MaineCane: horse camp

Horse Camp! Wow, what a different camp experience! So it wasn't a sleepover, and Emily didn't pre-face the camp with a week-long staff orientation, which would have meant Emily and I talking to each other about leadership skills and fun horse games and going to Walmart on our off nights. But I digress. Basically the kids showed up at 9, and Emily had a rough schedule that was made and adjusted throughout the day, and which had to be repeated to me countless times. It was so lax that sometimes I didn't even feel like it was camp. Also, because Emily was the singular horse trainer, there were only 7 campers...7! It should also be noted that they brought their own lunch so it was picnic lunch instead of taking care of 80 campers at a cafeteria meal.

So here's the deal. At Horse Camp, we only had one activity: horses.

Now this might seem trivial because the activity is named in the camp title. But understand that my conception of summer camp comes from Wet Hot American Summer, Heavy Weights (two Oscar-worthy films) and Episcopalian church camps. Horses have never figured into summer camp for me.
So the focus of camp was totally different. First of all, I had no expertise about riding horses so any confidence i showed was part-cherade. Secondly, the camp really wasn't about community in christ or building relationships with others, or creating moral groundworks. it was about riding and taking care of horses.

*It is true that this teaches responsibility and ownership, but there was never morning christian-edu.

So what does this mean? It mostly meant that I spent time being sacrilegious about horses instead of Christianity. So I'm a fun guy, and so I made sure that we had some fun.

Cane and Abbot rest at lunch.

It Olivia about 8 attempts to get up on her horse bareback

What is camp without playing in the rain?

Very funny guys.

I even got the horses to have fun.

Our own Midsummer Horses' Dream.

But here is the deal. At the end of the week, I had an experience I'd never really had before in terms of cam. I was PROUD . I had a little 7 year old who was about to take care of a horse all by herself.

And there was this nine year old boy, the only guy camper, who was riding, and goofing off just like I knew he could.

In fact, they were so good at washing horses that Olivia either a) couldn't believe it or b) was frustrated at them for not giving her a bath, too.

So I've never felt pride before about my campers, but these guys had come so far or had been so mature and helpful with beginner riders, and they were so happy to show their families what they had learned and been working on, whether is was making a horse do S-turns or have them jump consecutive jumps at an even canter.
It was just amazing.