Thursday
June 20th, 2013
Dearest Parents and Grandparents,
Oh my,
where does the week go??? I guess time
truly does fly when you are having fun!!!
And…fun we have had. The weather has proved to be great especially
yesterday and today. What could be
better than bright skies and sunshine with cool temps, no bugs and TERRIFIC
kids!!! I feel like the luckiest person
in the whole world to be a camp director at Pony Farm with your kids and a
super staff. I love every minute of it.
As Becky
has told you, we have had a power packed week.
It is good you have raised gung ho kids as they have been ever ready to
do the fun activities and riding. We
sure have hit the high spots…games galore at night, Pony Dress Up and Spa, Pair
and Triple Jumping, Driving the miniature horses, field trips to see the
Budweiser Clydesdales and the Wilton Falls, Catch Riding, Free Ride, Trail
Rides…you name it, we have done it. This
is of course only the backdrop to the riding lessons each morning. On Monday morning the Horse Match List
arrived with Andi, our Equine Manager and Trainer, who was responsible for
getting all the wonderful horses for camp.
She was organized and ready to roll to meet her new charges. All but a couple of matches were right from
the start. By Monday afternoon, everyone
was on an appropriate pony or horse that would both challenge them and give
them a good ride so they could focus on their own position and finesse in the
saddle.
From
Tuesday on, we have had each group of between 3 and 5 riders learning good,
solid riding skills and a progression to make it successful. We have spent a
lot of time in Orientation for both Counselors-in-Training and the Riding
Instructors on teaching a group riding lesson and making each minute
count. We have also carefully selected
the teaching staff to make sure that each instructor is well versed in the
level of riding at which she is teaching. We have then paired this with a
weekly riding meeting with our two year around teachers who are very
experienced and riding lessons each week for all the teaching staff. It is our sincere hope that you see good
solid progress when you come to see your daughter ride on Saturday!!!
I have just
spent the morning organizing three of my favorite activities of all. They are
the Pony Camping Trip for tonight, swimming with the horses tomorrow and our
closing ceremony called Candlelight tomorrow night. With packing lists galore for the girls, food
and ponies, we will head off this afternoon to go on our weekly overnight. I can’t wait to see them cooking over the
fire, telling stories by moonlight and tip toeing off to bed under the canopy
of tall trees. This year we will be camping on the land behind my house. We are working on setting up a permanent camp
site near the pond by my house. It should make it fun and easy to get there
with the feeling of being out in the woods.
Staff, kids and I are all psyched for this adventure.
We will
also be having our wonderful camp photographers with us today. They will spend the day with us and go
through all the activities with the girls.
Each girl will also get a picture of her with her own pony or
horse. They will then put them all on a
CD which will be available for purchase on Saturday. We hope you will think this is a treat to see
camp in action.
Tomorrow is
another highlight for all the girls. We will be taking half the group at a time
to go to swim at a local pond. We select
four or five of the horses who really enjoy going in the pond and swimming
around.
Then, on
Friday night we will all get dressed and shined up for Candlelight. This to me
is one of my most favorite parts of camp. We gather around a fire or some
candles, depending on the weather, and sing our favorite songs learned over the
week together. The kids each bring something they have written about what they
learned during the week. These are so
beautiful and moving. Over the years,
these musings from the kids have kept me going through thick and thin. What they learn and how much they love it
makes me think all the work of creating the farm over the last 42 years has
truly been worth it.
I hope
Saturday will dawn bright and sunny so that we can greet you between 9:30 and
10AM. We are eager to chat with you about your treasure. Then, we will all go to the riding rings so
that we can watch them ride in demo lessons. I am so eager to hear if you
thought she has made progress. Do bring
a picnic so we can all eat together. We
will also have some of our wonderful board members here to give you the larger
vision of the farm. Camp is not all that
we do here at Touchstone Farm, home of Pony Farm. I hope you will enjoy our brief Mission
Moment!
Until then,
know that we are all happily going from one fun thing to the other. Here’s to camping trips under the stars,
healthy kids loving their ponies, staff doing their jobs and one little farm
where the ‘world is as it should be’….
As they
say, “Wish you were here” to enjoy the fun with us.
Most
warmly, Boo
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