This year we mixed it up and brought new experiences and creativity to all our campers. Of course our horses are always the main attraction and along with riding lessons, our campers practiced leading their horse through an obstacle course, mixing up feed and supplements (and why), ranking scary objects from their horse’s perspective, horse anatomy, horse musical stalls, and understanding the non-verbal horse communication cues.

Then we added in two guest artists who refreshed our creativity for all our senses. Katie Shaw brought her Dragon Child characters, drawings, heroes and hand-made puppets which engaged our campers on many levels, including one camper who started her own hero story complete with drawings! We discussed what superpower you and your horse may have and later made hero sashes to take home.

Jocie Percell, Creative Vibes Music Therapy, arrived with egg shakers for all, getting the juices flowing, our voices, and our hips! Using her voice and guitar, she engaged us with different types of music and how they made us feel. Then we brought in the horses and our campers played to them, watching their reactions…from curious to bouncing to the beat. Our herd loved their rhythm!

Add in a nature trail ride, learning about native plants at Xen, forming their own seed balls to plant, art, bubbles, face painting, and the Golden Gate Garrisson who gave the Star Wars touch to our badge ceremony.

Check out lots more Summer Camp Smiles …including new buddies smiles, horse smiles, and the greatest volunteers in the world smiles!