End of Week 5!

Week Five Wrap-Up

Just like that, another excellent week of summer camp is over! We had such a good time getting to know everyone, and we truly hope you have a wonderful rest of your summer. Below is a short summary of what we did in each class along with some photos from the rest of our week. Please enjoy, and we hope to see you again soon!

Riding

One of the highlights of each day was the groups’ riding class. We used our wonderful indoor riding arena and were able accomplish many fun things! Each day, we practiced Hoofbeat’s 5 S’s, which are starting, stopping, steering, spacing, and “squirreling” off your horse to dismount. We practiced these S’s every class with activities such as cutting across the middle of our ring, halting our horses, and even asking our horses to trot! Our instructors noticed a huge improvement in every camper’s confidence and riding ability from Monday to Friday. Whether riding a spunky, little pony like Batman or a gentle giant like King, they’re all leaving Hoofbeat as true equestrians! All the campers should be very proud of what they learned this week. J

Horse Science

This week’s Horse Science was fabulous as well! We started off the week with a proper Hoofbeat horse introduction, learning how to be safe around horses as well as how to groom and saddle them! The next day, campers got a chance to learn all about the job of barn management. Being a barn director is certainly not an easy job! On Wednesday, we talked about horse gaits and how horses move: from a walk all the way up to a gallop! Keeping on theme, we learned about horse senses on Thursday. Did you know that horses identify each other by smell? Finally, on Friday, we plan to learn about the process of buying a horse. We learned so much about horses this week. Thank you all so much for your enthusiasm in Horse Science!

Horse Fun

What would horse camp be without a little “horse fun”? We began the week by having a little horse photo shoot with some of our favorite Hoofbeat horses. Check out the blog to see those pictures! On Tuesday, we got to spend time grooming the horses and letting them graze out in the pasture. Campers had a great time getting the horses to look nice and shiny! The next day, we got a chance to decorate our barn aisle with some lovely horse stall tags. We love seeing the stall walls full of colorful papers at the end of the day! On Thursday, we got to show the horses our appreciation by giving them some homemade horse treats. On Friday, we hope to play some “Hoofbeat Jeopardy” as well as do some horse painting! As always, Horse Fun was great this week! 

Skill Surprise

We had so much fun learning all about animals in our “Skill Surprise” class this week! On Monday, we spent some time getting to know our Hoofbeat goats: Vanilla, Oreo, and Smokey. We even got to play a game of Jeopardy to learn all about them! On Tuesday, we got to meet some furry critters: bunnies, guinea pigs, and even chickens! The next day, we played a game in which we had to match different animals to the environments in which they live. It was definitely harder than it seemed! We switched from furry to scaly critters on Thursday, meeting some snakes, frogs, and even a bearded dragon. To end the week, we hope to spend some time with our miniature horses! What a fun week of activities!

Arts and Crafts

We had such a creative week in Arts and Crafts! On Monday, we stuck to our critters/safari theme by making some paper plate animals. There were snakes, lions, and even a few cows! On Tuesday, we each got a small piece of wood to decorate to make one big Hoofbeat mosaic! Campers sure got creative with their tiles. On Wednesday, we cut out safari animal silhouettes and pasted them on our own beautifully-designed sunset backgrounds! Thursday was our special “tie-dye” day. We had a blast making colorful designs on our shirts. We love seeing them all hanging up on the clothesline after camp! Finally, on Friday, we plan to make classic camp bracelets. Thank you for such a fun, creative week in Arts and Crafts, everyone!

Sports

Sports was fantastic this week! We kicked off the week by playing some name games and bonding games to get to know each other better. On the second day of camp, we got competitive with a game of Rounders: sort of a cross between kickball and baseball. On Wednesday, we headed inside for a few rounds of Charades. We made things even harder by playing a “Taboo” game in which you cannot use certain words as you try to get your team to guess what word is on your card! On Thursday, we took a trip to the Hoofbeat “stargazing tower” to play a few group games. We hope to end the week by competing in a series of “minute-to-win-it” games and taking a trip to our camp store, Trading Post! Thanks for a great week, everyone!