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Category Archives: Horseback Riding

Final Week=Prize Trip Week!

The final week at Camp Carolina offers our campers much excitement and fun! The week usually begins with prize trips. You may be wondering… what is a prize trip? A prize trip is a trip out of camp where our trip leaders invite campers who have shown dedication, passion and love for their activity and want to reward the campers and encourage them to keep striving to improve and advance to the next level. Depending on the activity this involves camping out, extended day trips or trips to a new and exciting destination.

Monday and Tuesday were prize trip days for horseback! The campers have been working really hard all summer both in the riding arena as well as out on the trails. We have some great riders who are competently trotting, cantering and jumping in the arena as well as controlling their horses on the trail at a walk, trot and canter and this week our super keen boys were in for a treat! We had an extended day trip planned out to DuPont Forest for our horse crazy boys. The morning ride provided our boys with plenty of trotting and cantering past Lake Imaging before reaching our lunch destination, the beautiful mountain lake- Lake Dense! We had a delicious lunch (everyone helped carry the food in backpacks) before jumping in for a refreshing dip.The afternoon ride took the boys further into the forest out to the stunning High Falls. Back at camp by late afternoon the boys helped care for their horses before a special dinner and dessert treat! Their day ended with a dusk bareback ride around the lake at camp before putting the horses in the field for the night and heading to evening program!

Another awesome prize trip was the double overnight Sea Kayaking prize trip. The lucky sea kayakers headed out to Lake Fontana after packing their items for a few days camping. The boys got there in time for a twilight sea kayak on the beautiful lake. That night they camped out with two other prize trip groups (mountain biking and white water kayaking) and enjoyed s’mores and stories around the camp fire. The next day they woke up for a dawn paddle, ate breakfast then kayaked out to a local jump rock and spent the afternoon enjoying the warm sunshine and cool water before loading up and driving out to Lake Jocassee. That evening they helped cook dinner, set up camp, roast s’mores and listen to Danni’s stories. Day 3 was AWESOME! Jess from wakeboarding drove out the boat for some surprise tubing fun for the campers! The boys arrived back at camp just in time for World Cup Soccer. What an awesome end to camp, right?

The White Water prize trips saw our CCB paddlers heading out to Nantahala Outdoor Centre for the Annual Camp Cup Challenge. Day 1 left the paddlers to practice and perfect their skills in the grade 3 water. That night they camped out under the stars and enjoyed smores and an early night without any rain! Day 2 was game day and saw the boys wake with excitement. We hear Ryan Costley placed a respectable 11th and all campers held their own against the older competition. Some of the more advanced kayakers had the opportunity to go on a trip to Charlotte to the National White Water Centre which was a great opportunity and experience for the boys to have whilst at CCB.

World Cup soccer is currently in its final game before an awesome evening activity that the boys are all looking forward to. Tomorrow we have the olympics, camp fire and home-time for our boys! We will miss our Main Session campers thats for sure…

 

 

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Camp Carolina Shares Dupont State Forest With… The Hunger Games!

Anyone who has ever been to Camp Carolina will have had the amazing opportunity time and time again to explore the natural beauty that we are lucky enough to have in our back yard… Dupont State Forest.

High Falls, Dupont State Forest

Camp Carolina staff and campers visit the forest, almost daily on a variety of trips, including Horse Riding, Mountain Biking and Hiking. Dupont Forest is home to some of the most amazing water falls in the region, including Bridle Veil, High, Hooker and Triple Falls.

The forest’s beauty and variety of waterfalls and natural formations make it a perfect location for some of Hollywood’s major films. The forests current claim to fame is the film “Last of the Mohicans” but is soon to be over taken by the much anticipate film “The Hunger Games”. A hit book which is set in the future is set to be one of the best movies in 2012 and called Dupont State Forest home for a month of filming.

Check out the video below and see if you recognise some of Dupont’s amazing landmarks!

 

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5 lucky horses head off to Club Med for the winter!

The horses of Camp Carolina are what many of our horse crazy campers look forward to most each summer. Some of the horses have called Camp Carolina home for 20 years and some have yet to complete their first year. One thing they all have in common is their patience and good-natured personality-especially around the campers!

Our aim for the horse riding program here at CCB is to encourage confidence in not only riding the horses but handling them and learning all aspects of equine management. The boys learn how to safely tie, groom, lead, saddle and mount before learning the basic riding skills all under the watchful eye of trained Horseback staff. We then encourage the boys to sign up for the most fun of all, trail riding trips in Dupont and Pisgah Forest!

As many campers learn over the summers, especially during the end of session prizetrips when the horses are hight tied for a length of time horses are very hard on the ground and can cause it to get very muddy. Which is what our herd did! Camp Blue Star very generously offered to share their 35 acre pasture in Hendersonville with 5 of the Camp Carolina horses much to the relief of Kylie who is looking after the horses, and head of maintenance Greg who is looking after camp grounds.

Monty, Biscuit, Kip, Shalome and Cassie all hopped into Big Red and Phun-Hawg for the short trip to Hendersonville. The field has plenty of grass, a natural stream and small forested areas for the horses to shelter in bad weather. The Blue Star horses came to introduce themselves to our 5 horses before they all trotted off over the mountain to start their relaxing vacation.

 
 

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The animals of Camp Carolina

Campers and Counselors come and go every year but the animals of Camp Carolina are here to stay. So we thought a little introduction of the most reliable members of staff may be in order. We have long-term, senior members of staff, such as Lulu- the small but smart sausage dog as well as new members of the team such as Puzzle- the car chasing,  Tennessee Walking Pony.

Lulu is Mary Ecs faithful sidekick and assistant office manager. She is a 13-year-old Datsun that has lived at Camp Carolina since she was a tiny puppy. She also takes on a security role for anyone looking a little suspicious around camp.

Elvis is Alfred Snr’s assistant in the office during the winter and head of team sports during the summer. Elvis is a 2-year-old Labrador, with puppy dog eyes and a love for tennis/soccer/volley/basket balls!

Feisty is the elusive pet cat that belongs to the Thompson family. He is only seen on rare occasions and never during the summer.

The horses! We have 11 here at the moment, led by the strong-willed Shalome. We have Kip, Bisuit, Nuzzie, Cassie, Toy, Puzzle, Monty, Jericho, Jackson and Taj. Our oldest horse is Toy who is almost 30 years old and our youngest is Puzzle who is only 3.

There are also a few families of deer whom are enjoying feeding on the last of the green grass, the white squirrels are busy collecting fallen nuts for the winter the Canadian Geese are enjoying the last few weeks of a full lake and the albino skunk appears to have disappeared all together.

 
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Posted by on November 15, 2011 in Horseback Riding, Off Season at CCB!

 

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Henry Casson reunites with Shalome! Alfred leaves TX, Jimbo leaves FL.

After almost a week of sunshine the rain has set in! But not before super-newt Henry Casson got in a quick ride round camp on his favourite horse Shalome. Shalome has been at camp for what seems like forever and is always one of the campers first choices to ride! Kylie and Simone rode their favourites Monty and Nuzzie with Henry and Shalome down Back Country road, through camp then to the arena for some jumping practice. Henry is excited to perhaps enter a Hunter Pace in the fall…

“Henry and Shalome, Shake n Bake and Monty and Simone and Nuzzie”

Meanwhile Alfred had a great time with the Henrys at the last Texas Pizza Party for CCB this year. Alfred is making the long drive back to the East Coast, stopping off in Atlanta Thursday night for the Boykin’s Pizza Party. Jimbo is also heading homewards, via Atlanta for the Morgan’s Pizza Party in Lawrenceville. Details for this party are below.

Wednesday, October 19th @ 6pm

Hosts

Bartow and Leslie Morgan

404-310-2272 / lesliemorgan1@mac.com

 6531 Athletic Club Drive

Flowery Branch, GA 30542

 Camper hosts:

Bartow and Everett Morgan

Finally, if there is something you would like to see in this blog i.e. a big accomplishment in your family, an exciting event approaching etc please email through details to bakerk1588@gmail.com  We would love to hear what our campers and their families are up to!

WHAT A DAY!

 

 

 

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