One Step at a Time

Welcome to Horsemanship! We are very excited to have you all with us these next two weeks as we explore various skills while interacting with our horses.

The past couple of days have provided us with a wonderful opportunity to get to know each other as well as the horses we will be riding this session. In the mornings when we get to the ranch, one of the first things we do after we greet Mac is brush down and saddle up our horses. Brushing our horses is an important part of starting our day as it helps create a bond between us and our horse before we put their saddles on.

Maple, Crash and Mac have lead campers through how to put on the saddles and how to take them off. Before we get on our horses, rancher Mac always asks us, “What’s the first thing you do when you get on a horse” and we now know we have to check the sinch, because if the sinch is too loose when we go to get on our horses, we will fall right off. Once we are all on our horses, we head over to the arena and do a couple of laps to warm the horses up. This time allows us to practice our communication skills with our horses so that we can feel more confident when we are out on a trail ride.

As we continue through our week, we will be focusing on communicating with the horses as they require clear and direct communication. We will also be building on our teamwork skills as we work together as a group by providing encouragement to each other and our horses. A good question to potentially ask your camper may be, what has been your favourite part of horsemanship so far? Perhaps your camper will tell you about the trail ride they took on Tuesday or how they have been learning to guide their horses through a maze in the arena.

That’s all for now, but we look forward to seeing you all tomorrow for another great day!