Pony Farm Session 5B - Rocking a Rainy Day

Dear Camp Families,

This is my last blog of the camp season.  It makes me sad to think that Saturday we return your children to you and start sending our visiting horses home. 

People often ask me if I am glad that Pony Farm is over for the year. I am never glad camp is over. When the final session is done, however, I will admit I'm glad the responsibility of camp is over.  I love it, but it is a lot!  (And that is what they call an under statement.)

You might be wondering what your cherubs have been up to this week. We have been busy with riding lessons, camping trips, trips to swim at the falls, catch riding, carriage driving, hanging out with the small animals, and swimming in the pool!

You might also be wondering what we do on a day like Wednesday when it poured all day. I'm happy to report that after 43 years, Pony Farm knows how to make the most of a rainy day.

Campers find out the rainy day plan of attack

 
In the morning we started with tack cleaning. That's a job that comes with the sport of riding, and every rider needs to know how to do it. It's no one's favorite task, but it that makes it kind of a life skill as well!

After tack cleaning, we had a barn competition to get the barns (upper, lower, and outside) spiffed up.  The barn crew who cleaned the best, cleared away the most trash, and returned the most items to the lost and found won ... a whole candy bar.

Now you might think a candy bar isn't much of a reward.  But typically there isn't any candy at Pony Farm. A whole candy bar is a big deal in these parts.  In fact, the competition got pretty steep. Some campers took other team's trash and then were eventually disqualified because they continued to not listen to the rules when they were VERY CLEAR.  (Who knew trash could be so valuable? And that barn cleaning competition turns out to be a life skill, too!)

In the afternoon we played a horse trivia game with five teams of campers. The trivia topic was -- you guessed it -- horses!  (There might have been candy involved in this too!)

The horse trivia board: "I'll take Clydesdales for 500, Alex."

 Wednesday night we played Personal Scavenger Hunt, one of my favorite camp games. We divide the camp into teams.  Then, we ask a trivia question about the farm, horses, maybe pop culture, or the campers might have to sing or dance.  Each team sends one member up to slap the table to answer the question.  The first person to slap the table gets to answer.  We keep score and the team with the most points wins.  In good weather, we play on the back lawn, but it was too wet for that, so we played in the indoor arena. Not as pretty inside, but very dry!

Thursday, we swam with the horses and had lessons, and after dinner had another OAPF event -- Pony Farm's Next Top Model. Today your campers were busy with lessons, and packing, and working on the specialty they'll show you tomorrow.

We will be seeing you all really soon!

Best,

Becky
Co-Director, Pony Farm

PS Did you miss our amazing Session 5B campers taking the "ALS Ice Bucket Challenge"?

Post by Pony Farm.