Beginning of Week Five

We have now passed the halfway mark of the summer, and we were incredibly happy to greet new campers and RITs on Sunday. We were sad to bid farewell to all the first session campers and RITs, as well as the staff members who left on Sunday. New campers, RITs and staff have gotten moved in and their fresh energy has everyone pumped for the rest of the summer!

This morning we awoke to some impressive cracks of thunder and lightning. The worst of the storms stayed to the south of us, and we had some light rain but no strong winds or heavy rains. The storm was at its heaviest during morning barn, when our staff and RITs get all the horses ready for the day. Since we were unsure what the weather was going to do, we got the horses fed and then headed down the hill to the safety of the cabins. Although the weather cleared steadily throughout the morning, the early morning delay meant that we followed an abbreviated schedule in the morning - we got the horses groomed and saddled after breakfast, and all the campers rode with their riding classes for a slightly shortened amount of time.

In the afternoon, the cabins spent some time bonding and then headed up to the barn for some bareback riding! The afternoon was warm, so the horses were happy to be saddle-less, and riding bareback was a fun challenge for the riders, as well. When they weren't riding, the campers got to know some of the other Hoofbeat horses by doing some grooming. After dinner, we had a fun and wild scavenger hunt, and played some group games on the Athletic Field. Despite the morning weather, it was a great first day of camp, and everyone had fun getting to know their cabin mates and doing some riding!

Here are some pictures of this week's cabin groups:

[click any photo to enlarge]