MPPC certainly outdid ourselves this summer! We hosted a very successful D Camp where young members of the region came together, with their horses, for four days of riding, fun and more fun! We held camp at McKnight's wonderful farm in Turner, OR where the kids could play in the creek, practice on the very friendly but challenging cross country course, and camp out with s'mores and great company.
We had terrific instruction, both mounted and unmounted. Each group designed and performed a quadrille, worked on stadium jumping and got tons of xc experience. Dr. Wickliffe did a great hands on lesson with leg dissection and one of the moms volunteered to teach us how to make paper and the results were amazing! The learning was terrific and the fun was even more terrific.
The very next weekend we went on to host the first ever Area 1 Tetrathlon Rally. This was organized by one of our own members for her National Youth Board project. Area 1 consists of all the clubs in Oregon, NW, Inland Empire, Big Sky and Alaska regions. We had kids from Oregon, Washington and Alaska attend and it was a great learning experience for all of us, hosts and competitors. Tetrathlon is the perfect rally for those that travel a long way. It's running, swimming, show jumping and target shooting. The rules allow sharing of a horse so those that came from far away got to share a horse that was provided by other competitors. Talk about the spirit of sportsmanship! You loan your horse to someone you don't know, and potentially someone that can "beat" you in the overall placing....but that's part of what makes tet so fun, everyone really bonds and has a great time.
We're now moving indoors for the rainy season and xc riding comes to an end for the year. We've got a revamped instructional program and we're really excited about our plans!
Stay tuned for more news....
