Destination: Horse Camp (Murphy Chu)

I was nervous to be somewhere relevantly far from home, staying at the place for a whole weekend, and learning that the place has no showers even though we are going to sweat and get dirty after the weekend is done. This place where I went to is a horse ranch, and I had signed up for a whole weekend of Girl Scout horse camp.

The trip to there was by bus as it headed further south into a desert like region in the countryside. Most of our troop, along with several girls from about 8 other Girl Scout troops, went to horse camp. Even though my little sister is a part of my troop, I would still worry about being very far from my home and family. Although I’d hate to admit it, I would always seem to fall asleep during these long road trips and missed most of the scenery before the bus got to our destination.

At first I thought it was going to be a long weekend, But I am usually proved wrong in my opinions. It’s as they say, never judge a book by its cover, or don’t jump to conclusions. When I came off the bus I took the time to observe what was around me. There are many horses, and apparently numerous flies, around the area, which half of the herd belonged to other people who needed a place for their horse to be cared for.

The first thing I learned at camp was how to mount a horse with practice on a hay bale. Later on everyone was sorted into four groups. Each group was given headbands to indicate their members, to use to prevent hair from tangling onto the helmet when riding, and to help one to cool off during the day. I was in a different group form my little sister, which is sort of a predicament for me since my mom asked me to take pictures of my little sister riding and etc.

Everyone was assigned for a horse to ride during the day of rotations. Activities for rotations are mealtimes, crafts, horse riding, horse care, and free time. I have been assigned by my parents to take as many pictures of me and my sister when we are at camp, but as every single trip without my parents would go, dad would always give me either the wrong kind of batteries or batteries that are long dead. When the sun began to set, everyone had to set up their tents. I had to help most of the girls in putting up their tents and sort of nailing the tent down into the hard dirt, which wasn’t really necessary, since there’s hardly a strong wind at the ranch.

For horse riding, I learned how to ride a horse properly, to encourage the horse to cross a small stream, to lead the horse into a turn, and to herd goats with a horse. In crafts, the projects we had were to decorate a door knob sign, to paint and decorate a pail, and to make a cloth scrunchee. The pail was my best craft of all, but sadly I probably broke it when I was sleeping (I might have kicked a hole in it). What I learned in horse care, is what a horse needs to eat, when a horse should be cleaned, how to care for the horse’s hooves, which kind of knot should be used to tie up a horse, and to clean out the horses’ stalls. The three days went by pretty fast and I was amazed by how much I enjoyed these activities and the camp itself, even if there weren’t any showers available.

The final night our stay, the owner of the ranch told us a ghost story of a lost Native American bride who haunts the ranch territory, searching for her tribe. And that very night, there was a horse and its rider, who was dressed in Native American clothing, and rode around the camping area. I tried to stay awake on the last night in order to wake up early and help out with cleaning up the campsite and folding up the tent and my clothes.

On the trip back we had a surprise waiting for us, the ranch owner performed one of these horse stunts where the horse moves its weight onto its back legs and the rider balances on the saddle and straps.  This moment was when I finally agreed that this was the best trip I ever went on.