Horse Camp

While we were visiting Utah in July, Hannah and Paige were able to attend four days of Horse Camp with their cousin Natalie. A neighbor from my childhood - Amy Platt - lives next door to my parents and was willing to teach the girls a little about horses. They would groom and ride the horses all morning, eat a sack lunch, then spend the afternoon swimming and doing crafts. Amy and her family run a small family farm with horses, cattle, mules, donkey, chickens, etc. They breed and show miniature horses. While the girls loved all that they did in Utah during vacation - those four days of horse camp were definitely the highlight. The smiles were from ear to ear all week. By the last day they were already talking about what they would get to do at next year's horse camp.

Hannah rode Peppy - a brown and white paint with black mane and tail. He tested Hannah a lot of times in the arena, but when they got to the field he was better behaved. Paige rode Victor (a Shetland Pony) the first day and Rufus the rest of the week. Rufus is a former 'slow trot' competitor.

Natalie rode Rusty - her favorite. The girls loved riding pennies down to the railroad tracks and retrieving the smashed result the next day. They made clay jewelry boxes, horse hair bracelets and horse shoe frames.

Here are the girls on their way back to the barn after a morning of rounding up cattle. Two baby calves were born during horse camp. Sounds like a little girl's dream, doesn't it?