Pony Day Camp
Learn to ride, feed, and care for ponies!
Our expert staff is ready to introduce you to all the joys of ponies at a series of week-long camps during Summer, Winter Break, and Spring Break.
Each six-hour day will be packed with lessons, skill development, riding, and just plain fun as you learn to be a pony's rider, best friend, and caretaker.
Pony-related crafts will create take-home keepsakes to keep the dream alive through the long wait until next year's camps.
Our instructor/trainers have years of experience teaching horsemanship from beginning through advanced levels up to beginning jumping.
In collaboration with our gentle and friendly ponies they teach proper riding habits that will stand you in good stead as long as you ride.
Our camp counselors are boundless in their enthusiasm and creativity, and truly care for children. A high ratio of both instructors and camp counselors to students guarantees that you will receive the personal attention that makes for an unforgettable learning experience.
Join us in the sunny Snohomish Valley at Sonrise Stables, a modern working barn that presents all aspects of horse care.
You will learn pony grooming, washing, tacking, riding, feeding, health care, and maintenance of their stalls and paddocks.
You will learn hard, play hard, work hard, and get all sweaty/dirty/smiley.
And at week's end your efforts will create a Pony Rodeo where you and your camp mates will show off newly learned skills that will amaze your families.
Quality Time
So if you are five to twelve years old and want to get up close and personal with the ponies, just read on down to everything you need to know.
Intense concentration through the turn
Pony Day Camp: The Details
Summer Dates, 2011:
Jun27-Jul1; Jul11-15; Jul18-22; Aug1-5; Aug8-12; Aug15-19
Daily Schedule (10AM-4PM)
10:00 AM - Campers arrive, start barn chores
10:30 AM - Morning Ride: tack up, ride, untack
11:30 AM - Cleanup
12:00 PM - Sack Lunch
1:00 PM - Group Lesson or Crafts
2:30 PM - Afternoon Ride: tack up, ride, untack
3:30 PM - Clean up, barn chores
4:00 PM - Parents pick-up campers
Extended hours are available between 8AM and 5PM, to be spent in craft time and barn chores. See pricing below for costs. Car pooling is also available extending from Lake Forest Park (just North of Seattle) to the barn.
Daily High Points (a sample schedule)
Monday - Morning will be a barn safety/pony handling class and riding evaluation to determine campers' skills and assign them ponies. Afternoon will start the riding sessions. Craft: horseshoe art.
Tuesday - Riding sessions, group lesson on pony anatomy. Craft: paint model horses.
Wednesday - Riding sessions, group lesson on pony feeding and colic. Craft: Tie-dyed T-shirts.
Thursday - Riding sessions, group lesson on pony bathing. Craft: take pictures of campers with ponies, decorate frames for the pictures.
Friday - Riding sessions in morning, afternoon group lesson on pony dress-up in preparation for... The Pony Show at camp's end! All families are welcome! Come any time, show starts at 3:00.
We will match the riding lessons to the abilities of individual campers. If the number of campers requires us to split each lesson into two groups the campers will be grouped by experience level and the availability of ponies matching their skills.
Traditional instruction will be supplemented with lots of riding games on the ponies (Red light-Green light, etc.) to help develop newly learned skills.
Crafts and barn chores will be adjusted to fill the available time. Barn chores include pony feeding, mucking out stalls and paddocks (oh yes, ponies have two ends and we learn to take care of both), cleaning saddles, sweeping out the barn, light maintenance, etc.
Parents are welcome to stay at camp and watch or join in, especially the first day when new campers might feel uncertain. There's plenty of room at the barn!
Ride 'em!
Pony Camp Personnel
Trainer/Instructor Stephanie Castner
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Stephanie has rescued and trained numerous ponies over her eleven years in equestrian, all while actively participating in 4H and in shows around the Puget Sound area showing both English and Western. Currently owning her own Quarter Pony, Henry, and Quarter Horse, Willie, Stephanie maintains a competitive riding career and lesson program with her horse and rescue pony. Stephanie also has volunteered in a third grade classroom for four years, has been a nanny to four children for a year, and has counseled at three years of pony camps as well as other summer camps.
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Trainer/Instructor Elizabeth McCracken
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Elizabeth has been in equestrian for eight years, rescuing and training several horses while actively showing and competing in both English and Western. Her current horses Una, Baby, and Honey provide mounts for the larger kids in our Pony Day Camp program. She has been teaching lessons in both Western and English for four years, and has instructed in Pony Camp for two years.
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Pricing and Logistics
All sessions cost $340 per camper for the full week of five 6-hour days. Partial sessions are pro-rated at $68 per day.
We request a $150 deposit to hold your camper's spot, though if your plans change inadvertently we will refund your full deposit.
Camp sessions will have a maximum of six campers. Our trainer/instructors will oversee each riding session, with at least one craft person overseeing any remaining campers doing crafts/chores.
We reserve the right to cancel or consolidate partly-filled sessions. We will accept sessions of as few as two campers, so if you need to attend on a particular week the best way to guarantee your spot is to recruit another camper (a friend, or even a sibling). To encourage this we offer a 10% discount for multiple registrations. Simply include all your campers' registration forms in the same packet and they're all 10% off.
Since in large sessions we will group riders of similar skill levels we cannot guarantee that you will ride with your friend if your skill levels differ greatly. No worries: by week's end you'll all be friends.
We accept campers 5 to 12 years old. We can arrange occasional hand-led rides during camp for younger siblings, but unfortunately we can't accept them as regular campers.
Lunch is almost ready at Winter Camp
Please contact us with any questions.
To register please fill out the
Registration Form and Liability Waiver
and send with your deposit to the address given on the form. We accept registrations via phone or email, but Liability Waivers must be signed papers.
Required materials:
Sack lunch every day
Helmet, either riding or bicycle
Clothing you don't mind getting dirty, including:
Long pants
Closed-toed shoes (think about mucking out stalls...)
Shirt that preferably covers the shoulders
Warm Jacket
Hat
Medicines or other necessary materials
Still can't decide? Ask us for a free
barn tour and pony ride!
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