The mystical creature called “Counselor” is a curious creature. They can usually be found during the winter time in College campuses. Usually in the hibernation position for 15 hours of the day during the winter, the Counselor has a totally different habitat during the summer.

During the summer months the counselor develops into a multi skilled highly trained machine. Experts in everything from tent securing to camp fire making, from soccer star to big brother, big sister to riding instructor. The list is endless.

But how does a counselor become a counselor? For the foreign counselors like me it’s a long process. Lets say a guy called Fred wants to come and work on a summer camp. His first stop is a company called BUNAC (British Universities North America Club). Fred will have a short interview with BUNAC to asses Fred’s skills and area of expertise. The next step is to get accepted by a camp. BUNAC will send Fred’s details to camps they think will be suitable. Forrestel gets Freds details in the mail and instantly hire him. Then Fred has to have a criminal background check done and then go and visit the United States Embassy in London to ask nicely for a Visa.

The Visa arrives in the post and Fred is on his way to camp.

So you can see it takes a lot of dedication to become a counselor way before coming into contact with a camper.

Where ever you are in the United States or in the world. The staff of Forrestel Rinding And Sports Camp wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.

Well the show was a big hit. Our booth was located directly across from the warm up ring, so we had a great view of Beezie Madden and Margie Engel jumping the warm up fences. Thanks to all of you who came to visit our stalls it was great to see you guys. But do not worry, Forrestel wont just be going to horse shows. Early next year the camp will be attending sports shows in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York State

Horse update We now have 5 horses here at the farm. Mouse has returned to the farm with a nice thick winter coat. In fact all the horses are now growing their winter coat and getting ready for the snow.

Canoe Update I am sure you will all be glad to hear that the canoes are safely tucked away in the steer shed ready for the winter.

Coming next week – Behind the scenes at camp

This week’s blog has been written by Anne, our Riding Director.

On Sunday (10/29) I had the great opportunity to visit some of our Forrestel horses at a show run by the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA). Before I tell you about our horses let me tell you some about the IHSA. The IHSA is an organization that allows college students to compete in Equitation classes on levels from walk, trot up to those over fences between 2’9" and 3’3" in height. The most unique part of this organization is that riders do not compete on their own horses. The school who is hosting the show provides all the horses and tack. A horse is assigned randomly to every rider for each class. Furthermore before the class begins riders are only allowed to WALK around on the horses. This format is designed so that all riders are judged on their own equitation and horsemanship skills rather than the horse they are riding. I was lucky enough to have competed with the SUNY Geneseo Equestrian team for four years and I highly recommend the IHSA experience to any of our horse loving campers.

Moving on to the horse update…many of our Forrestel horses are being used by college teams and at this particular show I was able to see Lopez, Scruffy and Rook all competing. Both Lopez and Rook were being used for all the levels- including the 2’9"-3’3" classes. Due to Scruffy’s knee injury a little while back he is sticking to slightly lower jumps but still competing over 2’3" – 2’9" fences. The day before Ace was also used in the competition. All of our horses performed beautifully and were greatly appreciated by the riders.

The following horses are being used by Intercollegiate teams this winter:
Lopez and Scruffy at SUNY Geneseo
Ace, Rook and Gracie at University of Rochester
Mister and Jack at Skidmore University
Tango, Fifi and Blondie at Earlham College

Please check back early next week for pictures of Scruffy, Lopez and Rook competing at this weekend’s show. Do any of you have favorite horse show moments that you would like to share? How about favorite moments with our camp horses?