December camp update

Hello from Hoofbeat!

Well, it's almost Christmas time - hard to believe how quickly the year has flown by.

Things are good here at camp - we've been busy doing outside projects because the weather has been pretty warm and the lack of snow makes it really easy to get around. We finished re-building half of the Day Camp riding ring. Some of the fence posts were needing to be replaced and we made the fence a little higher so that the horses can't reach over and graze while they are being ridden.

We've gotten several new horses in the last few months - two new geldings and four mares. The geldings are Zeb and Norman. Zeb is a bay and Norman is chestnut with a blaze. The mares are Peaches, Annie, Piper, and Lily. Peaches is a cream colored paint, Annie is a chestnut with white stockings and blaze, Piper is also chestnut with stockings and a blaze(her blaze is more wide than Annie's - that's how we tell them apart!). Lily is a darker paint. We will try to get some pictures of them and post them at some point. Right now they are all getting settled into their new pastures with the rest of the Hoofbeat herd.

Christmas Camp has filled and we are busy finishing up cabin lists, menus, and grocery lists! We have a great crew of our summer staff that will be here and we are looking forward to a big fire in the dining hall fireplace, hot cocoa, our New Year's Eve Party, a trip to the Kalahari, lots of horseback riding, making new friends and seeing old ones, and maybe even sledding if we get snow! We'll be sure to post pictures and blog updates once camp gets started.

In the meantime, we found some fun photos while looking through our Facebook albums and we wanted to share them!

Have a safe and very Merry Christmas!

Dante's Christmas Party

We had Dante's Christmas Party this past weekend and what a great day it was for riding! It was warm and sunny. It certainly has not felt much like December so far this month. We had our candy cane hunt and campers were running around in light jackets and short sleeves. No snow for sledding either, although some of the campers tried.........it works way better with snow!

                                                  We had our riding lessons in the morning, along with some Christmas  arts and crafts. Campers also had some group games and time to get to know the other kids in their groups. After lunch, each group got to do some mounted games, groom the horses, do a candy cane hunt, and roast marshmallows over the fire. The day flew by!
Our staff member that was taking photos, was also doing a few other things that day, so we're sorry that she did not have a chance to get photos of each camper with a horse. We had quite a few activities packed into the day!

 

Thanks to all of the staff and campers for a great day!

Fall Camp Update!

Hello from Hoofbeat!

We wanted to update everyone on camp as it's been a little while since our last post.

We have been incredibly busy the last four weeks with after school riding lessons for the Madison area middle schools. We work with MSCR and four days a week we have lessons with different schools. Students sign up for the 4 week program and are bused to and from camp 1 day a week for riding lessons and horse science. We had some familiar faces in the crowd - each year there are several of our summer campers in the mix! Mary and Ted were calculating that we have run the program for 49 years! It was started by Mary's mother, Betty Bennett Talbot, not long after camp first opened.

So Monday through Thursday, each week, we've had lessons, and then on Fridays we have had groups coming in for the weekend. It feels almost as busy as summer, but we are thankful for all of our hard working staff. We've got a great crew!

Weekends have been booked with Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Mother/Daughter groups, Able Trek Tours, and several UW retreats.

We are really starting to see some beautiful fall colors now. You can look out over the valley and see bright dots of color on the hills below camp.

We did get quite a bit of rain over the last couple of weeks, so the pastures are pretty muddy again. Some of the horses have been rolling in the mud and looking like creatures from the swamp, but we won't name names…………on second thought - it was Dolly and Gandalf! Of course the two grey horses - they seem to love the mud. We don't mind until it's time to groom them!

Just a few weeks left for early bird registration for 2018 resident camp! The early bird rates are good until November 15th.

We've added Dante's Christmas Party to our fall schedule………..the program is on December 2 and bus service is included from Madison and Cross Plains. There aren't many spots left at this point.

Christmas Camp is also filling quickly. There are less than 10 spots left now and normally it fills up and we have a waiting list. Each year, campers and staff, have a blast enjoying Hoofbeat in the winter!

Our spring Mother/Daughter registration is open for May 2018. We have 3 weekends in row, so sign up before they fill up!

See our website for details on all of the above programs. www.hoofbeat.org

Until next time, take care and we hope to see you again soon!