catching up on horse camp

Now that we are mostly better from this horrible sickness, I can catch up on the blog post I really wanted to make last week.
The week BEFORE getting croup, the girls and I spent a week at our barn, Hybid Farm. Grace enrolled at camp and Harriet "helped" me teach lessons and manage things around the barn. I know I spent more time managing Harriet than I did horses and kids, but that's how it goes.
Spending a week at horse camp is something Grace looks forward to every single year. She is actually finally old enough to enroll as a real camper this year, but she's been going since she was 2 years old! Our barn is such an idyllic place for kids to ride and be with horses. We do not have one mean-spirited or unsafe horse. It is really incredible. (well, we do get rid of them if one crosses the line, so that helps.) And, they aren't "broken down" like so many horses you find at places where safety is essential. They are still spirited and have personalities and live extremely happy lives. In fact, we call our barn, the horse "spa" because they are treated so very well. The ponies are seriously the most adorable ponies and the kindest creatures. Our favorite is and will always be Tinkerbell, but Grace has branched out and tried riding some others. This summer she fell in love with Mac and even got to like Lilly (who she still thinks is a bossy pony.)
The days did get a bit long for all of us. We had to be at the barn at 8:30am every single morning all ready to go with complete riding gear and 3 lunches. By the time we got home and got Hattie down for a nap and I got a shower it was 4pm and we had to start making dinner. It got pretty tiring. The crazy thing is that when Grace was exactly Hattie's age, I did it for the entire summer and she went to the Ponies Rule! class for the whole summer as a 2 year old and I taught lessons all day long. I was so organized - I would make dinner at 7 in the morning so it would be ready to throw in the oven or on the grill when we got home. There is NO WAY I could do that with Hattie. I was lucky to teach one lesson a day and she was in constant need of attention.
Hattie did like going to ponies rule a little though. By the end of the week she would say "I want go ponieses rules pease." Grace has SUCH a good time. On Friday, the last day, I could NOT get her in the car to leave. We tried to leave at least 8 times. After finally getting in the car 2 hours later, she SOBBED all the way home. Sometimes, I'm not quite sure if she is really passionate about horses like I am. Maybe she just thinks that it is fun. I don't really care either way, but it would be great for me if she was totally into it. On days like that last Friday, I get a glimmer that she really really likes it and it isn't just a fun thing to do. Yay for horsies, ponies, ney's, whatever... we love them all!