Do you have fond memories of riding in horse camp when you were a kid? Maybe, like me, you vividly remember taking lessons twice a day and riding bareback afterward. Maybe that’s when you learned how to give a horse a bath as you struggled to soap down a white 18-hand horse.
Or maybe you've jealously heard your fellow equestrians speak of their camp experiences, all the while wishing you had the opportunity when you were a child.
Now you can relive those care-free times bonding with horses and fellow equestrians in specially designed adult camps.
In the United States, adult camps typically run from three to five days. At the East Coast Horse Camp in Virginia Beach, riders from age 6 to adult can learn the basics in the beginner camp, including horse care, tack and fitting, control of speed and simple transitions, proper longe technique, etc. You can bring your own horse or ride one of theirs.
Palm Valley Ranch offers an adult camp where riders can stay on a working horse ranch for three to five days. Goals may be learning to ride or improving riding skills. Once you’ve learned to rope a calf or pen cattle, you can wind down in the pool, play billiards or kick back by a campfire. Located in Florida, Palm Valley can provide sessions for adult campers that include grooming or general horse care, lessons, trail rides, roping, barrel racing, and much more.
Other camps, like Aspergrove in Vancouver, British Columbia, offer family camps, women’s weekend getaways or parent/child camps.
In the United Kingdom, several adult camps are available through Horse Camp, billed as the pony camp experience for grown ups. At the UK’s pony camps, adults bring their own horses and ride in classes with two to four other students of the same level—beginner, novice, intermediate or advanced. The camps typically offer up to 2 hours of riding each day, with a session in the morning and a session in the afternoon. At such camps, riders can enjoy varied the cross-country jumping course terrain.
Though adult riding camps are not that common, you can get a similar experience with total horse immersion and camaraderie with fellow riders from riding vacation groups, such as Equitours, which provide riding adventures and training overseas but also offer U.S.-based vacations at dressage facilities in New England or ranches in Wyoming or Texas.
Go alone, bring your family or friends, and enjoy some quality time reliving the horse camp days of your youth.
