Does the sound of hooves and whinnying set your cubs or scouts into paroxysms of glee and delight? Take them horse riding at a fully accredited riding camp!
Warning! Once you have been to The Saddle Camp once, the girls in your cub pack will be continually nagging the leaders to take them back again, and again, and again!
My daughter wanted to go horse riding, and we wondered if any of her friends from scouts would like to come along. A quick email out to families produced a flurry of extremely positive replies and suddenly we had many more girls than horses!
We're now on our fourth trip, taking groups of girls out to The Saddle Camp in Braidwood for some horse riding action and lessons! It is a girls-only riding adventure camp, the horses are wonderful, the owners delightful, the food delicious, and we always have the time of our lives!
What we especially like about this camp is:
* the owners, Helen and Rob, pull out all the stops to make our visit memorable.
* if we stay overnight, we take our tents and sleeping bags, and they let us camp on their property, in amongst all their beautiful horses and the sweeping views of historic Braidwood's surrounding hills and valleys.
* in winter we have a campfire, and in summer we can swim in a fabulous water hole near by.
* our leaders do badge-work and run orienteering courses and bushcraft or first aid lessons with one group, while Helen and her team of horse-loving helpers take the other group for their horse riding lessons, adventures, horse-back games and trail rides. The groups rotate, so everyone gets to do everything on offer.
* Helen can cater to any theme or riding level, and recently we ran a first aid weekend there; we worked on our first aid badges for cubs, and Helen ran lessons and games for us about first aid for horses!
* There is an on-site cafe and bakery, and it is definitely worth paying a little extra to have Rob organise all the meals for the camp. Delicious!! Take your mess kits, water bottles, and enjoy!
* Rob's delicious coffee and bakery items, and the relaxing atmosphere of the venue, make it a favourite amongst our mother parent helpers.
* they do take boys during the day, but not overnight.
* you can go for a day trip, or a weekend sleepover camp.
* the cubs and scouts we've taken absolutely love that they can spend so much time with the horses.
So, trot off to the Saddle Camp website and see for yourselves. You'll soon be galloping towards a wonderful activity, sure to become a regular favourite.
This beautlful letter was written by a Leader of the Pfadfinder Girl Scouts in ACT.