The first day was a little tricky for all, you start by cleaning the stables and in South Africa, they think that if animals eat grass, its not a big deal to pick up their POOP with your HANDS! (Kelly was also told this on her field trip where they picked up zebra poop!) Stable cleaning here means picking up the manure, turning over the horse's woodchip bedding, and cleaning up any hay that has been tossed out of the feeder. (from my Illinois horse days, I remember shoveling everything out and putting in all fresh straw!)
The kids didn't love this part-especially Charlie, I guess he refused to pick it up with his hands! For days 2 & 3, the kids all went with gardening gloves, which made the stable cleaning chore much, much better!
After the stable cleaning, they got to go to the pasture, lead their horses up, brush them, saddle them and go for a ride, in the ring and on the final day, an outride along the road into the Fort, where there are AMAZING views of the city. I got to ride with them too!
Charlie's horse Fouraz!
The bonus part is here the kids really got to do everything themselves, after all the saddling, combing and riding, they even got to play with one of the horses, which meant running around in the ring and feeding him carrots! They also got to paint the same horse with paints one day and the next day they got to give him a bath, both very cool activities!
Kelly's horse Chocolate (who stepped on her toe)
Washing the pony!
Katie's horse Robyn
Katie & Charlie on the outride-look at the views!
Kelly riding near the water treatment plant-barbed wire a constant in SA!
Once we had gloves, pony camp really was an amazing experience for the kids, they got to do it all!
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