Horsemanship Day 1 - Horse Snacks

Welcome campers, to Horsemanship here at Camp Amicus! For our first day, we’re learning all about ranch etiquette, catching, and brushing! All our campers are eager to learn about the horses they’ll be riding.

To start off our first day, our riders entered the pen to ‘catch’ their horses! Catching involves developing a relationship with the horses, getting comfortable, then putting a bridle on the horse they choose. From this point, everyone leads their horse down to the open area near to the tack shack to start brushing. Here, our campers are showing care and compassion to their horses, making sure the horses understand that they are in good company and are being cared for.

Rounding out our first day, everyone got to hop up on Woody! Woody is Mac’s trainer, to teach everyone how to get on a horse and ride it. Here, we learn a very important acronym, “LLPP.” Lift, Look, Push, Point. Lift the reins, look where you want to go, push on the horse with your feet, and point the reins where you want to go. All of these steps are non-verbal communication that our riders use to communicate to their horses what they want to do.