A few days ago I sent an email to the owner of the barn telling her that I would love to help out more in any way I can. She responded saying she needed help on Tuesday (yesterday) with a pony camp of nine little kids (ages 4 to 8). I of course said yes - I thought it would be really fun to help little kids ride, and I was going to get to ride as well once all the campers left!
The camp started at 9 am and went until noon, but I stayed until 4. Once most of the campers had arrived, we went to the barn owner's open garage and sat in a circle. Then I got introduced to everyone (much to my blushing horror) since I wasn't there the day before and we were told to go around the circle saying one reason why you love horses and your favorite color. I said my favorite color was green and I loved horses because each one is different. The majority of little kids said they loved horses because you can feed them, which I thought was pretty adorable. We then split into two groups - one group got to ride while the other worked and learned in the barn.
I was first with a little girl named Aaliyah (I think...) and she was riding Lionel, a smallish white horse who was often grumpy. We went and got him from the paddock and started to groom him. Aaliyah couldn't even reach Lionel's back to brush him! So I let her brush a little and then I went over the places she couldn't reach. When it was time to pick Lionel's feet, I told Aaliyah where to stand, and told her how to pick up the hoof, but she couldn't really do it herself so I pretty much picked up his hoof and handed it to Aaliyah. I also did most of the tacking up - Aaliyah couldn't reach Lionel's back, so she couldn't put on the saddle or anything. I was going to let her help with the bridle but Lionel's had some issues in the past with parts of it getting caught in his gums so the barn owner just told me to do it myself.
We walked up to the ring together, with Aaliyah holding the reins on the left, and me sort of leading him with a lead rope on the right. I tightened the girth, which confused Aaliyah because she didn't know what that was and thought she was just going to get right on the horse. Which she did, once I had tightened the girth and the stirrups. Once she was on Lionel I pretty much led him around the ring for a while. I mean, I tried to tell her what to do, but little kids can't really understand it that well, so I just made sure Lionel didn't walk somewhere completely off track. We went into the big ring and circled each jump (four in total). I attempted to teach Aaliyah how to turn, which sort of worked a little. Once we did that we went on a small trail ride, which I think Aaliyah enjoyed but she said she didn't like going downhill. When we got back to the ring, it was time for the second group to ride, so I did the whole thing again. Then we went back to the barn and put the horses a way.
Then all the campers and helpers had popsicles and took a picture on the porch, and went back to the garage to do a craft. The kids all made foam visors with foam horse stickers and markers. The campers left at noon (which I didn't know before then), and all the helpers got to ride. Someone else wanted to ride Captain, which was okay because I thought it would be good to try someone knew, so I rode Tuffy. I can't say my first impression of him was all that great. When I tried to groom him and pick his hooves he kept kicking and stomping. Then, in the ring, he kept doing this weird thing where he would turn his head to the outside and start walking diagonally to the inside - very weird, and annoying after a while. Tuffy did have a completely different feel than Captain. He's bigger and taller, and his steps are longer. His trot was also way bouncier and hard to get used to, and his canter was very fast, but actually pretty nice. I had some steering issues though, so I didn't really get to canter for long. Hopefully, if I ride him again, we won't have those problems.
When we were done riding, we had to clean the walls of the stable, sounds fun, right? We each got a rag and a bucket of water and basically just wiped down the walls to get ride of dust. By the end of the day, my feet ached. It was a fun day though, and I'm glad I came.
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