Penny Mitchell’s (1951-54) favorite thing to do was ride the horses at camp. It was something that she could do that she hadn’t done before. “I loved horses and camp was my conduit to horseback riding. I never fell off and we even rode bareback, which was very exciting. I can remember riding past the raspberry and thimbleberry bushes and picking them. I asked one day if I could go pick and the counselor said only if I brought enough back for the whole breakfast table to put on their cereal. So, I took one other girl and we picked raspberries for everyone!”
Many girls like Penny learned at camp for the first time, including Debbie Robson, who said Sarah Dufendach, (her riding instructor in the early seventies), was the only one who would let the girls run the horse into a full gallop. “It was an awesome feeling to be running on a horse,” she said.
For Carla Wilhelm (1945-49), if a class was offered, she took it. “I loved horseback riding and all the side trips we took. I remember one year we used long-eared mules for a while. We would saddle them up like horses. And another year we had to ride those darn English saddles, which were narrow with a slit and no horns. Jackie Valley was our instructor.”
“I had one particularly ornery horse that scared me,” said Randi Wynne-Parry (1969-73), who learned to ride at camp. “He always got me too close to the branches. I think they used trail horses and they just wanted to get back to the stable. Being a new rider, I was always apprehensive and nervous on that one horse.”
Kellie Moore (1970-77) loved the riding, even though it was a totally new experience for her. She took it year after year, saying, “It was pretty much a walk in the woods every time, and not much in the arena, but one year a couple of instructors started teaching us to jump. It was more like jumping over a log,” she laughed.
Two girls who felt like they were really great riders were Kim Wynne-Parry (1963-68) and Mary Lou Winn (1946-47). Kim laughed, “I always took riding and thought I was just the best, but soon found out I was not.” Mary Lou admitted to being pretty inexperienced, “but I think we thought we were better than we really were. We wanted to do more than go in circles in the corral. We thought we should have speed! Now when I look back, they were practicing controlled responsibility.”
Maqua fostered Jenifer Penzien’s (1969-71) love for riding, Unsure whether she learned at camp, she said she was a frustrated horse woman as a kid, but camp gave her the serious horse time she loved. “I went thirty-five years without a horse, but I am belatedly back on one now, took lessons and leased a horse for years.”
Kim Hartwig recalled piling into a truck (to ride horses off property) and got to ride a “snotty stubborn horse” that did not diminish her experience in the seventies.Learning the skills and etiquette built the confidence needed for many others to continue riding long after camp ended.
Did you learn to ride at camp? Were you nervous or confident?