On pony camps, we do much more than just riding. We play in the dam; we have shaving cream fights; we paint a pony; we do a bareback lesson in the dark; and, sometimes, we even have an out-ride.
On Monday and Tuesday, 5 and 6 December, we had our yearly pony camp at Silver Oaks Equestrian Centre. It was lots of fun.
We started off with an earlyish morning lesson. Many horses joined in, but we survived it. ☺
After the lesson, I needed to wash M&M by hosing him off. He was quite naughty, but I still gave him a few treats for being so cute. When I put him back in the stable, he immediately rolled – getting dirty all over again!
Our next activity was to turn out a horse. We had to trim a horse’s ears and clean it. We decided to do it with my friend’s horse, Hearts on Fire. We braided his mane and tail and brushed him until he sparkled.
We went inside the house to have a quick discussion about what we were going to do next and decided on swimming. Corryn ( my teacher) dared my friend and me to throw her son and his friend with shaving cream. After I have done this, I ended up in the swimming pool as the friend took revenge on me. This happened to me quite a few times because I wasn’t going to stop throwing people with shaving cream until they stopped taking revenge. We kept on playing until lunch. After lunch, we got dressed to continue with other activities.
Our next activity was supposed to be an out-ride. But my teacher decided to split the group into two. My friends and I fell into the second group. While the others went out, my teacher’s daughter showed us how to do join-up with a wild horse. She also showed us some of the tricks she learnt at the Lippizaners. She is very talented especially when it comes to teaching horses.
As soon as the group returned from their out-ride, it was our turn to go. I went to check with my coach to hear if it was okay that I take my horse. She said that she was not sure about how he would react on leaving the plot, but that it was okay to give it a go, as long as I stayed on the inside of the group. This would ensure that if he tried something funny he would not be able to go anywhere.
The out-ride was so much fun. At first, I was a bit stressed, but closer to the end I started relaxing more. Mythical Musc had a much more bouncy walk than I was used to. I think it especially felt weird because of the tarred road. I am used to riding him in the arena where there is sand.
When we arrived back at the stables, I quickly unsaddled Mythical Music and went to the house to find out about the next events. We had a lovely dinner. For a dessert we had… Ice Cream – as much as we wanted!
We began to prepare for our last activity for the day. The night ride. I did not want to overwhelm M&M too much and thus decided to rather ride Donna. (Donna and I have competed at three interschool competitions. We made an excellent team.) The night ride was complete chaos. Approximately fourteen horses in the arena at the same time, each one doing his own thing. On this night, I realised what a huge role a saddle plays in our horse riding lives.