Horseback Riding Resources

Around this time year, with last summer pretty far behind us and next summer’s camp fun still several months away, it’s easy to start missing all the great stuff we love about Rockbrook. Of course, you can bounce all over the RBC Web site and check in with your cabin mates in the Friends Net, enjoy some camp activities at home, or even watch some videos. You can look forward to a holiday surprise coming in the mail (hint: CP). You can pull out your journal or letters you received last summer. There are ways to relive bits and pieces of camp, even now as we head into winter.

But what if you love horses, and you aren’t able to ride much while at home? After riding at camp, what can you do to feed your desire to ride and learn about horseback riding the rest of the year? Fortunately, there are a ton of excellent resources available on the Internet, different Web sites dedicated to all things equestrian. Here are few great examples.

Let’s say you want to just learn some surprising facts about horseback riding. Just head over to Equine Kingdom and dig in! Did you know that the oldest horse on record lived to be 62 years old, or that there are about 75 million horses in the world?! This is a great site with fun photos, videos, articles, quizzes and more. You’ll be able to spend a lot of time enjoying Equine Kingdom.

If you would like to learn about all of the equine resources available in your area, a farrier, boarding farm, or veterinarian for example, you can head over to Newhorse.com or Forequestrians.com. These are two directories, organized collections of other Web sites related to horseback riding, horses and their care, horses for sale, riding games, and more. You can think of these as jumping off points for finding out even more.

So don’t let your interest in horseback riding fade over the winter! We love riding too much for that!

Her Very First Ride

For little girls, taking their first equestrian lesson can be a mix of excitement and nervous jitters. It’s exciting because horseback riding seems so fun when you read about it or see it in movies, but for your first riding lesson, it can easily be a little overwhelming. There is so much to learn— special clothes, important safety rules, riding gear for the horse, how to mount, different riding positions, and communicating with your horse. The horses and ponies can seem so huge! And there is a lot to remember all at once.

That’s why it’s so important that a girl’s first experience learning to horseback ride be a safe, caring, gentle introduction. It’s crucial that her instructor be experienced working with small children, that he or she be kind and patient, and that the pony be calm and gentle in the ring. Taking small steps, gradually gaining confidence and greater understanding, is the best way to maintain a girl’s enthusiasm for riding. The best children’s horseback riding centers know how to pace this kind of progression.

The equestrian program at Rockbrook Camp has a long history of introducing young girls to horseback riding. Camp has just the right combination of skilled instructors and gentle ponies, enthusiasm for riding, and great equestrian facilities to encourage girls on their very first ride. At camp, we’re well prepared to make every girl’s first horseback riding experience a positive one. It’s the perfect recipe for a life-long love of horses and horseback riding!

70s Dance Fever

Part of the recipe that makes Rockbrook a “place of their own” for our campers is the free time they enjoy each day. There are three blocks of time, before lunch, and both before and after dinner (the two “free swims” and “twilight”), when there are no required, scheduled activities. Instead, the girls can decide for themselves how they might spend that time, perhaps hanging out with their friends, finishing a craft project, exploring the creek by “Curosty,” writing a letter home, playing tennis, chatting with a counselor, or just reading under the big walnut tree on the hill. This is important because the rest of the year is often so tightly scheduled for kids, with school, sports, and other commitments keeping them on the run from one thing to the next— at an almost “job-like” pace. Thank goodness for summer and for camp when our girls can pursue their own interests, at their own pace, and develop their own sense of fun.  Of course, it’s pretty easy to enjoy this free time when they are surrounded by the  natural beauty of Rockbrook, have tons of good friends to do things with, and can turn in almost any direction for an idea or option to try.  But getting in the habit of independently “finding something to do” is a great skill for kids to develop, and something that will certainly help them throughout the year.

The fantastic weather we’ve been having these last few days has kept the equestrian staff happily working hard with lessons every activity period. Some of the afternoon lessons were rained out earlier in the session, but no longer, and there are some great riding skills being shown in the rings. Likewise, we’ve been sending out a lot of adventure trips this week… kayakers to the Green River with Clyde, the Hi-Ups to Dupont Forest for waterfall hopping with Jeff, and shorter day hikes to Rockbrook Falls and Castle Rock with Michelle and the other outdoor adventure staff counselors. These warm and sunny afternoons have also made the lake a popular place to be, and it seems like there are a bunch of girls trying to set a record for trips down the water slide. Add to that all of the regular sports going on— tennis, archery, riflery, gymnastics, alpine tower climbing and gym games —and there are a lot of sweaty girls heading to the lake for the second free swim before dinner.

Tonight after dinner is was time for Disco Mania, a 70s dance party for the whole camp down in our gym.  When the word went out to dress up (naturally), the campers and counselors started showing up in their best 70s garb. A few bell-bottoms and platform shoes really set the tone, but we also saw plenty of tie dyes, bright colors and sun glasses.  Basically, wearing anything crazy seemed about right.  With pumping disco beats, everyone really danced.  Donna Summer, the Bee Gees, Blondie, Roxy Music, Diana Ross, and the Jackson Five all made an appearance on the playlist.  This was all Rockbrook, all girls (no boys), and definitely all fun.

A Confident Equestrienne

If you’re a horse kid, an equestrienne (a girl who loves all things horse related), then you will love the equestrian camp programs at Rockbrook. You’ll of course learn a lot about riding and improve your horseback skills, but you’ll also gain important equestrian confidence. This photo shows a little of that. It’s a great shot of what it feels like to be comfortable in the saddle, to really know and trust your horse, and to build up a set of instincts about horseback riding.

The secret to all of this is not just great horses and great riding instructors; it’s also making the equestrian lessons fun for kids. With the right match of horse and rider and the right level of instruction, you feel good in the activity, not worried about anything and certainly not bored either.  At Rockbrook, we’re riding, and learning, and becoming more confident equestriennes, and having tons of fun doing it.

To Hike, Ride and Dress Like a Granny

The weather was just perfect this morning, and around here that’s reason enough to find some altitude because we know the views will be spectacular. Clyde, our Adventure Director, and Catherine decided to take advantage of all this and signed up a group of Junior campers to go hiking along a section of the Art Loeb trail as it crosses the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is a wondrous place with beautiful weathered rock exposed along the grassy trail. The trail begins winding through a dense grove of balsam fir trees, but then breaks into the open where you can see for miles in several directions. The elevation is more than 6000 feet up, making these mountains some of the highest east of the Mississippi river! The group made it all the way to the top of Black Balsam Knob (6214 ft). Along the way, surprisingly, they ran into a team of folks filming a music video up there, though we didn’t catch the name of the band.

We had one of those classic camp lunches today that everyone loves— grilled cheese sandwiches and homemade tomato soup. The super stocked salad bar helped us add a little green to our plates, and to make the whole lunch just excellent. After lunch the big excitement for everyone is checking their mailbox for new mail. Finding something in your box is always a treat, so keep sending those cards and letters!

Horseback riding continues to be one of the most popular activities this session. Cara and her staff are really doing great stuff with the girls, strengthening their enthusiasm for riding (despite the bugs!) and seeing them make good progress. This is Cara’s 5th year as the Equestrian Director at Rockbrook, so it’s not too surprising she runs a top-notch program. When you see all the action down at the barn, though, it’s pretty impressive.

Tonight’s evening program was a giant all-camp game of bingo, but not just sitting around calling out numbers. Oh no, at Rockbrook that’s a perfect opportunity to dress up! Like a granny! That’s right: it was Granny Bingo night. All manner of grannies and grandpas came out to play— gray hair, glasses, nightgowns, hats, pillows stuffed strategically in clothes, walking sticks, and wrinkles drawn with eyeliner. The counselors get into it just as much, calling the numbers in their best scratchy voice, hunched over the table. Exciting RBC prizes for the winners, snacks for everyone to enjoy while playing the game, it was a grand, silly time.

Did you know it’s a long Rockbrook tradition for the girls to have a snack of milk and cookies before going off to bed?  Everyday the kitchen makes a batch of homemade cookies for this, and like with our “muffin break,” it’s great fun to be surprised by what kind of cookie we have each night. Afterwards, teeth brushing, ready pajamas, and each cabin sharing their “pows and wows” (highs and lows from the day) settle everyone down for the night. Such a nice way to finish up another fun-filled day of camp.