On July 23 and 25, the East Equine Explorers, a local 4-H horse interest club led by Dr. Ann Furr, sponsored a horse camp at Rockwater Farm in Rockwell for kids 8 years and older.
Club members and instructors Erin Christner, Hannah Barringer, Luke Barringer and Micah Furr helped teach the campers plenty of horse facts. We showed them the parts of the horse, how to clean and groom a horse correctly, and even had a scavenger hunt to learn horse tack and equipment. A safety video about how to work with your horse provided a break from the heat before going back outside for some horse judging practice.
The camp instructors had tacked up horses and were riding them to demonstrate a class at a horse show. Twelve children now had to judge the instructors on how we did going over a few trail class obstacles. At the close of the first day, each camper received two books from the national 4-H horse curriculum to study for Wednesday.
On Wednesday, July 25, we met at the Cooperative Extension Office. We started things off by studying information about a wide variety of horse information from grooming to breeds of horses to tack and horse vocabulary. Then, we all went to the kitchen to make a delicious horse treat. We combined sliced apples, chopped bananas, powdered sugar and honey. Yes, these were for the horses. After we had put those in the refrigerator, we all sat down for some “Jeopardy”-style quiz bowl action to test how much the campers had learned. Everyone had a blast using the buzzers and after three rounds of 15 questions each, all the campers wanted to do more. I think the campers enjoyed learning about horses because I know I enjoyed helping out with it. I saw how much effort it took to teach the campers and am grateful for everyone who has taught me.
If you would like more information about 4-H or summer camps like this one call Sara Drake at 704-216-8970.
Micah Furr is a member of the East Equine Explorers 4-H Club.