Friday August 3rd,
Dear Moms and Dads, and PF Farm Family,
It is with
sadness that I wake up this morning as it is the last full day with your
TREASURES….I hate the thought of them leaving. I swear they could just stay on
and on. They continue to be so
great. What a fabulous session we have
had.
Picking up
where I left off yesterday, we had the Hawk Demo on Wednesday night. What an
experience that was. The girls had seen
it the week before and loved it. I had missed it as it was the same night I had
the stomach bug. However, I was there in
the front row and just dazzled this time around. They brought their favorite owl, Petie. He is a Barn Owl and big &
beautiful. He even called for us. They
also brought a little Screech Owl who had been injured by hitting a window in
someone’s home. His sight was ruined as
one eye was badly damaged. He also
sustained a head injury, making him unable to fly or feed himself. He is going to a local college this fall to
be used to train biologists how to rehab raptors. The last owl that they brought was a young
Barn Owl. This wee one arrived in
starvation mode. With some good food and
some time to recoup, they are hoping he will be able to make it in the
wild. To our delight, they let Lisa, our
youngest camper of 8 years old, take him on her arm and gently release
him. We all watched in wonder as he
looked at us with his big eyes. What an
honor.
The teenage
girls who were preparing to take their Raptor Exam to be able to catch, keep
and hunt hawks once again got to present to the camp community all about hawks
and their lure. With fabulous
information given, we were then able to watch two of my former lesson students
do a live demo of falconry on their beautiful black horses. These 13 and 15 year old girls completely
impressed us as they walked and trotted with beautiful matching Red Tailed
Hawks on their gloved arm. Their horses
did not flinch a muscle as the birds flapped and squawked. It was truly dazzling to watch these girls,
hawks and horses work together with the horses in rope halters, none the
less. Truly amazing!
The evening
ended on a high note when all of us got to hold the owls or hawks on gloved
arms. What an experience. It was truly
moving as it was one of the only things that young girls and women in the old
days could do. They could learn to do
falconry and ride to go out and hunt.
Imagine all the things we can do today that were forbidden to them in
Medieval times.
The next
day dawned right and good as we all gathered prior to the Cheshire Fair to do
our Specialties in preparation for your Parents’ Exhibition on Saturday. The girls have chosen to do one of these
things…Vault (Gymnastics on a moving horse) on Gruffy, who is 18.2 HH; Perform
on the Hunter Derby Course; Show off the Gambler’s Choice Jumping Course; Strut
their stuff on a regular jumping course; or Drive Carriages through a cones
course. We are excited to show you all
of these things in addition to the regular narrated riding lessons. We are proud of all that the girls have
learned and can’t wait to show this off to you. Becky will follow up with more
details of that.
Following a
fun morning, we all put horses away and started barn chores early as the bus
was a’coming to take everyone to the famed Cheshire Fair. With a yummy lunch and quick turn out, Rest
Hour happened. Everyone got spiffed up and ready to go to the fair. More to follow on that too!
Today, we
will get packing, neaten up our rooms, go swimming together and generally take
an easier day as the fair ended really pretty late for the kids and staff. After sleeping in, we will then again
practice the Specialties to we can hopefully really impress you all!
The day
will end with one of my favorite camp evenings which is Candlelight. Each girl will write something about her camp
experience at Pony Farm. She will also
take a shower and get dressed up for a great special dinner. Following dinner, we will light our favorite
candles and have a big candle that we will pass around to light the
readings. Fresh flowers will be
everywhere and we will sing our favorite songs.
With such beautiful girls and wonderful stories, this is our official
wrap up of our experience. I love this
time together perhaps best of all!
Tomorrow we
will greet you with open arms even as we are sad to give you back your
daughters. They are truly a wonderful
group of young women. The world will be
in good hands when they grow up. Their
generosity of spirit, grit, determination, loving hearts and hard working hands
is just what our hurting world needs. It
has been a pleasure and a privilege to have them with us for this session.
Thank you for sharing them. See you
tomorrow.
All
my best for a great day.
Warmly,
Boo
No comments:
Post a Comment