High Ridge Stables held their annual Ridgeview Riding Club last week, where young horse lovers took part in six fun horse-filled days Monday July 23 to Saturday July 28.
High Ridge Stables held their annual Ridgeview Riding Club last week, where young horse lovers took part in six fun horse-filled days Monday July 23 to Saturday July 28.
The camp has been going for five years now, and normally runs the third week of July. Riders range in age from six to 20, and get two riding sessions each day from instructors. They can either use their own horses, or one of the schooling horses available at the stables.
Each camper is instructed on how to do a proper tack fitting, care for their horses, and how to ride. They learn everything from dressage, to riding etiquette, to horse first aid.
At the end of the week, the camp has the Patty Lynn Hamilton Fun Show, which is named in memory of the first president and founder of the club who has since passed away.
This is when the riders get to show off what they've learned throughout the week.
There are competitions in Dressage, English Pleasure, Baby Green Hunter, Handy Hunter, Working Hunter, and Novice Hunter.
When all that was said and done, one final competition remained: the Egg-N-Spoon challenge. Instructor Norene Pinder said the camp always likes to finish off the competition with something fun, just to lower the stress levels of the riders.
"Some of these kids have never showed before," she said. "In fact in this group there are only two kids who have ever showed, so this was an experience for them."
Normally the camp has around 17-20 horse enthusiasts sign up for the week, but this year only brought eight due to more families going on holidays. Although there weren't as many campers as there have been in previous years, having lower numbers wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
"Because the numbers were smaller per instructor, they got longer riding time with their instructor," said Pinder. "It was good for the riders."
There was something special about the camp this year, and it came in the form of a very tiny nameless foal.
The stables received 43 name entries, and Pinder said they had a hard time choosing between about nine of them. However the foal could only have one name, and it was announced to be Cruz as the camp came to a close.
Dressage - Walk-Trot Test A
1st - Tori Krikke
2nd - Riana Tauscher
3rd - Katelyn Hamilton
Dressage - Training Level Test B
1st - Amanda Simoneau
2nd - Erin Schmidt
3rd - Noelle Eddington
Junior English Pleasure
1st - Katelyn Hamilton
2nd - Tori Krikke
3rd - Mariah Wierenga
Senior English Pleasure
1st - Amanda Simoneau
2nd - Erin Schmidt
3rd - Noelle Eddington
Baby Green Hunter (Max. 2'0)
1st - Katelyn Hamilton
2nd - Tori Krikke
3rd - Mariah Wierenga
Handy Hunter ( Max. 2'3)
1st - Mariah Wierenga
2nd - Katelyn Hamilton
3rd - Tori Krikke
Working Hunter (Max. 2'6)
1st - Amanda Simoneau
2nd - Erin Schmidt
Novice Hunter (Max. 3'0)
1st - Erin Schmidt
2nd - Amanda Schmidt
Egg-N-Spoon Junior
1st - Tori Krikke
2nd - Mariah Wierenga
3rd - Leah Mast
Egg-N-Spoon Senior
1st - Erin Schmidt
2nd - Amanda Simoneau
3rd - Noelle Eddington
