are the groups we have this week:

The Falabellas

Group Leader: Josh

The Shetlands

Group Leader: Amber

The Pintos

Group Leader: Mackenzie

The Arabians

Group Leader: Leah

The Morgans

Group Leader: Lindsey (not pictured)

The Quarter Horses

Group Leader: Nina

It looked like we might get some sprinkles this morning, but by the time the bus arrived we could tell it was going to be a great day to be outside at camp! Todays activities included a scavenger hunt in nature, making sock horses in arts and crafts, and playing capture the flag in sports.

In horse fun, campers learned about horses' teeth in an interesting and tasty way-- using marshmallows and chocolate syrup. They learned that horses have grooves in their teeth that turn brown as a horse ages, and that the surface of the tooth becomes smoother as it is ground down through chewing. After all this learning they got to eat their "teeth". Mmm, who knew teeth were so tasty?

Jenna the riding instructor finishes teaching the Shetlands group about teeth.

Making marshmallow horse teeth models.

Tuesday

Today was a warm one! Our groups practiced more steering and stopping during riding, played 500 during sports, made watercolor silhouette pictures in arts and crafts, and went on a hike to see a pond full of frogs and tadpoles for nature. One lucky group got to help us put flower seeds in the planter behind the day camp barn.

Horse Lover's Week July 26-30

The first day of Horse Lover's week was a perfect summer day! This morning our groups got to know eachother and their group leaders, and participated in a variety of activities including arts and crafts, sports, nature, horse fun, horse science, and of course, riding. In nature, groups went looking for "gold" on a scavenger hunt in the woods, while in arts and crafts they made mosaic pictures. Many more fun activities are planned for the rest of the week, and many will be featured here on the blog, so keep watching!

Here are our groups for the week!

Falabellas

Group leader- Josh

Shetlands

Group Leader- Lindsey

Pintos

Group Leader- Nina

Arabians

Group Leader- Leah

Morgans

Group Leader- Mackenzie

Quarter Horses

Group Leader- Leah

Thursday

We had to run a rain schedule today due to severe weather. This is what camp looked like around 8:30 am-- before campers arrived:

Normally we don't have a river running down the hill, nor a lake in the arena.

The rain eventually cleared up, and after lunch we were able to ride and resume our normal activities for the day. Tie-dye had to be postponed til Friday, but other than that we still accomplished everything we planned to do today. One of the highlight activities was learning to rope. Campers used lariats to lasso the fence up by the barn. Some of them thought it would be a better idea to rope the counselors, but that proved to be much trickier.

Jenna, one of the Day Camp riding staff, demonstrates how to throw a lasso.

Rachel has great aim!

Wednesday

Riding was a blast on Wednesday! By now most of the groups have had learned enough riding skills to try trotting. All the horses line up so that we have more space for everyone to do their individual trot-work. Trotting is fun, but it can be very bouncy!

Holly, one of the Day Camp riding staff, instructs the Shetlands group on how to trot.

Individual trotting-- Quincy has a nice trot.

Slammer the miniature horse was a special guest in sports again today. Here he is in action, demonstrating the clover leaf pattern with our sports activity leader, Bridget: