Camp Life by Sarah True
A Day in the Life of a Dreamcatcher Camper
By Camper/CIT Sarah True
Have you ever heard the noise a peacock makes? It sounds like a cat in mourning that has the lung capacity of an elephant, in other words, loud and obnoxious. Now, have you ever heard that sound at 6:30 in the morning? This is just another sound that makes Dreamcatcher Ranch magical.. It wakes you up abruptly, but in an instant you go from feeling annoyed to feeling complete bliss for being at a place like Dreamcatcher.
Each day we wake up in our sleeping bags right next to some of our closest friends all squeezed together in the yurt. The yurt is basically a big cylinder about 25 feet in diameter and about 15 feet high. It has a wooden floor and deck and thin wooden criss-cross paneling up the sides and up the cone-shaped roof. The whole thing is draped with thick white tarp and there's a sky light at the top and four windows around the sides. Anyways back to waking up, we wouldn't be so tightly packed if it weren't a group of eight teenage girls. But it is, so the floor is hidden underneath a variety of dirty shirts, dirty socks, dirty pants, dirty underwear, clean shirts, clean socks, clean pants, and clean underwear all in a massive tangle of clothes.
The first couple of days when everyone is awkwardly meeting each other, first impressions flying, the yurt is all organized, each girl contained within her own specified space. But as we all loosen up to each other, as the first impressions blur and blend with the real personalities, so do the boundaries in the yurt. Soon it becomes a mixed salad of clothes and a melting pot of personalities.
As we hastily get dressed and wash up we soak up the morning sun that floods in just over the trees that surround the property, yet another luxury of Dreamcatcher Ranch. At around 7:00 or 7:30 we leave the yurt and walk out onto the dusty dirt ground, around the house, past the yearling pasture and down gravel hill to the barn to feed the horses. As I hope you already know, Dreamcatcher Ranch (DCR) is a riding camp for girls. It's a big 23-acre plot of land. When you pull in the long gravel driveway (at only 10 mph please) you drive by the yearling and pony pasture. In this pasture are the young horses as well as our not-so-young Dreamer. Dreamer is a miniature horse and the camp mascot. There's more information on him and all the horses in “the heard” page on this website.
Right next to this pasture is the previously described yurt. Next to Dreamers little barn is the porta-potty and a big sink and some cubbies for the campers to keep their toiletries. In front of the house, down the gravel slope are the barns, but we'll get to those later. Beyond the barns is what seems like endless land. There are two pastures, big and bigger. The bigger pasture stretches over almost half the property. This is where the some of the 22 horses are kept. In this pasture there is a round pen mostly for join-up and lunge work. Up a small hill is the main arena. The arena looks to be either pear, egg, or heart shaped. There are about 10 very pretty and colorful jumps in the arena. This is where Carol teaches her lessons. Running all the way through the bigger pasture is a novice cross-country course that's filled with different semi-natural jumps. It's super fun.
The smaller pasture keeps the foals and their mamas. This pasture has a small pond that sometimes dries up during the summer. But when it's not dry some of the horses play in it from time to time (so cute!).
So, back to the barns... there's a red barn with up to 5 stalls and 4 paddocks where the rest of the horses live. The red barn is also where most of the horse food is kept. There are also big bulk containers of supplements and special stuff for the old, sick, hurt, or just spoiled horses. Right outside the red barn is a huge silo full of grain pellets, the standard feed for the DCR horses.
There is also a brown barn, which is used for tacking up. There are four crossties where you attach the horse so you can brush it and put the tack on. Adjacent to the crossties is a tack room where everything from horsy treats to saddles is kept, along with cubbies for the campers riding gear.
After we're done feeding and watering the horses we go up to feed and water or juice or milk or Gatorade ourselves. Our breakfasts are usually made up of cereal and milk or bagels and cream cheese. But sometimes Carol or Joan (directors of camp) make us pancakes or waffles, and on special days, Strawberry Shortcake, Joan's specialty.
Joan “Joanie” Fuquay is the financial director of camp. She majored in psychology so she is the leader of team building and Girl's Circles. She also is very, very skilled at making exquisite camper friendly, while still healthy, meals. Sometimes the CIT will take over cooking for a meal or two, which will be good, but not fully “Joanie Style”. Joan isn't actively involved with the horsy aspect of camp. Her specialty, as I said before, is team building and problem solving.
After breakfast we head to the somewhat cluttered garage a.k.a. the recreation room for campers. It has two “new” couches on either side of the room, one counselor chair next to a white board for the agenda, an arts and crafts table, a refrigerator, an extra freezer, and endless books, videos, and activities about horses. Most importantly is the camp store! Campers can buy mid-afternoon snacks, candy, water bottles, backpacks, socks, lip balm, and much more. Specially featured is the DCR pillowcase. They have a blank outline of a scene that the campers can color in with our special cloth markers. It's on the white board where we find out what we're doing that day, which group is riding first, what horses we're riding, and so on.
The girls are divided into two groups. The groups switch who rides first and who does “stable management” first. Aaaah! Stable management, what no horse camp or barn would be complete without. And yes, it does involve some elbow grease and scooping horse poop in the summer sun (sunscreen and hat are a must!) But it is all necessary to endure when around horses. While one group is riding the other does stable management, then work with the young horses, and tack up for their lesson. The riding lessons are about 2 hours each day, which involve balance seat, walk/trot/canter, and jumping, cross-country and more, but I don't want to give too much away. Our very own Carol Saulsberry, who is an awesome teacher and trainer, instructs lessons. She taught me everything I know about jumping.
Carol is the horsy director of camp. She used to be a trainer down in Southern California. But she and Joan decided to buy this beautiful property and start a riding camp for girls. And boy, are we lucky they did! Carol knows just about everything there is to know about horses and then some. She is very skilled in teaching equine massage, arena jumping, cross-country, and dressage. After all she's been doing it herself for quite some time. It is very safe to say that you will be in very good hands while riding with Carol.
So at around 1:00 the second group is done and it's time for lunch, first for the horses, and then for us. Our lunch consists a smorgasbord of sandwich fixings, fruit, veggies `n dip, dessert and of course more water! There is always water provided (Drink, drink, and drink some more water! It gets hot here and we don't want dehydration!).
After lunch is relax time. There are lots and lots of arts and crafts available. There's little popsicle-stick and cork horse jump making and painting, you can buy the DCR pillow I mentioned before and color it in, and of course, you can't go home without making a DCR dream catcher! All the supplies are provided and all the staff knows how to make them. It is a super fun and easy way to be creative. In my 5 years here I've made at least ten. During relax time you can also play one of the many games or read one of the many books or magazines. There are also 4 dogs to play with, two medium size dogs, Poncho and Tommy, and two Dachshund (wiener dogs), Tino and Roxy. And last but definitely not least, what's more refreshing than a swim in a cold pool after a day of riding? This is where DCR's swimming pool comes in handy. It's 3.5 feet deep on the ends and 5 feet deep in the middle so it's not for diving but there are plenty of other things to do in it. For example you could coax all the DCR staff into playing a big game of pool volleyball. There's a net set up in the center and lots of balls to play with. And of course whenever campers are in the pool our certified lifeguard, Rachael, is on duty.
The staff consists of one CIT (counselor in training) and two counselors (Chee and Brie), and two directors. All of the counselors have been trained by the American Camping Association in how to be the best counselor they can be and how to interact well with kids. Both directors attended the ACA Director Training Course and were certified. All the staff is also trained and certified in CPR and First Aid.
After relax time or sometimes before, there's usually a learning session taught by the CIT or counselors. Learning sessions are “hands on learning” about horse-related stuff: first-aid, parts of the horse, digestive system, baby play, etc.
By then it's time for the horses dinner. When that's done it's time for our dinner.. Dinners are pretty standard, usually chicken, spaghetti, pizza, or Taco Tuesday. But then on Friday we get Hobo Stew. Oh man is that good. It's basically anything you want to eat (meat, carrots, potatoes, beans, peas…) wrapped up in tinfoil and stuck on the open campfire, simple, yet genius. At dinner vegetables are always on the table, and of course WATER...we love water at DCR!
In the evening sometimes we have playtime on horses. Where we ride bareback, learn basic vaulting moves, lunging etc. of course always under supervision. If we don't do that, sometimes we have “coon circles” it's like community/team building to create a trusting and friendly relationship among everyone at camp.
Then at 9:00 it's quiet time where campers can do anything as long as it's in the yurt and quiet (read, write letters, whisper) At 10:00 it's lights out. Then as the campers drift off into well-earned sleep and dreams, everyone gets excited for the next day, because everyday at DCR is something to be excited about!