camp in “timbuktu”

Yes, I’m a day late, but I had a very busy day, so I’m excusing myself.

Tonight, I want to fill you (the online audience who I apparently had at one point, but have likely lost during my lapse in entries) in on horse camp. I don’t want to give out its name – after all, I may go back next year – but I have to call it something, so I’ll call it “HC” for Horse Camp. How clever of me.
Sunday afternoon (around 11 30 am), my family [Jill, my mom, my grandma, and my great-aunt] all set out to drive to the camp. It’s in… um, Timbuktu, which is around three and a half hours away from where I live. So, we drove. Nothing really exciting about that.
I don’t know what I thought HC would be like. Well, horsey, but having a) never been to a sleepaway camp and, b) never been to a horse camp, I didn’t have much experience to base my guesses off of. But when we arrived at *cough* Timbuktu, I was filled to the brim with nervous-excited anticipation. I immediately met one of my two roommates upon arriving – lI’ll call her Legs. Actually, at camp we never called her by her first name. We called her by her camp name (she’d been to HC before), which was Legs. Obviously. This was because, when she first came to HC, her legs were really long in proportion to her body – she’s grown into them now, but since there were 2 girls with her same name, she needed a nickname. So she was Legs.

I carried my bags up to my room, said goodbye to my mom and cringed as my great aunt & grandma got all embarrassing. They didn’t come just to see me off, by the way – I’m not that sheltered! *laughs* My grandma wanted to visit an old friend, and since we were already going down that way, she hitched a ride. My great-aunt was going to a nearby theme park (I won’t say which one… but it’s well-known!) with my sister and mother… when I couldn’t go. Because I was at camp. UN-fair!

Once I’d put my stuff in the corner (I was in room 3 – 3 beds, 3 girls, a TV with DVD player/VCR, and the only room with its own bathroom! The other girls shared the one in the hall), we went down to the ring. Here we were going to ride some random horses just so that the instructor could evaluate our riding levels and pair us with AM (English) and PM (Western) horses for the week. We called her Tweety, and I dare not call her by any other name. Tweety is the scariest fricking person I have ever met. She’s frightening. You just have to respect her. It’s impossible not to.

I rode Zia, a paint mare – probably the oldest horse I’ve ever met. Honestly, I think she should be retired. Yes, she can still work, but for God’s sake, she’s about 30 years old! Why are you making her trot around the fucking ring all summer?!
Anyway, to quote Tweety, I was “seriously underhorsed on Zia.” Meaning… I would do much better with a more challenging horse. No surprise, considering I learned to ride on Tonka. (I got to jump him today!!! I missed him so much)

Now, it’s nearing 30 past midnight, so I should stop here. Let me wrap this up – I’ll post more about camp tomorrow…
We finished riding and dismounted, then went to untack and hose off our horses. During this time, I met my other roommate – Anna. Naturally crimped hair (she straightens it – why? It’s fantastic!), streaked with different-coloured Sharpies. She’s pretty awesome. I love Legs & Anna – I can’t believe they stayed for two sessions – that is, two weeks. I miss them soooo much already. :-(
I’m not going to go too much into my roommates here – this is my horse blog, after all – so let me just say we got along amazingly. I love you, Anna & Legs!!! NIBN!

Thus concludes this episode of “TBK’s Barn Life.” Tune in tomorrow for more entries about camp! Whoo-hoo!

written from my laptop, finished 12 28 AM [Wed, August 05, 2009]