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!

Riding English

At Rockbrook, our camp Equestrian Program teaches “English Riding” as opposed to “Western Riding.” But what is the difference between these two forms of horseback riding?

One difference you’ll notice right away, even before mounting your horse, is in the saddles. Western saddles are wider and deeper, with a very prominent horn toward the front. These are stable, comfortable seats designed for the cowboy (or girl!) who needs to spend a long time in the saddle. English saddles are smaller and lighter to allow the horse the greater freedom of movement required for the different hunter jumper gaits. And again, they don’t have a horn.

Other parts of the tack are different too. The reins are closed (left and right sides connected), the stirrups are shorter, and the bit is softer in the horse’s mouth in English Riding.

With these differences, naturally how you ride English is different from Western riding. As opposed to Western riding’s use of the reins, English horseback riding relies much more on balance and the rider’s legs to control the horse. In English riding, the rider is often up and out of the seat (two point, posting and jumping for example), as opposed to the seated position in Western riding.

Add to that learning to walk, trot, canter, dressage and jumping techniques, and you can see that learning English horseback riding is a wonderful sport.

Cooperation and Imagination

Juniors dance! The dance activity, which meets in the Lakeview Lodge, is popular for every age group at camp. Partly this is because Lindsey has come up with different, age-appropriate, dances for the Juniors, Middlers and Seniors, but also because the girls are really learning some cool moves. One wall of the Lodge is lined with mirrors making it easy to watch as Lindsey demonstrates a certain dance sequence, and for the group to watch themselves as they try it as well. As they master each dance move and string them together, they’ve got a great show. In fact, during the intermission of the camp play performance, each age group will perform their dance for the rest of the camp.

Today was another day that included several tours of camp, families who visited Rockbrook to tour it so they could see the camp and meet some of the people here— the directors, the counselors and the campers. It’s always a delight for us to show folks around Rockbrook. Families are certainly impressed by the camp’s buildings (the stone lodges for example) and grounds, and they are excited to learn about the wide variety of activities we offer, but it’s particularly nice when they pick up on the feeling of life at Rockbrook. My favorite comment today was, “Everyone seems so happy and friendly.” It’s true; as you walk around camp, you can’t get far without someone greeting you and saying hello. It’s just easy to make friends here, so that makes Rockbrook stand out as being friendly too.

The equestrian staff organized a fun event for the campers that combined, like a lot of things around here, music, dancing, dressing up and a heap of imagination. It also, however, included some horses because it was a pop music “air band” and “lip sync” competition based on different horses playing the parts of pop stars like Katy Perry, Lady GaGa and Taylor Swift. The girls dressed the horses with paint, ribbons, beads, braided tails, glitter and even lipstick, and then came up with a dance for each. The campers then were the backup singers for each artist (horse!) as they performed for the “judges” (Audrey and Sarah). It was very fun for the girls and very cute to see.

After dinner tonight, we played a camp-wide game of “Clue.” Like the board game, there was a mystery to solve that involved the players, in this case all the cabin groups, moving from room to room collecting clues. For us, the cabin groups tromped all over the camp looking for clues. They went to the tennis courts, the gym, the store, the different lodges, and so forth. At each place a character from the game (a counselor dressed as Mrs. White, Professor Plum, Colonel Mustard, etc.) would first require the cabin group to accomplish a task like inventing an RBC cheer, or everyone telling a joke, or untangling a human knot. After successfully completing the challenge task, they were given the clue that would send them on to the next location. Ultimately, after performing all the tasks and solving all the clues/riddles, the groups were led back to the dining hall for prizes and treats. Wow, what a game! It required great cabin group cooperation and imagination, and got the whole camp moving. Big fun on a Saturday night.

Testing the Birthday Paradox

With all of the adventure, crafts and sports going on in camp, it’s easy to forget that through the tunnel and across the road at the Rockbrook fields, there are campers riding horses everyday. They are girls being introduced to English horseback riding, with its emphasis on balance, posture and seat position, and others improving their riding skills in mounted lessons. They are getting to know the Rockbrook equestrian staff, led by Cara and Audrey, and the 29 horses at camp this summer. It can get pretty busy down there at the stables with horses being prepared and led back and forth from the barns, campers dressing in their boots and helmets eager to learn who they’ll ride that day, and lessons being taught in all three riding rings. If you add to that taking care of all those horses, for example when the ferrier makes his weekly visit, you have quite a hive of activity. During any of the activity periods, and even in between, you can see examples of this engaged enthusiasm and hard work. It’s impressive!

The middle picture here is of Cool Beans and his little sidekick Cloud Nine, two of our celebrity ponies at camp this summer. You may have met them on the opening day of camp. They have been well-loved this session, especially by the juniors.

Have you heard of the Birthday Paradox, the surprisingly high probability that two people in a group will share the same birthday? The magic number is twenty three; if you take a group of 23 randomly selected people the odds there will be two with the same birthday are about 50% (1 in 2). So what happens when you take an entire summer camp of 223 campers and 60 staff members? The probability is greater than 99.9999999999999999999999998%!

We tested this paradox tonight during our special all-camp birthday night dinner. We rearranged the dining hall so everyone with the same birth month could sit together at one giant table for each month. Everybody born in April sat together, May together, and so forth. This meant some of the tables, like September, were huge and others had only 10 or so. Throughout the meal everyone compared birthdays, and sure enough we had about 4 different pairs sharing the same day. Each table also thought of other famous people to whom they could shout out a birthday greeting… “Happy Birthday Justine Bieber!” Or, “Happy Birthday William Shakespeare!” It’s not clear how many of these were true, but that wasn’t particularly important. What mattered was coming up with funny examples for everyone to hear. The biggest bubble of excitement, however, erupted when the cakes came out, one elaborately decorated, in a “Candyland” theme, birthday cake for each month/table. As you can see in this photo of the April cake, Alison baked up simply gorgeous cakes, again, all from scratch. These were big cakes, and believe it or not, there were several tables that couldn’t finish theirs! An example of being good, but maybe a little too good!

Saturday Camp

Today began with all the campers following their second set of activities, with every area of camp humming along. For example, one of the arts and crafts activities is called “Painting and Drawing” and today they headed out to the hill for their activity. The project was to use water colors to paint the mountain view seen from under the big walnut tree. This photo shows a little of it— sitting in the shade of the tree, chatting with friends, and enjoying the view while painting. It’s another of those special experiences that is part of camp.

Before lunch, the equestrian staff planned a fun event for the girls that involved dressing up a few of the ponies like pop singers. I heard there was Katy Perry, Lady GaGa and Taylor Swift, for example. Dressing the ponies involved doing up their manes and tails with ribbons and braids, and to complete their “outfits” a couple also got to sport glitter and lipstick! This is a picture of Cloud Nine getting his treatment. Then for the game, the campers divided into groups to play an air band song for each artist (horse!) while then danced along and even lip synced the song (by moving the horse’s lips). It was pretty hilarious and lots of fun for the girls.

The biggest surprise of the day however came after lunch when Sofie and Frampton announced the evening’s activity— dancing with the boys of Camp Carolina. The roar in the dining hall after the announcement was virtually deafening as the girls squealed with excitement. Sarah then explained that the Juniors and Middlers would stay here at Rockbrook because the similarly aged boys from Carolina would be coming to dance in our gym. At the same time, the Senior girls would load up in the buses and drive over to Camp Carolina for their dance. It was two simultaneous dances going on. Sarah also announced that there would be a “dance alternative” for those girls who might decide the dance was “not their thing.” As the alternative, there were about 12 or so girls who joined a couple of counselors in Curosty to learn a new friendship bracelet pattern. These dances are fun for the girls because everyone takes them lightheartedly, all the counselors are right in the mix too, dressing just as goofy, and there’s virtually no pressure about boys being around. They are mostly about just being silly, jumping around with friends, and enjoying the music. Pure excitement!

Meet Snowflake

Do you remember Cool Beans from last summer? He was the white Welsh Pony who quickly became a star of the barn, well-loved particularly by the horseback riding juniors. Such a wonderful horse! Well, we have great news to pass along. Beans is coming back to Rockbrook this summer! And even more exciting, he’s bringing along his friend Snowflake, another sweet Welsh Pony.

Here’s Snowflake, who is also known as Cloud Nine, at a horse show where he was the Leadline champion (see that blue ribbon?). A “Leadline” competition is where children ride (usually walk or trot) while an adult leads their horse in-hand. The judging varies, but usually focuses on the child’s overall position— seat, leg and hand. Of course appearance is important too!

We can’t wait for you all to meet Snowflake and to say Hi to Cool Beans again this summer. Who do you want to ride?

Riding Lessons at RBC

The typical lesson at Rockbrook’s riding camps match up girls with similar horseback riding experience and skills. This allows the equestrian instructors to tailor each lesson to the right level for the young girls in that class. Even though our youth riding camp lessons happen every day except Sunday, and even though campers tend to have the same 2-4 other girls in their class, it’s also possible for each rider’s assigned horse to change over the course of their camp riding lessons. The instructors make those changes based on how a young rider is doing in the lessons.

Each lesson also focuses on a specific forward seat (English Hunter Jumper) riding skill, generally. Everyone in the class might work on learning to post at a trot, to canter, or even jump their horse, for example. This is great because the riding instructors can coach each girl individually but also make suggestions that may benefits all of the riders in the class. It’s an ideal way to teach youth riding.

Like for all the activities at Rockbrook, when girls take horseback riding they learn a lot and improve their skills, but they have tons of fun doing it.

Rockbrook’s New Equestrian Office

Even though it’s not completely finished, we wanted to share the news about the Rockbrook Equestrian Office renovation. In anticipation of Free Rein’s arrival, and in particular their need for a winterized office building, we decided to upgrade the building.  As you can see, it turned out great!  There’s a new bathroom, large meeting room, and a really cool front porch to hang out on.  With real heat, windows and fresh paint, it’s a wonderful new addition to Rockbrook’s equestrian facilities. We can’t wait for you to enjoy it next summer!