Sending your child to any camp requires research, and horse riding camps are no different. The search can be overwhelming, so we’ve compiled some information to help you find a camp, pack for the camp and more.

Types of Summer Horse Riding Camps

One of your first steps in your search for the perfect summer horse camp is to decide what kind of camp you want your child to attend. Various factors should weigh into this initial decision.

• Length of camp term:

  There are camp options ranging from day camps to week-long camps to even month- and summer-long overnight camps. Your child’s comfort level of being away from home is an important factor in deciding what camp format is best.

• Horse ownership:

  Many camps have their own horses for campers to ride, and some camps allow or require you to bring your own horse.

• Riding facilities:

  Some camps are strictly arena-based, some are strictly trail-based and others are a mixture of the two.

• Riding discipline:

  There are so many different disciplines within the horseback riding sport: English, western, trail, hunter/jumper, eventing, dressage, vaulting, reining and more. Some camps offer a variety of disciplines while others focus on one or two specific disciplines.

• Riding format:

  Some camps will assign a specific horse to each rider for the duration of the camp, and others will purposely rotate riders and horses. Additionally, some camps ride twice or even more than twice a day while others ride once and day and then focus on other traditional camp-related activities, such as swimming and arts and crafts, for the remainder of the day.

If your child is interested in riding but has not yet had the opportunity to ride, make sure the camp you choose has experience introducing young riders to the horse world.

How to Find a Reputable Summer Horse Riding Camp

There’s no one way to know if a camp will be a perfect fit for your child. However, there are some things you should absolutely confirm before dropping your child off for his or her horse-filled days.

Consider:

• Safety:

  The camp’s website and marketing materials should promote safe horsemanship and horse keeping. For example, riders should be wearing helmets, horses should appear to be in good health, and facilities and fencing should look well maintained.

• Recommendations:

  The Internet is full of various forums and feedback tools for all sorts of businesses. While it’s hard to know if everything is believable, do take some time to see what others have written about a camp. Your research will allow you to generate some good questions for the camp staff. You can also ask around your local horse community for recommendations.

• Instructor qualifications:

  Make sure to find out the qualifications for camp staff and camp counselors. A reputable camp will have a hiring process that requires staff and counselors to have a wealth of horse knowledge as well as a passion for teaching and a clear emphasis on safety.

What to Bring to Summer Horse Riding Camp

The list of what to bring to a horse camp is likely never ending. Every child has his or her favorite items and necessities. However, here’s a starting point for the horse-related items:
Make sure to bring:

• An ASTM/SEI certified riding helmet. We recommend one with ventilation since it’s often quite warm in the summer months. Most camps will have loaner helmets available, but for safety and hygiene, it’s preferable for campers to have their own.
• Shoes with a heel (These can be cowboy boots, paddock boots or tall boots. No matter what style, riding shoes should have a small heel to prohibit the shoe from potentially slipping through the stirrup.)
• Tall socks
• Riding pants (Breeches/jodhpurs or jeans – whatever your child prefers and the camp recommends. If your child is going to any kind of overnight camp, make sure to pack several pairs.)
• Riding shirts (These can range from comfortable t-shirts to specifically designed horseback riding shirts. No matter what shirt style you pack for your child, make sure it is a breathable fabric. Keep in mind that riding and barn work are hard on clothing—if your camper has a favorite outfit that they’ll want for the school year, don’t send it with them to horse camp!)
• At least one large, insulated water bottle (Hydration is incredibly important for any athlete. Horseback riders are no exception!)
• Sunscreen and bug spray
• Gloves (optional depending on rider preference and camp recommendations)
• Camera. In an effort to encourage kids to unplug, some summer camps prohibit use of electronics, including cell phones. But you can send along your old point-and-shoot so your camper can snap some shots of his or her friends and favorite camp horses.
• And any specific camp-recommended items

If you choose to send your child and his or her horse to a camp, the camp should provide a specific list of what you need to pack for the horse.

What Your Young Rider Will Learn at Summer Horse Riding Camp

Every camp is unique, and what your child will learn at his or her summer riding camp will also be unique. What you can hope is that your child will return to you with can include:

• Even more horse stories to share
• More general horse knowledge, such as the anatomy of a horse, proper grooming and hoof care, different horse colors and horse breeds, general horse health and more
• Safety around horses and when riding
• Experience riding in a new place
• Experience riding a new horse or horses
• New horse-crazy friends
• New riding exercises

No matter what kind of summer horse riding camp you and your child pick for his or her horse-filled summer, remember that with safety in mind and you and your child’s expectations and goals driving the decision, you won’t go wrong.

At great summer horse riding camps, the passion for horses and the joy of sharing horse knowledge with others undoubtedly brings together a wonderful and incredible group of staff and counselors who will do everything in their power to help your child have the best horse-filled summer possible.

The post Summer Horse Riding Camps appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Choosing a Camp

Assuming you want your camp experience to be centered around horses and riding, this is a good place to focus your camp search. Look for a camp that is a good fit for your riding level and the amount of time you want to spend in the saddle.

Some camps only offer basic trail riding or introductory riding experiences. Others might specialize in beginner-friendly lessons. If you want more advanced instruction in a specific type of riding, like barrel racing or jumping, for example, check around for camps that offer opportunities for more experienced riders. Ask about the instructors’ backgrounds: Are they certified by any riding sport or equestrian group, or the Certified Horsemanship Association? Find out how long the horses have been with a particular camp if you want seasoned, experienced mounts.

If you want to balance your riding with other activities, like arts and crafts or swimming, add those to your search list.

Have your parents check that your camp is accredited by the American Camp Association, which means the camp meets over 300 standards to keep campers and staff safe, healthy and happy. You can also ask friends at the barn for their camp recommendations, look at camp ads in Young Rider, or search online.

When to Enroll

Popular camps and in-demand dates fill up fast. If you want a particular week or riding activities, you may have to enroll as early as January. There will often be “early bird” discounts through the month of February.

In the spring, many camps hold open house events. If you and your parents have a chance to visit in person, you can see if the camp feels like a good fit and know what to expect when you get there.

Get the Most out of Camp

Try to be open about learning new horsemanship skills. Riding with new instructors and having the chance to ride different horses can teach you a lot.

Camp is also a great place to explore all kinds of riding activities. For example, if you ride eventing, maybe you’ll learn how to ride hunters and jump a course more smoothly than ever before! Or perhaps you can add vaulting to your skill set—gymnastics on horseback is tons of fun and helps with balance and confidence.

Camp is also about meeting new friends. Even if you’re super shy, just smile and say hi to everyone, and you’re sure to make lots of new friends! Exchange addresses or emails and stay in touch with your new pen pals so you can talk about all your horsey news during the school year.

What to Pack for Horse Camp

Camps usually supply a detailed packing list, but here are some tips from our camp pros.

All of our experts recommend leaving cell phones and tablets behind. There will be land lines at camp in case of any emergency, and you can get a better experience by focusing on the horses and your new friends without digital distractions.

• Boots that fit well are a must-have. Break in new riding boots before camp so that you won’t get blisters. Pack extra socks so you always have a dry pair to keep feet comfy.
• It’s also a good idea to bring your own helmet. Most camps provide helmets, but you’ll stay safe and comfortable with one that you know fits you perfectly.
• Take long-sleeve shirts to ride in so that you don’t get burned (even with sunscreen!) while spending long summer days outside. Also pack layers for those chilly mornings or cool evenings around the campfire.

Now you’re ready to head out to the perfect camp and make lifelong friends and memories!

Special thanks to the following for help with this article: Forrestel Farm Riding Camp (forrestel.com), Valley View Ranch (valleyviewranch.com), Certified Horsemanship Association (cha.horse), and Camp Friendship (campfriendship.com).

This article originally appeared in the March/April 2019 issue of Young Rider magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Choose the Right Horse Camp appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Every year for almost a decade, my sister and I powered through two terrible, horse-less early summer days filled with shots, eye exams, physicals, and dentist/orthodontist appointments, with the understanding we were exchanging this misery for four weeks of extreme joy in the most wonderful place on earth: camp.

Most camps are lovely, but ours was the best (just like everyone else’s). And though we did know the occasional arts-and-crafts-oriented camper who never wandered near the barn (weirdos), almost everyone else took at least daily riding lessons, meaning we got to spend a month with people who would voluntarily talk about horses with us. It was heaven.

But don’t send your kid to horse camp. Here are nine good reasons why:

1. Your child will be exposed to horses she’d never otherwise ride.

Your child will ride Tennessee Walking Horses, retired hunter schoolmasters, idiot greenies, ponies, draft horses, albino mustangs, and grade horses of indiscriminate background. She will write you thorough, illustrated letters exclusively about them. The rest of her camp life will be a complete mystery to you.

YMCAHCwk5 by YMCA of Snohomish County on flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0

2. Your child will be exposed to many different styles of riding.

On a rainy day, your child might learn about dressage and run around the barn aisle practicing her first Whinny Widgets test on foot. Maybe she’ll learn to cinch a western saddle, about eventing from her Kiwi riding trainer, or about trail etiquette from the barn manager. Her tiny hunter world will be blown to pieces, which would be unfortunate.

3. Your child will lose her fear of ick.

Your child will encounter new and unusual types of barn dust, ooze, mildew, and other, uh, material. She’ll recalibrate her understanding of gross. She’ll come home with chaps you can crack in half and unusable creek-soggy paddock boots. She’ll learn to shrug about riding in unspeakably filthy socks, because she forgot about laundry day. A good lesson in consequences, but does your child really need to learn about dirt and consequences at such a tender age?

4. Three words: Camping. With. Horses.

You know how your kid is always trying to go to/stay at/sleep in the barn? If she goes to camp, she just might spend the day trail riding, and then spend the night in the forest with the horses, and then eat breakfast with the horses, and then trail ride again, and then stop for lunch with the horses, and then… You can just forget about ever convincing her to leave the barn again.

5. Your child will come back fearless.

Maddy and Jumpin’ Bobs by Five Furlongs on flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0

Your child will probably take—in retrospect!—questionable risks, set up questionable jumps, build questionable courses, and ride questionable steeds. You may field calls about sprained ankles, possible concussions, or chance meetings with barbed wire. And, unfortunately, she’ll learn how to hop right back up and climb right back on. She’ll completely lose her healthy sense of dread and turn into a fearless little thing in a helmet.

6. Your child will try to convince you to purchase a camp horse.

Your kid will absolutely fall in love with a camp horse. She might insist a sale video be prepared, FedEx it to you and her trainer, and host several serious telephone conferences. You will be forced to gently redirect her efforts toward a horse with a barrel that extends beyond her heels.

Horse Camp Horses by normanack on flickr/CC BY 2.0

7. Your child will make lifelong horse friends.

They will be bad influences: they will never suggest she shower or switch to tennis.

8. Your child will come back with better social skills than you could ever teach her.

But who needs life and leadership skills forged in the nearly-adult-free social crucible of camp, that will last through infinite rough patches, awkward phases, boyfriends, ex-boyfriends, friends, ex-friends, and college degrees, and let’s face it, basically change her life forever? Surely we can agree your child doesn’t.

9. Your child will become more obsessed with horses.

If anything is going to get your kid to kick her expensive horse habit, it’s definitely not going to be thirty straight days of riding, living, and breathing horses with other equally-obsessed young people. She will come back mired in horse craziness. You’ll never get her back. Wave goodbye now.

Never mind. You should definitely send your kid to horse camp.

Emily Bogenschutz lives in Texas and is a freelance writer,
recent hunter-turned-jumper, and professional sneaker of saddle pads
into the washing machine. Follow her on Twitter: @EJBog.

The post Nine Reasons You Definitely Shouldn’t Send Your Kid to Horse Camp appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

“About a week later, I received a letter from a little boy, and it said, ‘Thank you for the best day of my life,’” says Molly Reeser, who orchestrated the event.

What started out as a one-day affair soon turned into much more. “I thought, ‘This little boy got so much out of this and it wasn’t that difficult to piece together, so let’s do it again,’” says Reeser. “So we did it in July and again that August, and for the next three years, once a month we’d have Camp Casey.”

“It was very fulfilling—a beautiful experience for me, the kids, and for everyone who was involved,” says Reeser. So she set about fundraising and turned Camp Casey into a 501(c)3 non-profit program. Today, through interaction with horses, Camp Casey brings joy to children 17 and under who are suffering from cancer, sickle cell anemia or aplastic anemia, giving them some respite from their illness.

Reeser met Casey when she got a part-time job at an English show barn near the university. “Casey was very vibrant, energetic and just a normal horse-obsessed girl who really lit up anytime she was around horses,” recalls Reeser. “But unlike other girls her age, she was going through cancer treatment.”

The horses were therapeutic for Casey, says Reeser. Interacting with them and her friends at the barn allowed her to forget about her illness for a little while. “She wasn’t into showing; she just wanted the experience of loving a horse,” says Reeser. “She brought everybody back to the root of loving the animals; she bonded everybody at the barn together. It was devastating to see a young child go through such a terrible thing, so when she passed away we wanted to do something to honor her.”

Horsey House Doctors
Today, Camp Casey benefits nearly 300 people a year through its two horse-related programs: Horsey House Calls and Cowboy Camp Outs. On a Horsey House Call, the Camp Casey team surprises a child at home with one of its staff equines, a therapist and a group of volunteers. It’s a fun-filled day of horseback riding, a pizza party, and crafts.

“Every weekend we’re at a new child’s home,” says Reeser. “I think the best part of Horsey House Calls is the minute the child opens the door—seeing their reaction. The parents know that we’re coming, but the kids have no idea. It’s very touching and very emotional to see these kids who have been through so much and whose health is so frail get this burst of energy, excitement and strength from seeing this special guest at their house.”

Maggie Sherman, 5, is just one of many lucky kids who have opened their door to find a horse in their front yard. Currently in remission from Wilms’ tumor, a type of kidney cancer, she was the shell of a once happy child when Camp Casey came calling.

“My favorite memory was the look on Maggie’s face when she realized they were there for her,” says her mom, Kandie. “Two months before that house call, we almost lost her. And at that time, she really didn’t smile anymore. She has always been so full of life, and cancer tried to stop it. But as our Maggie says, she kicked cancer’s butt and is better than ever.”

Kandie continues to keep in touch with Reeser and the Camp Casey team, and has been inspired by their efforts to help others in her free time. “What Camp Casey does for the children is far more than just a Horsey House Call,” says Kandie. “They don’t just come to your home once and forget about the child. I am still in touch with them for many different reasons, and I call them family because that is what they are. They make you feel like part of that family.”

Camping with Horses
In addition to the Horsey House Calls, each summer Camp Casey pays for 20 families to go on a Cowboy Camp Out, a weekend horseback riding vacation at a dude ranch. The children and their family members learn about riding and proper horse care, go on a trail ride, and attend a rodeo. “They get to have a vacation during a time when they wouldn’t typically be in the position to plan or pay for one,” says Reeser. “For a lot of our terminal kids it’s great because they’re able to have one final happy memory all together where they’re not in the hospital.”

Blake Beers, 4, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, cancer of the blood and bone marrow, in 2011. Camp Casey’s Cowboy Camp Out gave him and his family the opportunity to get away from it all.

“The Cowboy Camp Out was such a great experience because we got to be together as a family and get away from home and have vacation time away from the treatments and the doctors and just having to think about it,” says Blake’s mom, Meghan. “I hope they don’t ever stop doing what they’re doing.”

For more information about Camp Casey and its programs, visit www.camp-casey.org.

This article originally appeared in the January 2014 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Camp Casey Delivers Happiness on Horseback appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Before you hit the campground, you need to make sure your horse is up for the adventure. Your horse should be:

• • Reliable on the trail. You’ll be riding on unfamiliar trails on your trip. Your horse should be calm and relaxed on trail, and well trained to your leg and rein cues. If you’re not there yet, start working with your horse in the arena to teach him to respond to you. Once he’s listening well in the arena, take him on local trails and reinforce what he’s learned.

• • Comfortable in the trailer. You’ll need to trailer your horse to get to your campsite, so be certain your horse loads easily and is comfortable riding in the trailer. If your horse resists loading, work with him to get him to go right into the trailer. Feed him inside the trailer, and take him for short drives. Make the experience pleasant so he will come to associate the trailer with good things.

• • Good with tying. If your campground doesn’t have corrals, you will have to tie your horse to your trailer on a longer lead rope. This means your horse has to be comfortable being tied for long periods of time. If your horse paws or prances when he’s tied, he needs to develop patience. Tie him at home for periods of time after a workout so he learns to stand. Make sure some of that tying time is at the trailer. Once he’s calm and relaxed when tied to the trailer, he’s ready for a camping trip.

• In good condition. If your horse has been standing around for weeks at a time, don’t take him camping until you’ve had a chance to condition him. At least a month before your trip, start taking him on shorter trail rides and build up to the amount of time you plan to ride him when you camp.

Once you are certain your horse is a good candidate for camping, you need to prepare for your trip:

• • Campground rules. Be sure to check ahead to find out the rules of the campground. Some areas don’t allow hay to be brought in, but require pellets be used for feed. This is to protect native plants from contamination with seeds from invasive plants. Some campgrounds require proof of a Coggins test or a health certificate. Check to see what you need to bring before you hit the road.

• • Amenities. Find out in advance if horse water is available at the campground or if you need to bring your own. See if corrals are set up, and whether a round pen or arena is included at the facilities.

• • Maps. Do some research on the trails you’ll be exploring before you get to your campground. Many parks offer trail maps online. Scope out blogs and other online sources for user reviews of the trails you are considering. You want to have a sense of how long each trail ride will be, and the type of terrain you’ll be negotiating.

• Supplies. You’ll need to pack everything you and your horse need to live, for the amount of days you’ll be camping. For you, this means food, water, clothing, a tent, sleeping bag and personal items. For your horse, feed, tack, grooming tools, fly spray and everything else he usually uses at home. For a complete list of items to pack when horse camping, visit natrc.org.

Once you’ve gone camping with your horse, you’ll want to do it again. Help your horse enjoy the experience by scheduling your first few camping trips close to home, and just for two or three nights. Your horse will soon learn that camping is fun, and will be ready for an even bigger adventure.

Liked this article? Here are others you’ll love:
Camping with Horses
Leave-No-Trace Horse Packing

Audrey Pavia is a freelance writer and the author of Trail Riding: A Complete Guide. She participates in long distance competitive trail riding with her Spanish Mustang, Milagro.

The post Going Camping with Your Horse appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

10 Questions to Ask to Choose the Right Horse Camp
Get the info you need to pick the best camp for you.

10 Steps to Summer Camp Success
If you want to go to a super-duper riding camp, you’ll have to do some research.

What to Take to Horse Camp
Here’s what you need to pack when you’re heading off to camp.

Essential Riding Camp Gear
Make a list of the things you need to take to camp!

15 Fun Things About Summer Camp!
Riding camp is a wonderful place to meet other horse-crazy kids.

10 Tips to Make the Most of Your Summer Camp Experience
Take advantage of all the great opportunities at horse camp, and you’ll have an unforgettable summer!

Take Your Camp Horse Home!
Some camps allow riders to take their favorite horse home for the winter.

The post Summer Horse Camp Resources from Young Rider appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.