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Thursday July 31st, 2008


Dearest Families, One and All,

What a huge week we have had…My head is happily spinning, just like the lighted rides and the cascading fireworks of the Cheshire Fair. It has been quite something and your kids have been simply TERRIFIC. I could keep this bunch forever, I might even try to see how I would pay for all their colleges!!! They are such fun and so game for anything and everything. It has been a real treat for me.

I can tell that the staff shares my enthusiasm as they are usually beginning to drag as we head into Session 4 and 5. They are all giggles after the long days of teaching and horse fun. They are ready to go camping, on the all day ride or drive, set up the gymkhana or go play with me and the kids in the indoor during a thunder storm! It is such fun to see all the ages of camp get along so well. Anyone who tells me kids don’t want to work or know how can go jump in a lake somewhere. What a great group of young American women. The world will be in good hands when both the staff and the campers grow up and decide how they are going to contribute to the world….It makes my heart glad!!!

Let me back track to Monday and Tuesday night’s camping trips. More than 30 kids signed up to go so we surely had to do two nights. Actually, it is really easier to do two back to back as one group sets up the tents and the second group takes them down. It makes for a much more leisurely arrival and departure, leaving plenty of time to swim, sit by the fire and explore the stream…not to mention play with the ponies and horses we bring.

So…with high excitement and lots of organizing accomplished on Monday…there we sat with the rain pouring down and the thunder & lightening flaring all around us….The weather forecast was for a little cloud cover, not a flash flood. We decided to postpone the trip and do a little more PF Olympics. One of the events was to be Stable Management…which means that the kids use all their knowledge of how to do the Evening Barn Chores. With the staff helping as usual with the feeding and turn out, and then available on site in the event of an emergency, the kids are left to build a team to do the best job possible for the ponies and horses. Wow, did this gang do a bang up job…They figure eighted all the bridles, which is what they would do in a very fancy “yard” in Britain! They raked their hearts out, scrubbed water buckets, cob webbed!!! They even washed some of the windows…Never has the barn sparkled like it did after these kids really set to work. What a miracle to see. Now, if we as parents could only harness this power to get their rooms cleaned on a school morning!

As the sun peaked out and I rechecked the weather report, off we set at about 5:30PM. Never have I had such a late start to the trip but I felt confident that we could set up camp, settle in the horses, get dinner and cook S’Mores before the darkness of night descended too much. I surely was right. Those kids really tucked into setting up the tents. We had all three big tents ready, despite a mix up of tent poles from the last trip, by the time the riders arrived with the horses. We bring enough horses to have each girl get to ride in either the trip up to the site, an evening ride, a morning ride or the ride home. We also bring a counselor horse.…This time we needed 5 horses. These are carefully selected from among the horses owned by the farm as we do not want to risk hurting a camper’s horse or a leased horse. It is not mean feat to have to spend the night in the dark tied to a tree. Luckily there are truly never any bugs but it still is a different experience for a horse to spend the night camping. Certain ones love it because they get lavished with attention. Seeing the girls drapped over the ponies as they are lying down in the sunlight which is streaming through the tall trees is a picture worth more than a 1,000 words! It makes all the effort and sleeping on the hard ground worth it for me!!!

So with tents set up, sleeping bags laid out and the fire burning brightly, we set to cooking hot dogs over the fire. With chips, dogs, cole slaw and oranges, we were pretty full…and then the marshmallows came out. With the same sticks and lots of gusto, I can’t tell you how many S’Mores were eatten. No one went to bed with an empty stomach.

Next, we sang by the fire. We had also told countless stories by a previous night around the Fire Pit at the lodge, but there always seem to be more stories to tell. We focus on the horse stories rather than Ghost stories. It just seems silly to get them all nervous before I casually sent them off to bed in their tents. It is often the first night outdoors for many of the girls and I just don’t ‘do’ Ghost stories for that reason.

On the second night, we hosted Pony Farm Idol. The girls gathered together and came up with songs that they could perform. Again, seeing their beautiful glowing and healthy faces in the firelight, singing their hearts out without a moment’s self consciousness convinced me of two things. First, you all have done an amazing job as parents…and secondly, that the woods and fields and horses and farms are good for kids. I just love this time of singing and dancing. It is just plain simple joy…

Everyone tip toed off to their sleeping bags and went to sleep without a hitch. They were truly tired I think! The staff and I stay up until we are sure everyone is asleep and then we too fall into our bags, ready to dream up more fun for the next day.

On the Tuesday night trip, we had gotten to the grounds at the usual time so we were able to take the Evening Ride without it being too dark by the end of the ride. However, for the Monday trip, we had to do two Morning Rides before we left to go home. Sadly, I could not do those as my dad is still not doing very well. I had to take him with my mom to a round of doctor apt. to follow up his hospitalization, so I missed the fun of the morning of the first trip. The girls swam in the mountain pool, splashing in the cooooold clear water and enjoying taking exploration trips up and down the rushing mountain stream. One of the benefits of all the rain is that the stream is really rushing and there is a big fountain of water that runs over our smooth rock from which we slide into the pool. It makes for easy entry into the cooooold water but it sure is refreshing.

Each morning we love cooking breakfast over the fire. We eat scrambled eggs galore, sausage o’plenty, cook toast and drink OJ…Of course, there are a few left over marshmallows that go down the hatch pretty well too! Following that, we clean up camp and then are set to explore the area, ride some more and return to camp by 11:00 to get unpacked and help with noon feed. Luckily rest hour follows lunch, so it is a good time to store up some energy for things to come.

Meanwhile, ‘back at the ranch’, the kids had great fun as well. It is so funny that the older kids mostly choose to stay home from the camping trip. They get to speed through barn chores and then do more elaborate and slightly older evening activities. On the first night, they held a great sounding play. It even had some political overtones as one of our 3rd Year CITs has just returned from being a Senate Page in Washington. She is very into the green candidates and ready to save the world…so I guess it was very good and most entertaining. Good for her! On the second night of the camping trip, they played a rousing game of Capture the Flag…I am glad to have missed that because it sure entails a lot of running. I would much rather sit by the fire to hear them sing than to have to run after flags and capture territory…each to her own!

The campers who did not go on the trip also got a lot of serious, good instruction. With smaller numbers, they got quite a bit of individualized attention. One of the activities that happened was the Puissance, another big camp favorite. It is where the instructors set up two jumps with a very specific amount of space between them. It helps the horses and ponies find the right place to take off to jump. The first jump stays the same and the second jump goes higher and higher until the counselor stops the rider, or the kiddo says its time for her to stop, or the horse says it by running out. In all cases, we are very careful when we do this but it is great fun to test the limits in a well managed manner. The kids love it. The staff stopped it at 3’9”…so that is pretty darned high!

After morning lessons, lunch, a good job of barn chores and rest hour with showers….off we went to the Cheshire Fair. This is truly a highlight of the whole summer, with many staff returning from former years or sessions this summer. It is quite an event. We rent a large bus to get to the fair in Keene NH. With wild ride, carnival games, all the best junk food you can imagine and loads of horse and farm animal events and exhibitions, there really is something for everyone. The girls did it all….Not one girl missed a check in meeting and everyone stayed together in a great way. Not one girl was left to ‘hang with the staff’ because no one wanted to be with her…This is such a great thing for everyone. Hats were bought, fried dough and french fries were eatten, the horse show watched with delight….and then the fireworks set it all off. With a glorious display, we all were mightily entertained.

I took a car load of kids home who wanted to go alittle early. These were the kids that had spent all their money in the first hour and eatten a ton of cotton candy. They were happy to talk like magpies on the way home and then hit their pillows hard when they got back to the lodge. The other kids came in about 11, happy, tired and ready to retire too. A grand day with not one ‘boo boo’ was had by all.

Today, they are sleeping late, thus allowing me time to write this. These kids keep me hopping so it is hard to find time to write. Between all the kids want to do and getting ready for our big American Camping Association accreditation visit which is scheduled for next Tuesday and my dad, I sleep well at night!!!

I would like to tell you just a bit about ACA Accreditation as we are proud of the work that we do. This visit happens every three years, making this about our 10th time of being accredited. We feel this is so very important as it assures you of our good management of your children. It is not enough that the kids love camp. In this day and age, things like Criminal Background Checks, water samples, nursing procedures, sound, careful financial management, temperatures in the friges and vehicle logs are also most important. Although I knock on wood every morning and say my prayers every night, it is not just prayer and luck that keeps kids injury, sickness and accident free. It is detailed, highly organized and carefully thought out planning that goes along way to having never had a severe injury in 37 years nor had camp sued for anything. We are extremely proud of all that we do in the background and before camp even opens that makes camp what it is today. Thanks to excellent input from families over the years, the guidance of ACA, and the accreditation process, we are truly proud of the camp we run. We hope you might take a look at our materials that we have prepared for Tuesday when you come on Saturday. I think you will be impressed by the detail and depth of what we need to do to achieve a good score. We are shooting for a fabulous score….Let’s see what Kris and the team can do. We will let you know in upcoming materials but keep us in your thoughts next Tuesday when our visit will take place. It will last all day and we think we will do very well indeed!

Today, the girls will have one long ride instead of two. They will do their Gymkhana, which is games on horse back. They will compete as Olympic Teams and accrue points f or their team. The final scores are building for the prizes tomorrow night at our big Dress up Dinner and Candlelight. They will compete in games such as Gambler’s Choice, Sit a Buck, the Cracker and Soda Race, String Reins and more depending on their levels. They will compete within their own riding groups, bringing back the points to their team. This will end with a late lunch and rest hour. This afternoon, they will do a shortened afternoon of driving the minis, vaulting and bareback. These will be the Specialties that they will do for you on the Exhibition Day.

Tonight, they are doing the last of the Olympic Events…a game of knowledge of current movie, singing and dancing stars…This is a game I just can never play. I am definitely not in the swim of current stars for teens. They adore this game and it is hotly planned by categories by the staff. Everyone loves this and luckily I get the night off. My girls and grandbabies are coming, along with my sister and brother to see my dad and to celebrate my birthday tonight…Yipee…

Tomorrow, the girls will ride in their lesson groups for one last practice before you arrive. They will then swim, write their Candlelight speech about what camp has meant to them, play with the farm animals one last time and pack. This day will culminate in showering and dressing up for a special dinner. We will then gather around the pool to float candles out into the pool in heart shaped tins adorned with flowers. With the lights twinkling and the torches burning brightly, it is a beautiful site to behold. I love hearing what the experience has meant to the girls. It is most rewarding to an old camp director to hear their beautiful words and watch how much their love each other and their ponies. I sure beats the heck out of what else they could be doing!!!!

Then, Saturday is here. I am NOT eager to return these great girls to you but I guess you probably are as eager to have them back as I was to get them! We will expect you at 9:30. We will have the exhibition events ready for your review. We hope you are impressed by all that the girls have learned. Despite the rain, we sure have packed in a lot. We hope it shows.

Please do remember to bring your picnic. We will provide drinks and dessert for all. The entire event should be sadly over by about 1 or 1:30….With your kids happily packed and in the car, the tales will begin. I hope they are as happy in hindsight as I think they have been in reality.

I do hope you will also plan to attend one of our off season camp family events. We will have a Harvest Festival weekend in September, followed by a Fall Foliage Farm Weekend in October. The pumpkins for both carving and pies are growing like mad, as are all the decorative gourds and Indian corn. We will have lots of fresh veggies out of the garden to eat and loads of fun. We will then turn our attention to the two Mother Daughter Weekends during the first two weekends in December. Next year, we will have our Father Daughter and our Spring Fling….so, lots of fun times lie ahead. We love these weekends because we can see our favorite campers again before next summer…and we get to know the parents, too! It is a terrific time of riding, carriage driving, singing, sitting by the fire, fun theme crafts and events, some shopping if desired…therapeutic massage and reiki….and lots of good food that someone else fixes and does the dishes…Do try to join us…Dates will be forthcoming and …wait until you see all the work that is being done on the lodge right after camp is done. We think you will be impressed by the ‘facelift’ it is going to get.

So, I end as I began, by thanking you for lending us your children. They are truly terrifically fun. It has been a joyous and happy two weeks. Here’s to you as parents and them as kids.

All my very best and with huge fondness,

Boo & all the staff…..