Horse and Hound School - Horse School

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Riding Camp

chat at camp Summer camp for adults was held on 19th-22nd July at Plumpton College in Sussex.

All the participants either camped or stayed in their horse boxes, apart from the few who were unwilling to give up their luxuries and stayed in a local B+B!

The camp was for all levels of horse and rider, and was organised by Pauline Brimson who did an excellent job coping with all the details as well as some major difficulties. The biggest was one of the two indoor schools being out of action. Despite this, all the planned activities went ahead including flatwork lessons in the morning, and other activities in the afternoons. These included an obstacle course,a lateral work class, and a jumping session, some people even found time to hack on the lovely Sussex downs.

There was also an opportunity to ride "Hero", the mechnical horse, and have a bit of a lesson on him with either Pauline, or me. Everyone who sat on him felt that they had benefitted from him; its so much easier concentrating on your position when the horse goes at the push of a button!

During the evenings there were more optional events laid on. These started with on Thursday evening with a quiz night ( a special well done to Tom, the only one to know the name of Alexander the Greats horse...) On Friday evening all participants experienced being clicker trained. This was supposed to be a thought provoking insight into what it is like to be trained without any knowledge of what the trainer has in mind (just like our horses and dogs are expected to endure everyday), but it turned into a very funny evening, and I am sure it will stay in the minds of the people present for some time yet!

The last evening was all about bits, bitting and contact, which culminated in a blindfold bucket race. The buckets had "reins" attached to them, and were filled with water, and each team had to negotiate the course wihout dropping the contact, or else the water slopped all over whoever dropped the contact, a salutary lesson for all.

All this culminated with a show on Sunday which included condition and turnout, a freestyle dressage test, ( some enterprising campers teamed up and did a pairs test), and in the afternoon there was the last opportunity to show off the skills developed over the obstacle course.

A big thank you to all who attended, and for participating with such enthusiasm, and for smiling throughout the dreadful weather!

If you are interested in attending the camp in 2008, please e mail Pauline Brimson at chloe276@aol.com.