So, where to begin? Pre-camp, I suppose. I arrived on Saturday the 8th of June with the other riding girls. The riding staff consists of three British girls, two Irish girls and myself. Our boss is also a crazy, loud Irish woman. Hilarious and awesome. We definitely have the best department in camp! :) We quickly dumped our bags in the cabin and raced off to meet the geegees! We have twelve horses: Pi - a piebald; Penny - an appaloosa; Kirby - a little black fellow; Nico - a roan mare; Clover - a brown mare; the three greys - Fagan, Mitch and Gandalf (get it?) and the four chestnuts - Jinx, Duchess, Dory and Ivy. Duchess is one of my favourites (saucy little minx, always giving us attitude). They are a bunch of scruffy raggamuffins, but their personalities are shining through and they really are all very sweet. The first few days were spent mucking out stalls, clearing out the tack room, cleaning, sweeping (a lot! Karn is pretty strict about the barn always being clean), and just generally doing a lot of heavy labour. The beds are terrible though, they're basically hammocks in a frame. I sleep on my tummy mostly, so my back was bending like a banana! I managed to find a board eventually but for a few nights I struggled to sleep! It was also very strange to me to hear the ghostly calls of the loons on the lake and wild howls of the coyotes in the woods rather than the crickets and choruses of frogs and jackals that I'm used to when I'm sleeping on a farm!
Our first day riding (Monday), we started out by testing all the ponies in Western saddles (definitely took some getting used to... I bruised my hand so badly on that damn horn!) then Karn took us on a manic trail ride, jumping any logs we could find, racing through forests and basically just being complete reckless twits :) We ended our ride by taking them swimming in the lake! It was so much fun!!! :) Haven't ridden like that in a long time. The horses had a bit of a surprise though because they hadn't been ridden in ages, so they were just as stiff and sore as us the next day! :) and we were SORE!!! And our boots and chaps were wet for DAYS after that because it rained for three days straight. Summer... Yay. Riding in the rain and knee deep mud was a less than pleasant experience. The horses hated it more than we did, so they were horrendous to ride! The first rainy night, the seven of us went and sat in the library next to a cosy log fire and chatted for hours. It was a nice way to get to know each other :)
Next morning (for me) I watched mom and Charlie's wedding on Skype. Good thing my camera and sound were off! Lots of happy tears were falling :) we had loads of fun designing a poster for the riding staff of 2013. I'll post a pic soon with explanation! The next few days were filled with loads of riding (and pain!) and plenty of learning. Karn is a really great teacher. I've learned a lot from her! Sunday was a bizarre experience - standing for the raising of the flag and the pledge of allegiance. Very hard not to giggle, as I felt much like an intruder looking in on some sort of cult gathering.
On Tuesday the rest of the counsellors arrived for pre-camp. It was hard for us riding staff to integrate as they are all old hats at this and already have their friends here. We sat in many fun meetings while the overly PC big wigs skirted around the issues we were meant to addressing and basically achieved nothing at all. The riding staff went into town together to get our social security numbers. I'm still convinced that the lady who helped me literally walked straight out of the Flintstones. She spoke the way the birthing teacher from Baby Mama speaks! (Lolsies. YouTube it, please! It will make your day!!) On Friday night we had camp fire. I was expecting a FIRE (the way we do it) but sadly the American idea of a camp fire is about the size of a Weber fire for us... Me disappoint. Found out on Sunday what tent groups we were getting... I got the little ones! Yay, just what I wanted :) so I decided on Finding Nemo as my tent theme, drew an awesome (I think :-p) poster for the tent, and got ready for my little ones to arrive! That night all the staff went out together for dinner at the Lobster Pound. I'm ashamed to admit I was too chicken to try lobster (those legs freak me out!). Finally had a chance to make friends with some of the American counsellors which was nice.
Next post will be my first week at camp :) pics might take a while... Please have patience!
Stay classy! c",)
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